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Muthoot Microfin Limited - IPO Note

Finance - NBFC - MFI

Muthoot Microfin Limited - IPO Note

Finance - NBFC - MFI

Price range
Rs. 277-291
Issue Period:
Dec 18, 2023
Dec 20, 2023
Rating
Subscribe
December 18, 2023

Stock Info

Sensex
71528.00
CNX Nifty
21478.85
Face value (Rs.)
10
Market lot
51
Issue size
Rs. 960 cr.
Public Issue
3.30 cr. shares
Market cap post IPO
4961 cr.
Equity Pre - IPO
14.43 cr.
Equity Post - IPO
17.04 cr.
Issue type
Fresh Issue and Offer for sale

Shareholding (Pre IPO)

Promoters
69.08
Public
30.92
Source: Ace equity, stockaxis Research

Shareholding (Post IPO)

Promoters
55.47
Public
44.53
Source: Ace equity, stockaxis Research

Company Description

Muthoot Microfinance is a financial institution which provides micro-loans to customers primarily for income generation purpose with a focus on rural regions of India. It is the fourth largest NBFC-MFI in India in terms of gross loan portfolio and are also the third largest NBFC-MFIs in South India in terms of gross loan portfolio. Muthoot Microfin Institution is a key player in Tamil Nadu with an almost 16% market share. As of FY23 their Gross loan portfolio amounted to Rs 92,082.96 Million.

The company is a part of Muthoot Pappachan Group, a business conglomerate with presence across financial services, automotive, hospitality, real estate, precious metals and alternate energy sectors. The parent company has a history of more than 50 years in the financial services business. Muthoot Microfin is the second largest company under the Muthoot Pappachan Group in terms of AUM for the Financial Year 2023. The company primarily adopts a Joint liability group model which mainly caters to women in lower income households.

The company’s loan product comprises of

  1. Group loans for livelihood solutions such as income generating loans, Pragathi loans (this loans granted to existing customer to meet their working capital and income generating activities)
  2. Mobile Phone loans, Solar Lighting product loans and household appliances product loans.
  3. Health and Hygiene loans such as sanitation improvement loans
  4. Secured loans in the form of gold loans

The company has implemented technology across their microfinance operations. It has an in-house IT team that builds technology platform into a business tool which helps them in achieving a high level of customer services, enhancing operational efficiency and in creating competitive advantage for the organization.The company, with the help of technology has developed a unique credit scorecard with Equifax that evaluates the creditworthiness of the customer. This scorecard help the company to strategically allocate more capital to low risk and very low risk customers.

The company starting from December 2021 have started providing technology driven healthcare services and has also setup e-clinics across the branches. As of FY23 company had 358 e-clinics and 41% of their customers have enrolled for this facility. Muthoot Microfin currently has 0.32 Crore active customers, which are served by 1,340 branches in 18 states and Union territories in India as of September 30th, 2023. It has branches in under-served rural markets that has growth potential.

Investment Rationale

Dominant nationwide market presence
The company’s business model helps in driving financial inclusion as they serve customers, those who belong to low-income groups. The company’s portfolio is well diversified across 321 districts in 18 states.The company’s gross portfolio accounted for 54.81% cumulatively in Kerela, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The company is also expanding its operations in North, East, and West India which has helped them to diversify their customer base and gross loan portfolio. South accounted for 55.96% of the gross loan portfolio in FY23 followed by 20.83% in the North then 13.3% in the East and a marginal share was for West which was 9.88%. The company had 49.15% of its total branches in the South followed by the North which was 22.95%.

Distinctive Brand Resonance and alignment with the Muthoot Pappachan Group
The company is a part of Muthoot Pappachan group which is present across financial services, automotive, real estate, etc. Muthoot Pappachan group has a history of over 50 years in financial services business. The synergy which microfin business gets by working under Pappachan group is its engagement with customers in economically weaker sections. So it will provide an opportunity for the growth of the operation and expansion of customer base across geographical areas in India. It earns an income by cross-selling different product of the subsidiary companies.

Access to varied capital source with cost efficiency
The company has a well-diversified funding profile. It sources funds for its operations through public sector banks, private sector banks, small finance banks, and foreign banks and other non-banking financial institutions and public investors. It also raises long term debt through ECBs. Even though not getting a guarantee for the borrowings from the promoters and the holding company still the company didn’t face any issue in borrowings this shows the trust that the lender has in the business model. It also has the ability to expand the growth of the operations by issuance of debt securities. As of FY23 banks contributed 44.97% to the total borrowing followed by the issuance of redeemable non-convertible debentures which accounted for 20.35%. The third largest contributor was financial institution where they contributed 18.10% to the total borrowing. Its borrowing from banks has been increasing from FY21 to FY23, where it surged dramatically from 39.29% to 44.97%.

Optimized operations through strategic integration of technology
The company has a streamlined and scalable technology-led model for its operations. The motive for focusing on technology is to reduce risks associated with cash transaction, improve operational efficiency and increase digital penetration. It performs all the KYC related stuff digitally. It has a unique scorecard which they developed with Equifax that helps in finding out the creditworthiness of customers. Further to reduce the risk inherent in cash transaction they had started digital collection and digital disbursement through its proprietary application “MahilaMitra”, it facilitates digital payment through the use of QR codes, webpages, SMS-based links, etc. For FY23 20.3% of the collection was on a digital basis.

Robust Risk management system ensuring a strong portfolio integrity
The company has a risk management system in place, which primarily focuses on handling risks related to operations, creditworthiness and finance. To address the credit risk, company has an established underwriting norms that ensures the customers selection has been done after due diligence. It has end use payment monitoring system in place where it conducts regular checks on the utilization of the proceedings by the customers. To address the operational risk, it conducts due diligence and surveys to understand the market. In order to reduce the financial risks it has a conservative policy in place to ensure that there is ALM issues.

Peer Comparison

Company Name P/E (x) P/B (x) EPS RoNW(%) NAV per equity share
Muthoot Microfin Limited 20.5 2.50 14.19 10.08 139.15
Equitas Small Finance Bank Limited 17.57 1.77 4.71 11.12 46.44
Ujivan Small Finance Bank Limited 6.33 1.83 5.88 27.79 20.25
Credit Access Grameen Limited 26.67 4.23 52.04 16.18 326.89
Spandana Sphoorty Financial Limited 381.72 1.52 1.74 0.40 436.58
Bandhan Bank Limited 17.32 1.94 13.62 11.21 121.58
Suryoday Small Finance Bank Limited 22.31 1.09 7.32 4.90 149.28
Fusion Micro Finance Limited 12.60 2.36 43.29 16.67 230.74

Key Risks & Concerns

Customer Concentration Risk
The company majorly caters to women with an annual household income of up to Rs. 300,000 for its micro-loan business. There is no financial information available about the customer such as tax returns, income proof, credit card statements, etc. as a result it poses a higher risk of default.

Sensitive to volatility in Interest Rates
Interest rates are highly sensitive to factors such as monetary policy of RBI, de-regulation of the financial services, geopolitical scenarios, inflation, etc. A change in the interest rates affects differently to the rates that the company charge on its interest earning assets and the interest that it pay on liabilities. An increase in the interest rates can affect the ability of company to raise lower cost funds.

Non Performing Assets Escalation
There is a risk of failure even after the establishment of a risk management policies, further the company may not be able to predict black swan events, which can lead to an increase in the NPAs. An increase in NPA could have an adverse effect on the operations.

Outlook and Valuation

We believe Muthoot Microfin is key beneficiary of government’s focus on strengthening the rural financial ecosystem. We like Muthoot Microfin robust loan growth & improving return ratios. We believe its growth will continue on account of sectoral tailwinds, expanding geographical footprint and sourcing platform across India, and focus on Information technology and automation with a focus on operational efficiency, and cost optimization. In terms of the valuations, on the higher price band, Muthoot Microfin demands a P/B multiple of 2.5x based on FY23 which appears fairly priced. Hence, we assign Subscribe rating to the issue.

Key Information

Use of Proceeds:
The Total Issue Size is of Rs. 960 Crores, of which Rs. 760 Crores is Fresh Issue and balance Rs. 200 Crores is Offer for Sale (OFS). The company will utilize net proceeds from the Fresh Issue towards augmenting their Capital base to meet future capital requirements.

Particulars Figures (Rs in Crores)
Expansion of capital base Rs. 760

Book running lead managers:
ICICI Securities, Axis Capital, JM Financial, SBI Capital Markets Limited are the Book Running Lead managers for the IPO.

Management:
Thomas Muthoot (Managing Director), Thomas John Muthoot, Thomas George Muthoot, Akshaya Prasad, John Tyler Day (Non-Executive Director), Alok Prasad, Thai Salas Vijayan, Bhama Krishnamurthy, Pushpy Babu Muricken, Anand Raghavan (Non-Executive Independent Director)

Financial Statement

Profit & Loss Statement:- (Consolidated)

Particulars (In Crores) FY21 FY22 FY23
Interest Income 623.00 729.00 1291.00
Interest Expense 299.00 340.00 549.00
Net Interest Income 323.00 388.00 742.00
Other Income 73.00 114.00 156.00
Total Income 696.00 843.00 1446.00
Employee Benefit Expenes 187.00 237.00 323.00
Other Expenses 50.00 69.00 112.00
Pre Provisioning Operating Profit 160.00 197.00 463.00
Provisions 151.00 132.00 250.00
Profit Before Tax 9.00 65.00 213.00
Tax 2.00 17.00 49.00
Profit After Tax 7.00 47.00 164.00
EPS 0.62 4.15 14.19
Gross NPA (%) 7.39 6.26 2.97
Net NPA (%) 1.42 1.55 0.60