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
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.
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.
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 |
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.
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.
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)
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 |