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Informist, Thursday, Jul. 16, 2026

By Aaryan Khanna and Vaishali Tyagi

NEW DELHI – Financial services firm 360 ONE WAM Ltd. is targeting a cost-to-income ratio of 49-50% in 2026-27 (Apr-Mar), bringing down the share of expenses in the coming quarters from 51.3% in the June quarter, its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Karan Bhagat said Thursday. The ratio should fall to 49-49.5% by the March quarter, he said in a conference call with analysts following the Apr-Jun results. 

The diversified firm, which operates a wealth and asset management business, brokerage services, and advisory roles, posted a cost-to-income ratio of 49.9% in FY26. The ratio could improve as it moves toward profitable growth after restructuring its tie-up with ET Money in wealth management, management said. Meanwhile, improving operating leverage on wealth management and the alternates segment of the asset management business will also bring down the cost-to-income ratio.

"... we feel fairly confident and we will, over the period of the next two to three months, move our small amount of clients who are between the... 2-10 crore (INR 20 million-INR 100 million) segment into the HNI piece," Bhagat said. "I think together with that and the constant organic growth which has happened in the HNI business side, the HNI piece will also not only break even but may move into a little bit of profitability this year itself."

Margins in asset management business on the public markets side will continue to face pressure in the coming quarters due to the volatility in public markets, while the alternates space is likely to boom. Retentions on annual recurring revenue declined to 73 basis points in the June quarter from 78 basis points a quarter ago, which is a signifier of margins for 360 ONE WAM. The decline was largely due to a slight shift in the product mix, with no noticeable declines on margins in any segment, Bhagat said.  

In the private credit segment where it is a market leader, the management said the business was nascent and growing in India. It had received queries from domestic financial institutions including insurers to participate in the segment with the potential to generate 250-300 basis points of additional return over a longer period of time. In the last seven to eight years, the listed entity has seen negligible to zero "accidents", Bhagat said, pegging the future growth of private credit on a par with the private equity industry. 

Earlier in the day, 360 ONE WAM reported a net profit of INR 3.31 billion for the June quarter, up 16% on year but missing analysts' estimates. The company's revenue from operations for the quarter was INR 12.26 billion, up almost 27% on year. Its shares ended 1.6% lower at INR 1,081.30 on the National Stock Exchange after the results were announced towards the end of market hours.

The firm plans to launch several products in the next six to nine months to average out flows between the wealth and asset management sides of its business. It will also broaden the offering in alternative investment fund, portfolio management service, and mutual fund platforms. "The offshore opportunity is building steadily, aided by global institutional mandates, and the distribution reach that our collaboration with UBS opens up," the CEO said.

COLLABORATIONS, TRANSACTIONS, BROKERAGE

Though Bhagat did not dwell on the unit economics of the collaboration with the Swiss lender, he noted the conservative estimate was that 360 ONE WAM and UBS would exchange around $500 million-$600 million of business asset transfer in the coming quarters. These should begin in the next three months. The two plan to launch each others' funds in the domestic and global markets in the September quarter alone, while referring clients to each other.

UBS' global distribution will also help the listed Indian entity access offshore capital for offshore and listed strategies in FY27, Bhagat said. The collaboration between the two companies began in the March quarter, with the exchange of business the immediate priority rather than the profitability number, Bhagat said. 

The CEO also said the financial services firm was advising treasuries with attracting foreign currency non-resident bank deposit, including helping garner leverage offshore. The activity was not limited to UBS, which so far had not launched a leveraged FCNR(B) product in India, according to the 360 ONE WAM executive. Banks have sharply increased interest rates on dollar-denominated FCNR(B) deposits in order to attract foreign capital after the Reserve Bank of India incentivised such activity in June. 

"...we will end up getting out more to the large number of clients for FCNR(B), not necessarily with us as a bank or us as a lender, but us acting as an advisor on the non-leverage services," Bhagat said. 

As for transaction and brokerage income, it can grow around 10-15% annually over the next two to three years from INR 2.08 billion in the June quarter, up 37% on year. This would be leveraged by 360 ONE WAM's recent acquisition of Batlivala & Karani Securities India, which added around INR 120 million to extraordinary costs in the reporting quarter. The company would target a consistent income number in this segment without "lumpy" transactions as in previous years, with an aim of around INR 750 million income every quarter from equity brokerage on publicly listed businesses, Bhagat said. 

"I think just given the size of our business (transaction and brokerage income) at 325 crores (INR 3.25 billion) this broadly represents less than 7-8% of our revenues and for any wealth business across the world there are always clients who like to buy stocks directly," the 360 ONE WAM MD said. "I would like to believe this should be around about 10-15% of our revenues as we go along."

The firm's fledgling equity capital market business is also taking shape, with a six-member team coming into place to launch the product. 360 ONE WAM will seek both advisory roles and is also looking to start pitching mandates for such capital market transactions by October at the earliest, with the operations potentially taking until December or January to begin. Over a period of four years, around 15-20% of the revenues of the transaction group could come through the equity capital market segment, the MD said.  End

Edited by Saji George Titus and Avishek Dutta

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