8 months ago
Indian Wealth Managers Face Profit Squeeze Amid Growth
Indian wealth managers are facing a tough situation.
Even though there are more rich people in India, making the market bigger, the companies that manage wealth are making less profit.
This is because there are too many companies fighting for the same clients, and the rules are changing, which makes it harder for them to earn money.
To deal with this, they are hiring more people to manage relationships with clients and are expanding to smaller cities.
They are also creating their own products to stand out.
However, all these efforts are increasing their costs, and it might take a few years before they see better profits.
Indian wealth management firms are expanding despite shrinking profit margins due to increased competition and regulatory changes.
The number of millionaire households in India has surged to 870,000, up 90% from 2021, driving intense competition among wealth managers.
Net income margins for leading players like 360 ONE and Nuvama Wealth have declined significantly in recent years.
Wealth managers are aggressively hiring relationship managers and expanding into tier-II and III cities to attract new clients.
Regulatory changes, such as the proposed revamp of total expense ratio (TER) slabs, are expected to further impact revenue and profitability.
- Who
- Indian wealth management firms and their clients, including high and ultra-high net worth individuals
- What
- A paradox where wealth managers are expanding despite shrinking profit margins due to increased competition, regulatory changes, and rising costs
- Where
- India, with a focus on tier-II and III cities for expansion
- When
- The trends are observed from FY23 to FY27, with specific data points from Q2 FY26
- Why
- Due to a surge in affluent households, intense competition, regulatory changes, and the need to attract and retain clients
Key facts
- Number of millionaire households in India
- 870,000 (up 90% from 2021)
- Projected wealth-management assets growth
- 12%-14% annually through FY27
- 360 ONE's net income margin (FY23-FY25)
- 33.3% to 30.8%
- Nuvama Wealth's net income margin (FY22-FY25)
- 48.3% to 23.7%
- Estimated impact of TER changes on revenue
- ₹20-25 crore annually
- 360 ONE's employee costs (Q2 FY26)
- ₹285 crore (80% jump from Q2 FY24)
- Nuvama's RM capacity
- Over 1,300 (aiming to double in 3-5 years)
- 360 ONE's planned RM capacity
- 340 in the coming years
Quotes
Ankur Punj
Managing Director-National Head at Equirus Wealth
“The TER changes may lead to a 5-10% drop in revenue, but will be countered by productivity”
livemint.com
“Tier II,III, and IV cities are going to be the drivers of the wealth industry.”
livemint.com
Vinay Ahuja
Co-CEO, 360 ONE Wealth
“Competition is helping investors to benefit from reduced costs that leads to margins seeing some suppression at the wealth manager’s end.”
livemint.com
“This trend could continue for a while”
livemint.com
Prayesh Jain
Analyst at Motilal Oswal Financial Services
“Competition will get higher in the future and will not recede in the near term. We are still some time away from relief.”
livemint.com
“A significant scale up in flows if market does well can be an offsetting factor for margins. But we are a bit far from that for now.”
livemint.com
Ashish Kehair
Managing Director and CEO of Nuvama Wealth Management
“The effect of the recent proposal for revamping TER would be about ₹20-25 crore on revenue annually on his company”
livemint.com
Feroze Azeez
Joint CEO at Anand Rathi Wealth
“Employee expenses form the largest component of our cost structure and a substantial share of that is attributable to our relationship managers. RM salaries typically account for around 70-75% of our total employee cost”
livemint.com
360 ONE's Ahuja
Co-CEO, 360 ONE Wealth
“RMs from various firms including HDFC, Julius Baer, Anand Rathi, ASK and Kotak have joined us in the last 12-15 months. RM hiring is at an all-time-high with focus on adding more team leaders”
livemint.com
