Piramal Finance Future Plan: Gold Loan Expansion, Branch Growth and 2X AUM Target

Piramal Finance is stepping up its retail lending expansion with a focus on branch growth, new lending segments, artificial intelligence, and operating efficiency. The company’s Q1 FY27 investor presentation indicates that its strategy is shifting increasingly towards a scalable, diversified and technology-driven retail lending platform.

While the company has not announced a large traditional capex project, several expansion initiatives could drive investments in branches, technology, AI and business infrastructure over the coming quarters.

Piramal Finance Targets 2X AUM in Around Three Years

Piramal Finance has retained its long-range objective of doubling AUM in around three years, supported by strong growth in its core retail and wholesale businesses.

The company reported:

• Consolidated AUM of ₹1,06,940 crore, up 25% YoY.
• Retail AUM of ₹91,249 crore, up 32% YoY.
• Growth AUM increased 32% YoY.
• Growth business RoAUM stood at 1.9% in Q1 FY27.
• Consolidated PAT rose 67% YoY to ₹461 crore.

The company’s long-range profitability objective is to achieve RoAUM above 3%, while maintaining stable risk and steadily improving earnings.

Branch Expansion Remains a Key Growth Investment

Branch expansion is one of the most visible areas of planned business investment.

Piramal Finance had 780 branches across 26 states as of June 2026, comprising urban, rural, and gold-loan branches.

The company is taking a calibrated approach to urban branch expansion while simultaneously increasing product penetration within existing branches.

The presentation shows that the company had:

• 535 urban branches
• 178 rural branches
• 67 gold-loan branches
• 780 total branches

Rather than simply adding branches, Piramal Finance is focusing on increasing the number of products sold through its existing network.

For example, housing loans were available through 532 urban branches, LAP through 532, salaried personal loans through 507, and unsecured business loans through 379 branches as of June 2026.

This strategy could allow the company to improve branch productivity without relying entirely on aggressive network expansion.

Gold Loan Business: Target of 200 Branches by FY27

One of the more important new growth initiatives is the company’s gold loan business.

Piramal Finance completed the first phase of its gold-loan rollout with 67 branches and has started Phase 2. The company aims to reach 200 gold-loan branches by the end of FY27.

The gold-loan business is being positioned around:

• AI-enabled customer sourcing
• 24×7 AI-based security monitoring
• Focus on Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets
• Personal-use gold loans
• Part-payment and part-release facilities
• Flexible interest-payment options

The business generated ₹6 crore of disbursements in its first full month of operation in June 2026.

The reported average ticket size was around ₹85,000, with a 17.9% disbursement yield and a 12-month tenure.

The planned expansion to 200 branches makes gold loans one of the key areas to monitor for incremental growth.

Rural Lending Is Another Growth Avenue

Piramal Finance is also building an emerging rural lending franchise, with micro-loans currently forming the first product in this strategy.

Rural micro-loan AUM reached ₹1,547 crore, up 101% YoY, while Q1 FY27 disbursements increased 296% YoY.

The company had 178 rural branches as of June 2026, in addition to 192 Business Correspondent branches.

The rural strategy currently covers four states:

• Uttar Pradesh
• Karnataka
• Odisha
• Tamil Nadu

The company said 99% of rural loans originated were first-round loans, indicating that the strategy is still in an early stage of development.

This segment therefore represents a potential future growth driver, although investors will need to monitor asset quality as the portfolio scales.

AI Investment Could Improve Productivity and Reduce Costs

Technology and AI appear to be a major part of Piramal Finance’s future operating model.

The company describes its objective as building a “future-proof, AI-native company.”

AI is already being used across:

• Credit underwriting
• Fraud detection
• Customer service
• Collections
• Sales assistance
• Document processing
• Customer onboarding
• Hiring
• Compliance and audit

The company said 57% of overall code is now written by AI, while its AI token usage has increased significantly over the past year.

Its Credit.ai platform has also helped increase the average amount decisioned per credit manager from ₹8.6 crore in Q1 FY25 to ₹12.6 crore in Q1 FY27.

That represents a potentially important operating leverage opportunity as the lending book expands.

Opex Efficiency Continues to Improve

Another important part of the future plan is improving operating efficiency.

Retail opex-to-AUM declined to 3.5% in Q1 FY27, compared with 4.1% a year earlier. The company said the ratio has fallen by around 300 basis points over the last 13 quarters.

The company has also indicated a 25-basis-point reduction in its opex guidance.

At the consolidated level, the cost-to-income ratio declined to 52.5% in Q1 FY27, compared with 65.6% in Q1 FY26.

If AUM continues to grow while operating expenses increase at a slower pace, this could provide additional support to profitability.

Retail Lending Remains the Core Growth Engine

Retail lending accounted for approximately 85% of total AUM at the end of Q1 FY27.

The largest components were:

• Housing loans: ₹33,079 crore
• LAP: ₹28,121 crore
• Salaried personal loans: ₹8,381 crore
• Used car loans: ₹5,760 crore
• Unsecured business loans: ₹6,249 crore
• Digital loans: ₹5,236 crore
• Rural micro loans: ₹1,547 crore

Retail disbursements increased 44% YoY, showing that growth is being supported not only by the existing portfolio but also by fresh loan originations.

The company is particularly seeing strong growth in unsecured products, with salaried personal loans, unsecured business loans and digital loans all recording strong YoY disbursement growth.

Wholesale Business to Remain Diversified

Piramal Finance is also continuing to build its wholesale lending portfolio.

Wholesale AUM stood at ₹13,238 crore, up 27% YoY.

The company has increasingly focused on creating a granular and diversified wholesale portfolio backed by assets and borrower cash flows.

Since inception in Q2 FY22, Piramal Finance said it had disbursed ₹28,113 crore across 419 loans and received total repayments of ₹14,841 crore.

During Q1 FY27, repayments were ₹1,932 crore, equal to 74% of disbursements, while prepayments stood at ₹1,030 crore.

The company also highlighted that CMML AUM has been shifting towards higher-rated borrowers.

Legacy Book Continues to Shrink

A positive structural development is the continued reduction in the legacy portfolio.

Legacy AUM has fallen 94% from March 2022 levels and stood at approximately ₹2,452 crore in Q1 FY27, representing only around 2% of total AUM.

This means the consolidated financial performance is increasingly being driven by the company’s growth businesses rather than the legacy portfolio.

That transition is important for investors because future earnings should increasingly reflect the performance of Piramal Finance’s retail and new-generation wholesale lending businesses.

Asset Quality Remains an Important Monitorable

Despite aggressive growth, the company reported relatively stable asset quality.

Consolidated:

• GNPA: 2.4%
• NNPA: 1.6%
• Growth business credit cost: 1.6%
• Retail 90+ DPD: 0.7%

The company also said new retail originations have shown improving or stable vintage risk.

However, rapid expansion in unsecured lending, rural micro-loans and gold loans will remain areas investors should monitor as these portfolios mature.

What Is the Capex Story?

For investors looking specifically for a large traditional capex announcement, the presentation does not disclose a major factory, plant, or large fixed-asset expansion plan.

Instead, Piramal Finance’s investment requirements are more likely to be growth-oriented operating investments, including:

1. Expansion of the branch network.
2. Gold-loan branch rollout towards 200 branches by FY27.
3. Rural lending infrastructure.
4. AI and technology platforms.
5. Digital customer onboarding and servicing.
6. Credit and fraud-detection systems.
7. Expansion of the company’s multi-product retail lending platform.

Fixed assets stood at ₹2,460 crore as of June 2026, broadly stable compared with ₹2,468 crore at March 2026.

Therefore, the key investment story is not conventional capex intensity but technology-led and distribution-led expansion.

Key Future Plans to Watch

For investors tracking Piramal Finance, the following developments could be important over the next few quarters:

• Progress towards 2X AUM in around three years.
• Gold-loan branch expansion towards 200 branches by FY27.
• Scaling of rural micro-lending.
• Continued urban branch productivity improvement.
• Growth in unsecured business and digital loans.
• Further deployment of AI across underwriting and collections.
• Continued reduction in retail opex-to-AUM.
• Improvement in RoAUM towards the company’s long-range target of above 3%.
• Maintenance of asset quality despite rapid retail growth.
• Further reduction of the legacy portfolio.

Investor Takeaway

Piramal Finance’s latest presentation points to a growth-and-operating-leverage story rather than a conventional capex story.

The company is expanding its distribution network, entering new lending segments such as gold loans, building its rural franchise, and investing heavily in AI-driven underwriting, collections and customer service.

At the same time, the company is attempting to control costs and improve productivity as AUM scales.

The biggest medium-term catalyst could be whether Piramal Finance can combine 30%+ growth in its core book with stable asset quality and improving RoAUM.

The expansion of gold loans to 200 branches, continued rural penetration and the company’s stated objective of doubling AUM in around three years will be key areas for investors to track.

Bottom line: Piramal Finance has not announced a major conventional capex programme, but its branch expansion, technology investments, AI adoption and new lending businesses represent significant growth investments that could support the next phase of AUM and earnings growth.

Disclaimer: This article is based on information disclosed in Piramal Finance’s Q1 FY27 investor presentation. It is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security.