01 — At a Glance
The Investment Firm That Learned To Lend. Badly. At First.
A company that buys stocks, holds them for 3–5 years, sells them for outsized returns, then one day decides: “You know what? Let’s also become an NBFC.” Q3 FY26 threw a curveball. PAT crashed 69% YoY (from ₹545 crore to ₹168 crore), revenues tanked 27.8%, yet the stock has somehow rallied 43% over the past year and earned itself a CRISIL A rating. Either the market is pricing something that Q3’s devastation can’t touch, or Authum is one of those inflection-point stories that trades on narrative before the numbers catch up. The answer is probably both.
- 52-Week High / Low₹684 / ₹271
- Q3 FY26 Revenue₹446 Cr
- Q3 FY26 PAT₹168 Cr
- Full-Year FY25 EPS₹50.02
- Annualised Q3 EPS (×4)₹7.92
- Book Value₹191
- Price to Book2.14x
- Dividend Yield0.05%
- Debt / Equity0.17x
- 3-Year Revenue CAGR71.4%
The Plot Twist: Authum’s Q3 results look like a disaster. Profit down 69%, revenues down 28%. But scroll down the corporate presentation and you’ll see debt-to-equity conversions, a freshly acquired ARC platform, credit disbursements hitting ₹2,800+ crore in 9 months, and a net worth that’s swollen to ₹16,028 crore. This isn’t collapse. This is reinvention. The question is: will it pay off?
02 — Introduction
The Company That Bought RCFL, RHFL, And Now Thinks It’s A Credit Platform
Authum Investment & Infrastructure Limited exists because the original promoters, Alpana and Sanjay Dangi, bought a shell company in 2019 and went on a shopping spree. First move: build an investment portfolio. Second move: acquire two debt-laden NBFC carcasses (RCFL and RHFL) from their creditors. Third move: flip the script and become a credit-focused NBFC. Fourth move: tell the market they’re building a diversified financial services platform and watch the stock price moonwalk upward.
FY25 revenue: ₹4,568 crore. FY25 PAT: ₹4,248 crore. That jaw-dropping 93% net profit margin exists because the investment portfolio is a cash-generating machine. Gains from selling stakes that were bought years ago. Mark-to-market appreciation on holdings. Strategic debt conversions. It’s essentially “buy shares, wait 5 years, sell for 2–5x, report massive capital gains, repeat.”
But the market’s rewarding Authum not for what it was (a hot-hand stock picker) but what it’s becoming (a multi-platform financial services company). The issue: the transition is messy. Q3 FY26 shows the growing pains.
Concall Insight (Feb 2026): Management talks about “platformization,” “ARC capabilities,” and “credit-focused pivot.” Translation: we’re building the scaffolding, profits will be lumpy for the next 2–3 years, trust us.
03 — Business Model: Buying Broken Things And Fixing Them
Let’s Decode What This Company Actually Does
Authum is three businesses wedged into one financial reporting entity. First: Investments (~70% of assets). Flow investments (holdings <20%), strategic investments (control stakes >20%), and listed equities. Thesis: buy mid-to-large-cap stocks with “significant sector presence and growth potential,” hold for 3–5 years, sell into market rallies, pocket the gains. Portfolio companies include major conglomerates, pharma, infrastructure, metals, and stock exchanges. Largest single holding is ~10% of the portfolio. Since inception, cumulative unrealized profits across the existing investment portfolio: ₹2,402 crore. Over 9 months of FY26, they’ve exited investments with ₹202.4 crore in profits.
Second: Credit Business (~13% of assets, ₹2,763 crore loan book). Acquired RCFL (now called OEDL) and the lending assets of RHFL from their creditors. The legacy book is almost fully provided for. Fresh disbursements in 9MFY26: ₹1,504.3 crore. Management aims to scale this aggressively. Products include SME loans, LAP, agricultural finance, and structured lending. The card-carrying NBFC that was once fully owned by Reliance is now a subsidiary of Authum, harvesting recoveries from the old portfolio while growing a new one.
Third: Alternative Assets / ARC (~2% of assets, but growing). Authum acquired 88.37% of India SME Asset Reconstruction Company (ISARC) in June 2025 for ₹313 crore. As of Dec 2025, ISARC had deployed ₹130.5 crore into 14 debt buyout transactions, created ₹296 crore of AUM, and is sitting on ₹217 crore of free cash waiting to be deployed. The goal: “differentiated resolution capability to create value” in stressed debt. Fancy term for: buy distressed corporate loans cheap, restructure, recover more.
Investments70%Of Total Assets
Credit Business13%Loan Book ₹2,763 Cr
ARC/Alt Assets2%ISARC Platform
The Acquisitions So Far: In Sep 2024, Authum acquired ~42.3% of Prataap Snacks (branded snacks company) for ₹764.5 crore — this is now a strategic holding. In Oct 2024, Authum debt-to-equity converted ₹1,040 crore of consortium debt into NITCO shares and now holds 48.9% of the ceramic tiles / marble flooring company. In Jan 2026, accepted a Letter of Intent to acquire 90% of AA Estates (real estate under insolvency) for ₹36 crore. The company is moving beyond passive equity holds into operational control plays.
💬 Would you trust a company that pivots from stock picking to NBFC to ARC in three years? Or is this the mark of a good capital allocator? Drop your hot take below.
04 — Financials Overview: Q3 FY26
The Numbers That Made Everyone Nervous
Result type: Quarterly Results | Q3 FY26 EPS: ₹1.98 | Annualised EPS (Q3×4): ₹7.92 | Full-year FY25 EPS: ₹50.02
| Metric (₹ Cr) |
Q3 FY26
Dec 2025 |
Q3 FY25
Dec 2024 |
Q2 FY26
Sep 2025 |
YoY % |
QoQ % |
| Revenue | 446 | 618 | 595 | -27.8% | -25.1% |
| Financing Profit | 288 | 619 | 534 | -53.5% | -46.1% |
| Op. Margin % | 64% | 100% | 90% | -3600 bps | -2600 bps |
| PAT | 168 | 545 | 765 | -69.2% | -78.0% |
| EPS (₹) | 1.98 | 6.42 | 9.00 | -69.2% | -78.0% |
What Just Happened: Revenue fell 27.8% QoQ and 27.8% YoY. Financing profit (pre-tax operating profit) crashed 53.5% YoY. PAT tumbled 69.2%. On paper, this looks like a company imploding. But context: Q2 FY26 (Sep 2025) was exceptional because of large gains on investment exits. Q3 is more “normal.” Additionally, the revenue mix is changing. Investment income made up only 59% of total income in Q3 (down from 86% in earlier quarters) as credit business income starts ramping. The operating margin compressed because interest income from the lending business (₹135.4 crore) has a different accounting treatment than capital gains. It’s less sexy than a one-time gain but more stable.
05 — Valuation: The Debate Rages
Is ₹407 A Steal Or The Top Of A Bubble?
Join 10,000+ investors who read this every week.
