1. Opening Hook
If you blinked this quarter, L&T Finance quietly dropped its best-ever retail quarter while everyone else was busy debating rural stress and unsecured risk. Turns out, when most NBFCs were arguing about credit cycles, LTF was busy shipping AI engines with dramatic Greek names and letting numbers do the talking.
Retail disbursements hit ₹22,701 Cr, PAT peaked, credit costs cooled, and macro provisions? Untouched. Even the microfinance hangover seems to be wearing off.
The management sounded confident, slightly smug, and very convinced that Cyclops can see defaults before borrowers even think about them.
Read on — because beneath the AI buzzwords and macro optimism, there’s a very specific RoA endgame being quietly engineered.
2. At a Glance
- Retail disbursements ₹22,701 Cr – Festival season showed up with GST 2.0 in tow.
- Core PAT ₹760 Cr (+21% YoY) – Labour Code tried to spoil the party, failed.
- RoA at 2.37% (pre-exceptional) – Inch-by-inch march toward 3%.
- NIMs + Fees at 10.41% – Treasury did the heavy lifting, quietly.
- Credit cost at 2.74% (core) – Microfinance finally behaving itself.
- Macro provisions used: NIL – Confidence level: high, maybe cocky.
3. Management’s Key Commentary
“We achieved the highest ever
quarterly core PAT of ₹760 crore.”
(Translation: This turnaround is no longer a PowerPoint story 😏)
“Retail disbursements grew 49% YoY.”
(Translation: Growth isn’t the problem, controlling it is)
“We did not utilise any macro-prudential provisions.”
(Translation: We trust our book — and our models)
“Project Cyclops has reduced non-starters in Two-Wheelers to 0.41%.”
(Translation: AI now rejects customers faster than humans ever could 🤖)
“Microfinance collections improved to 99.7% pan-India.”
(Translation: Karnataka stopped misbehaving)
“We will reach 2–2.2% credit cost by Q4FY27.”
(Translation: The slope matters more than the quarter)
“Lakshya 2026 RoA target remains 2.8–3.0%.”
(Translation: We know where we’re going — slowly but loudly)
4. Numbers Decoded
| Metric | Q3FY26 | What It Really Means |
|---|---|---|
| Retail Book | ₹1,11,990 Cr | Scale now large enough to hide mistakes |
| NIMs + Fees | 10.41% | Upper end of guidance, not accidental |
| Credit Cost (core) | 2.74% | Down 24 bps QoQ — trend matters |
| PAT (reported) | ₹739 Cr | Labour Code cameo ignored |
| WACB | 7.25% | Cheapest money LTF has ever borrowed |
