Bajaj Finance’s assets under management surged to INR5,84,624 crore in the September quarter as strong consumer, rural and secured lending supported higher profits and a planned INR17,500 crore fundraising.
Bajaj Finance reported a sharp rise in assets under management in the three months to September 2026, with AUM climbing 26.5% to INR5,84,624 crore as the lender continued to broaden its franchise across consumer, rural and secured products. The company said net AUM addition during the quarter was about INR38,000 crore, helped by strong demand in urban and rural consumer finance, vehicle loans, loans against property and gold lending.
Profitability also remained robust. Bajaj Finance said profit before tax rose 29% to INR8,537 crore before macro provisions, while profit after tax increased 29% to INR6,367 crore. On a pre-overlay basis, those figures were higher still. Return on assets came in at 4.6% and return on equity at 20.6%, underscoring the strength of the lender’s earnings engine even as it absorbed a fresh macroeconomic provision of INR337 crore.
Credit quality was broadly steady, though not without pressure in some pockets. Gross non-performing assets stood at 1.06%, net non-performing assets at 42 basis points and the provision coverage ratio at 60%. The company said loan losses to average assets under finance improved to 1.56% from 1.88% a year earlier, or about 1.3% excluding the new macro overlay. Management also pointed to a lower cost of funds, which eased 9 basis points sequentially to 7.3%, even as it warned that margins could face some further compression if funding costs continue to rise.
The lender added 4.42 million customers in the quarter, taking its total customer franchise to roughly 129 million, and it said its cross-sell base now stands at 82 million. New loans rose 11% to 13.5 million. Management reiterated its medium-term ambition to keep expanding the franchise while improving efficiency, with operating expenses as a share of total income at 33% and a stated goal of a further 25 to 40 basis-point improvement in fiscal 2027.
Growth was uneven across business lines. Urban consumer finance AUM rose 43%, rural consumer finance grew 63%, microfinance lending increased 54% on a low base and vehicle and tractor finance jumped 89%. Loans against property climbed 42%, while MSME AUM grew just 3%, which management said should improve in the second half of the year. The captive book is being wound down and now stands at about INR2,400 crore, while the gold loan portfolio is a little above INR24,000 crore, or 4.1% of the balance sheet.
The gold loan business is also being reshaped. Bajaj Finance said it has added 320 branches, taking the network to 2,022, and is targeting about 2,800 stand-alone branches by year-end. Management said it has stopped short-tenure schemes after seeing accidental delinquencies linked to repeated rollover visits and is moving towards longer 12-month structures. In another sign of continued expansion, the board approved a capital raise of INR11,700 crore through a qualified institutional placement and INR5,800 crore through preferential warrants to Bajaj Finserv, subject to shareholder approval.
Bajaj Housing Finance, the listed subsidiary, also posted healthy growth, with disbursements and AUM up 25%, profit after tax up 18% and return on equity improving to 12.7% from 12.2%. Bajaj Financial Securities added 121,000 customers, while the company said its AI-led service transformation is advancing, with bots handling 75% of do-it-yourself customer service volumes and 65 agentic applications already deployed.
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