SWOT Analysis – Angel One Limited

Strengths

1. Established Brand & Market Share: The company has a 14.99% share in the NSE active clients, ranking it the third largest in the discount broking industry, and a 14.7% share in the country’s demat accounts. Additionally, ANGELONE has also sponsored the Indian Premier League (IPL), a beloved domestic cricket league, which has helped the company appeal to an ever-larger audience and create a strong brand image. According to an advertisement effectiveness measurement platform by Synchronise India and Unomer, Score, ANGELONE was one of the top three most visible and recalled brands of IPL 2024. ²⁹ This proves that the company has maintained its brand reputation, which is helping it maintain its current strong customer acquisition and retention rate.

2. Strong Client Acquisition & Retention Rate: The company’s client base increased to about 22 million in FY24 which amounted to a 61.5% YoY growth. The company’s focus on acquiring young, tech-savvy individuals from tier-2, tier-3, and beyond cities has proved to be an effective strategy in terms of acquisition rates. Moreover, 54% and 49% of clients acquired in FY21 and FY22, respectively transacted with the company till FY24. These percentages represent a healthy retention rate.

3. Asset-Light Model: ANGELONE’s digital-first approach has helped it accommodate a larger number of clients over a wider geographical area. The effects of these advantages can be seen the in the client acquisition and retention rates for the company. Moreover, the company’s revenue from operations rose by 75.93% in FY18, during its transition to a digital-first company. ⁴ Additionally, by offering all its financial products and services through a single app across phones, websites, and tablets, and providing additional tools as well as partnering with several platforms, the company offers its customers a wider range of solutions.

4. Risk Management: The company practices robust risk management, especially relating to its client funding segment, and avoids extensive exposure to any one client and security. During FY24, ANGELONE had an average client exposure of ₹0.1 million, and almost 89% of the clients had an exposure less than that. The company had over 0.15 million clients and about 78% of them were companies with a market capitalization of over ₹100 billion. Also, to ensure that the client’s margins are adequate, ANGELONE monitors the real mark-to-market value of underlying. This ensures that the company has minimal delinquencies and curbs any losses due to non-payment of dues.

Weaknesses

1. Concentration of Revenue in F&O: Revenue from F&O trades made up about 84.4% of the gross booking revenue and almost 58% of the total revenue from operations. This shows a heavy reliance on this segment, which exposes ANGELONE to any economic or regulatory changes regarding the F&O segment. Additionally, the recent SEBI regulations in the derivative trading segment has left the biggest revenue stream of the company vulnerable to any shift in the trading volume.

2. Limited Product Diversification: Although the company plans on diversifying into asset management and wealth management, right now ANGELONE has only three revenue drives, leaving it vulnerable to any disruptions in any one of these segments. Furthermore, limited diversification of business segments might lead to stagnation in client acquisition rates among clients who prefer broking services that offer a better range of products.

3. Cyclical Nature of Business: ANGELONE’s revenue is highly dependent on the state of the economy and the volume of trades being executed. With not enough diverse streams of revenue drivers, the company’s revenue is extremely reliant on market conditions, and if they are affected in any way, so will the revenue of the company.

Opportunities

1. Boosted Retail Participation: The number of individual or retail investors has been increasing massively, with more than 3 crore demat accounts opening in just FY24. ⁶ The total number of demat accounts came to about 15 crore and the number of registered investor base at NSE stood at more than 9 crore in the FY24. ⁵  This provides a massive opportunity for ANGELONE, which has the third highest market share in the active NSE clients to expand its client base and acquire an even bigger market share. The company has shown good growth with its strong acquisition rate.

2. Increasing Digitalization: India has been ranked the third largest digitalized country ²⁶ which provides huge opportunities for online discount brokers to expand their market share and customer base. With technology reaching cities even beyond tier-3, this provides the potential for an expanding customer base of people who would prefer to align themselves with brokers, who charge a flat or small fee and have their services available across a digital platform, providing a cost-effective and tech-friendly approach.

3. Rising Participation beyond Tier-1: During the last couple of years, the contribution of cities from tier-2, tier-3, and beyond categories has been rapidly increasing in numerous segments. This increase coupled with the increased reach of technology provides yet another prospect for the growth of online discount brokers who can provide their services to a wider range of audience, while remaining cost-effective. Moreover, ANGELONE has focused on expanding its customer base to young people from cities beyond tier-1, providing them with a great opportunity to enhance their customer base even further and establish themselves as a market leader.

4. Opportunities for Expansion: The company plans on expanding its business operations to include services such as asset management and wealth management. Moreover, there are numerous growth aspects in terms of increasing the set of services offered or diversifying the portfolio for cross-selling to increase the company’s revenue streams and customer base.

Threats

1. Regulatory Changes: Any regulations introduced by SEBI would directly impact the revenue and thus, the profitability of the company. Even the recent regulations introduced in the derivative segments will have an effect on the trading volume of all brokers who earn a good part of their revenue from these trades. Furthermore, SEBI introduces numerous regulations to maintain stability and ensure investor protection, which leaves the company’s revenue at risk.

2. Economic Uncertainty: Due to the cyclical nature of the broking industry, ANGELONE’s revenue and order volumes depend highly on the state of the economy. Any impact on the economy, which might negatively impact investor confidence will directly impact the company’s operations. This makes the company vulnerable to broader macroeconomic factors, which are out of its control.

3. Intense Competition: The rise in number of discount brokers with online platforms has made the market intensely competitive, resulting in companies having to constantly innovate and update their offerings to keep up with new trends while maintaining their pricing competitive in order to retain their customer base.

4. Rapid Technological Advancements: As much as the innovations in FinTech are enhancing the brokerage market, these rapid changes also pose a risk to online discount brokers. ANGELONE needs to maintain its pace, as any inability to keep up with competitors in the industry might result in a loss of market share.

5. Cybersecurity: Being a digital-first company, ANGELONE faces cybersecurity threats, such as data breaches, cyberattacks and disruptions in services. These threats pose an immense risk to the company in terms of reputation and even regulatory consequences.