Master Trust Q2 FY27: consolidated PAT +22% YoY to ₹38.3 Cr, but operating margin slips

Master Trust's consolidated revenue for the quarter ended 30 September 2026 was ₹153.68 Cr, up 21.1% YoY from ₹126.86 Cr and up 2.6% QoQ from ₹149.79 Cr; consolidated PAT was ₹38.30 Cr, up 22.0% YoY from ₹31.40 Cr and up 10.5% QoQ from ₹34.65 Cr. No brokerage previews or consensus estimates for this print turned up in a web search — Master Trust is a thinly-covered small-cap broker, so the result cannot be graded against street expectations (vsStreet: unknown). There is no prior guidance or concall commentary on record either from our data or from web search, so there is no formal outlook to grade this quarter against. The margin picture is mixed and worth separating from the headline. Net profit margin edged up to 24.92% from 24.75% a year ago (and rose more visibly from 23.14% last quarter), but that held up only because the effective tax rate fell to 24.6% from 27.4% a year ago. The more telling operating metric — EBITDA margin (PBT plus finance cost and depreciation, over total income) — actually compressed to 44.70% from 46.74% YoY, as finance cost rose 12.8% YoY on higher borrowings (₹383.6 Cr at quarter-end vs ₹227.9 Cr at FY26-end) funding the business's growth; it did recover sequentially from 41.28% in Q1. By segment, the core broking & allied business (92% of group revenue) grew PBT a more modest 11.7% YoY to ₹42.86 Cr, while the investment/trading (proprietary) segment swung to ₹6.58 Cr PBT from ₹1.54 Cr — supplying over half of the quarter's ₹7.56 Cr incremental profit. Interest, portfolio management and insurance-broking segments all declined YoY (-48%, -70% and -83% respectively). So while the headline growth is real, a meaningful share of the profit increase rode on a more volatile proprietary book rather than the core brokerage franchise. Standalone (parent-only) PAT grew a much faster 50.9% YoY to ₹4.27 Cr off a tiny base — a sizeable divergence from the consolidated +22.0%, but standalone is only ~4% of group revenue so it doesn't change the primary read. Two developments fall outside this quarter's numbers: Master Capital Services began F&O clearing & settlement in mid-October 2026, and the group acquired 100% of Future Colonizers for ₹50 Lakh on 12 October 2026 — both after the 30 September quarter-end, immaterial in size, and not reflected in this print, but relevant markers for Q3. No standalone management press release accompanied the filing to cross-check against management's own framing of the quarter.