{"id":166588,"date":"2025-01-17T08:13:14","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T13:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/44.250.171.167\/?p=166588"},"modified":"2025-02-03T06:16:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T11:16:20","slug":"axisbank-q3-2024-2025-call-highlights-profit-growth-margin-challenges-and-strategic-shifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/axisbank-q3-2024-2025-call-highlights-profit-growth-margin-challenges-and-strategic-shifts\/","title":{"rendered":"AXISBANK Q3 2024-2025 Call Highlights: Profit Growth, Margin Challenges, and Strategic Shifts!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Axis Bank Ltd., an Indian multinational banking and financial services company, in its Q3 earnings call discussed about facing multiple challenges including lagging deposit growth, deteriorating asset quality, mainly in unsecured loans, and margin pressure, leading to multi-quarter low performance. Management emphasized its strategic shift to prioritize quality over growth, deliberately slowing unsecured lending growth. While early indicators from new loan cohorts show positive signs, management cautioned it&#8217;s too early to call a peak in delinquencies as these portfolios typically take several quarters to normalize. The bank has strengthened its collection infrastructure, tightened credit filters, and maintained its through-cycle NIM guidance of 3.8% while focusing on building a granular deposit base rather than chasing high-cost deposits.<\/p>\n<p>India\u2019s third largest private sector bank, showed mixed results in its Q3 performance, with net profit increasing 4.1% year-on-year to \u20b96,742 crore, falling short of market estimates, while core operating profit grew 14% year-over-year. Despite facing challenges like compressed Net Interest Margins, dropping to 3.93% and slower overall loan growth, the bank showed strength in specific segments with small business, SME, and mid-corporate loans growing 16%, and deposit growth reaching 13%. Asset quality metrics remained relatively stable year-over-year with gross NPA at 1.46% and net NPA at 0.35%, though there was increased delinquency in unsecured retail products. The bank maintained strong capital adequacy with a CET1 ratio of 14.61% and demonstrated growth in retail fee income of 5% and transaction banking fees of 16%, while continuing expansion with 130 new branches.<\/p>\n<p>Continue Reading: Discover the Vital Insights from Axis Bank Ltd.&#8217;s Earnings Call!<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Financial\/Operational Metrics:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Total Revenue:<\/strong> INR38,959 crore, up 10.8% YoY.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Net Profit<\/strong>: INR6,742 crore, up 4.1% YoY.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Basic EPS:<\/strong> INR21.79, up 3.5% YoY.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Net Interest Income:<\/strong> INR13,606 crores, up 9% YoY.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fee Income:<\/strong> INR5,455 crores, up 6% YoY.<\/li>\n<li><strong>New Branches:<\/strong> Added 130 in 3Q, totaling 330.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cost-to-Income Ratio:<\/strong> 47%, up 247 basis points YoY.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Digital Transactions:<\/strong> 96% of individual customer transactions were digital.<\/li>\n<li><strong>UPI Transaction Value:<\/strong> Grew 32% YoY.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Analyst Crossfire:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Deposit Growth Strategy (Chintan Joshi &#8211; Autonomous)? <\/strong>Axis Bank focuses on granular deposits rather than high-cost, lumpy deposits. Despite a 13% QAB deposit growth YOY, the bank emphasized the need for sustainable, high-quality deposits through initiatives like Project Triumph<strong> (Munish Sharda &#8211; Executive Director).<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Loan Deposit Ratio &amp; Fee Income Moderation (Abhishek Murarka \u2013 HSBC, Rikin Shah &#8211; IIFL)? <\/strong>The bank maintains its LDR within a comfortable range, with no regulatory compulsion to adjust it further. Axis aims for balance sheet stability while focusing on high-quality deposits and targeted loan growth. Fee income, impacted by structural shifts in disbursements and reduced card sourcing, remains steady at 1.42% of assets. The bank anticipates improvement as its strategy recalibrates<strong> (Amitabh Chaudhry &#8211; MD &amp; CEO; Puneet Sharma &#8211; CFO)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Stress in Unsecured Loans &amp; System-wide Stress Spillover (Abhishek Murarka \u2013 HSBC, Mahrukh Adajania &#8211; Nuvama)? <\/strong>Delinquencies in personal loans and credit cards remain a concern, but proactive recalibration of risk filters and enhanced collections infrastructure are stabilizing the portfolio. Stress in unsecured loans and microfinance hasn&#8217;t significantly impacted other segments. Axis remains cautious and focuses on secured lending for better performance in the current macro environment<strong> (Amit Talgeri &#8211; Chief Risk Officer, Arjun Chowdhry &#8211; Group Executive)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Macroeconomic Challenges and Strategy (Suresh Ganapathy &#8211; Macquarie Capital)? <\/strong>The uncertain macro environment, constrained liquidity, and rising credit costs are challenges. Axis prioritizes creating a high-quality, resilient franchise rather than chasing aggressive growth<strong> (Amitabh Chaudhry &#8211; MD &amp; CEO)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Operating Expenses Outlook, Global and Domestic Margins (Kunal Shah \u2013 Citigroup, Nitin Aggarwal &#8211; Motilal Oswal)? <\/strong>Cost optimization measures are underway, reflected in a 5% QOQ decline in operating expenses. While growth in Q4 could influence cost trends, the bank continues to focus on efficiency. Domestic NIMs remain stable, while global margins declined due to changes in the non-rupee book mix and excess offshore liquidity. The bank maintains its through-cycle margin guidance of 3.8%<strong> (Puneet Sharma &#8211; CFO)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Loan Deposit Ratio and Liquidity (Param Subramanian &#8211; Nomura)? <\/strong>The bank operates within acceptable LDR levels and is strategizing for potential regulatory changes. Its liquidity position is robust, with plans to adapt to final LCR guidelines<strong> (Amitabh Chaudhry &#8211; MD &amp; CEO)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>To get further Insights: <a href=\"https:\/\/app.asai.alphastreet.io\/test-drive\/transcript\/view\/c72834d4-b28b-5235-ae56-4801a841016e\/earnings_conference\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click Here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Axis Bank Ltd., an Indian multinational banking and financial services company, in its Q3 earnings call discussed about facing multiple challenges including lagging deposit growth, deteriorating asset quality, mainly in unsecured loans, and margin pressure, leading to multi-quarter low performance. Management emphasized its strategic shift to prioritize quality over growth, deliberately slowing unsecured lending growth. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1767,"featured_media":162998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9825,392,1],"tags":[10169,10097],"class_list":["post-166588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earnings-call-highlights","category-earnings","category-finance-stocks","tag-earnings","tag-financial-service"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/CC_Image_8.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":166599,"url":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/kotakbank-q3-2024-2025-call-highlights-rbi-challenges-robust-profits-portfolio-diversification\/","url_meta":{"origin":166588,"position":0},"title":"KOTAKBANK Q3 2024-2025 Call Highlights: RBI Challenges, Robust Profits &#038; Portfolio Diversification!","author":"Praveen","date":"January 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., one of Indian leading banking and financial services company, in its Q3 earnings call discussed about navigating complex regulatory challenges with the RBI, aiming to be among the top three private sector banks by 2030 through a strategic growth approach targeting 1.5 to 2 times nominal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Concall Highlights&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Concall Highlights","link":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/category\/earnings-call-highlights\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/CC_Image_8.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/CC_Image_8.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/CC_Image_8.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/CC_Image_8.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":166601,"url":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/hdfcbank-q3-2024-2025-call-highlights-deposit-surge-margin-challenges-and-growth-strategy\/","url_meta":{"origin":166588,"position":1},"title":"HDFCBANK Q3 2024-2025 Call Highlights: Deposit Surge, Margin Challenges, and Growth Strategy!","author":"Praveen","date":"January 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"HDFC Bank Ltd., an Indian banking and financial services company, in its Q3 earnings call discussed about a strategic approach to navigating challenging macro conditions through careful growth calibration. The company mentioned that it\u2019s maintaining stable credit quality across segments while addressing priority sector lending requirements through organic growth and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Concall Highlights&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Concall Highlights","link":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/category\/earnings-call-highlights\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/CC_Image_8.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/CC_Image_8.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/CC_Image_8.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/CC_Image_8.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":177097,"url":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/au-small-finance-bank-ltd-strong-q3-fy26-highlights-growth-asset-quality-and-strategic-momentum\/","url_meta":{"origin":166588,"position":2},"title":"AU Small Finance Bank Ltd Strong Q3 FY26 Highlights Growth, Asset Quality and Strategic Momentum","author":"Staff Correspondent","date":"January 22, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"AU Small Finance Bank Limited (NSE:AUBANK), an Indian scheduled commercial small finance bank, headquartered in Mumbai, reported robust financial results for the third quarter of FY26, delivering double-digit profit growth, healthy balance-sheet expansion and stable asset quality in a competitive banking environment. For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Earnings&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Earnings","link":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/category\/earnings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Earnings-Coverage.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Earnings-Coverage.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Earnings-Coverage.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":168245,"url":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/kotakbank-q4-call-highlights-profit-growth-margin-pressures-and-strategic-investments\/","url_meta":{"origin":166588,"position":3},"title":"KOTAKBANK Q4 Call Highlights: Profit Growth, Margin Pressures and Strategic Investments!","author":"Praveen","date":"May 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd, one of India's leading banking and financial services groups, in its Q4 earnings call discussed their improved provision coverage ratio of 78% due to slowing NPA accretion and better unsecured loan quality. They explained their margin management strategy, including reducing savings account rates to 2.75-3.25% and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Concall Highlights&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Concall Highlights","link":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/category\/earnings-call-highlights\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/CC_Image_8.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/CC_Image_8.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/CC_Image_8.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/CC_Image_8.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":65860,"url":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/key-highlights-from-infosys-infy-q1-2021-earnings-results\/","url_meta":{"origin":166588,"position":4},"title":"Key highlights from Infosys (INFY) Q1 2021 earnings results","author":"Staff Correspondent","date":"July 15, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Infosys (NYSE: INFY) reported earnings results for the first quarter of 2021 today. Revenues declined 0.3% to $3.12 billion. Net profit after minority interest was $558 million while diluted EPS was $0.13. The company expects revenue growth in the range of 0-2% in constant currency for fiscal year 2021 while\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AlphaGraphs&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AlphaGraphs","link":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/category\/infographics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Infosys reports Q1 2021 earnings results","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Infosys-Q1-2021-Earnings-Infographic.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Infosys-Q1-2021-Earnings-Infographic.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Infosys-Q1-2021-Earnings-Infographic.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Infosys-Q1-2021-Earnings-Infographic.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Infosys-Q1-2021-Earnings-Infographic.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47378,"url":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/infosys-reports-8-6-revenue-growth-for-q3\/","url_meta":{"origin":166588,"position":5},"title":"Infosys beats Q3 earnings estimates; revenue comes in line","author":"Staff Correspondent","date":"January 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Infosys (NYSE: INFY) reported better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter of 2020 while revenue matched forecasts. Shares were up 6.5% in premarket hours on Friday. Total revenues increased 8.6% year-over-year to $3.24 billion, coming in line with estimates. Revenues increased 9.5% in constant currency. Net income was $627 million, or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Earnings&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Earnings","link":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/category\/earnings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Earnings Update by AlphaStreet","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Earnings-Coverage-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Earnings-Coverage-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Earnings-Coverage-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Earnings-Coverage-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Earnings-Coverage-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1767"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphastreet.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}