Online brokerage platform Zerodha saw its net profit rise in the fiscal year ended March 2024, on the back of strong growth in revenue. The company has also managed to cut its expenses.
However, Zerodha expects a 10% revenue decline this fiscal due to a possible 30-50% decline from SEBI’s new fee circular and regulation on index derivatives. This has led the company to diversify into securities services against margin trade funding, investments and loans, according to a September blog post by co-founder and CEO Nitin Kamath.
In FY24, net profit rose 89% to Rs 5,496 crore compared to Rs 2,908 crore in the previous fiscal. Revenue from operations increased by 37.16% to Rs. 9,372 crore or a little over $1.1 billion in FY24, compared to Rs 6,832 crore in FY23.
Total income, which includes other benefits, rose 45.32% to Rs 9,994 crore from Rs 6,877 crore in the previous fiscal.
The company saw a significant 24% decline in employee benefit expenses to Rs 473.96 crore.
Meanwhile, other expenditure increased by 11 per cent to Rs 2,619 crore while information technology expenditure increased by 28 per cent to Rs 492 crore. Exchange and depository charges, a major operating cost, rose 42% to Rs 14,756 crore as trading volume increased.
Its competitor Groww reported a consolidated revenue of Rs 3,145 crore for the financial year ending March 31, 2024, up from Rs. 1,435 crore, a growth of 119%.
The Bangalore-based company’s operating profit also improved, with an operating profit of Rs 535 crore for FY24, up from Rs 458 crore in the previous year. Groww reported a net loss of Rs 805 crore for FY24, mainly due to a one-time tax expense of Rs 1,340 crore on the company’s recent settlement in India.