Feb 3 (Reuters) - India's Bajaj Finance (BJFN.NS) , opens new tab reported a surprise fall in quarterly profit on Tuesday after the lender set aside sharply higher provisions to strengthen its balance sheet amid global economic uncertainty.

The non-banking financial company reported a 6% year-on-year drop in consolidated net profit to 39.78 billion rupees ($440.83 million) for the quarter ended December 31.

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Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 51.28 billion rupees, per data compiled by LSEG.

During the quarter, the company said it had increased provisions to strengthen its balance sheet amid global economic uncertainty and introduced a minimum loss-given-default threshold across businesses. This resulted in additional provisions of about 14.06 billion rupees.

Including the impact, total provisions against bad loans rose 77% to 36.25 billion rupees.

In November, the diversified lender trimmed its growth forecast for asset under management (AUM) for the current financial year to 22-23% from 24-25% a year earlier, citing bad loans in its MSME segment and strong competition in mortgage lending.

Despite the weaker outlook, Bajaj Finance reported a 22% year-on-year rise in AUM for the third quarter, with new loan bookings rising 15%, it said in January.

($1 = 90.2390 Indian rupees)

https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-bajaj-finance-profit-drops-higher-provisions-2026-02-03/