By Reuters

(Reuters) - Nu Holdings (NU.N), the listed entity that runs Brazilian digital lender Nubank, on Wednesday posted a 50% rise in its fourth-quarter net profit from a year earlier, as its customer base grew.

Still, shares in Nu Holdings were down 5.5% in post-market trading in New York, reversing initial gains of some 4% right after the results release, with analysts raising questions about the bank's costs.

Nubank, which operates in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia and is laying the ground to enter the United States, reported an $894.8 million net profit in the October-to-December quarter, up from $552.6 million in the same period of 2024.

Chief Financial Officer Guilherme Lago told Reuters the profit increase was driven by a larger number of customers, an increase in the revenue per active customer and a stable cost to serve customers.

"This brings positive leverage to revenue," Lago said.

JPMorgan analysts said the net profit came in above their and market expectations, but noted this was mostly due to a lower-than-projected tax rate, "which may be the main pushback from bearish investors, even as most operational metrics look good."

Nubank said its total revenue rose 45% in the quarter, to $4.86 billion. Customers across its three markets reached 131 million, up 15%.

"A strong quarter by Nubank on top-line, with an acceleration in loan portfolio growth and net interest income," analysts at Citi said. "However, cost of risk and operating expenses mud the picture for Nubank," they added.

The bank's total loan portfolio, mainly from credit cards, expanded by 40%, to $32.7 billion, while over-90-day delinquency rate stood at 6.6%, a 0.1 percentage point decline.

Lago told an analysts' call that delinquency rates typically uptick in the first quarter due to "natural seasonality", which Nubank expects to see again this year.

Nubank secured in January the first of three regulatory approvals needed to enter the U.S. market in the next year.

Chief Executive Officer David Velez said on the call the U.S. banking market seems very competitive, but that there are opportunities in certain subareas of the U.S.

Reporting by Andre Romani in Sao Paulo and Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Iñigo Alexander and Sonali Paul

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