AXA vs ICICI Bank: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: AXA and ICICI Bank side by side

1. 1817AXA

   Founding of the Compagnie d'Assurances Mutuelles contre l'Incendie

   Jacques-Théodore le Carpentier and 17 other property owners in Rouen set up a mutual fire insurance company, the earliest predecessor of AXA. It stayed a Normandy mutual, later called Ancienne Mutuelle, for more than a century.

2. 1955ICICI Bank

   ICICI Founded as Development-Finance Institution

   ICICI was formed to provide medium- and long-term project finance to Indian businesses.

3. 1975AXA

   Claude Bébéar becomes chief executive

   Bébéar, recruited in 1958 by André Sahut d'Izarn, took over the Anciennes Mutuelles group in 1975 after Sahut d'Izarn's death and the settlement of a strike that had paralysed the company in April 1974.

4. 1982AXA

   Takeover of the Drouot Group

   Bébéar took control of the Drouot Group, then the leading private French insurance group, and became its chairman alongside his role at Mutuelles Unies.

5. 1985AXA

   Creation of the AXA name

   The group adopted the invented name AXA, short and pronounceable in any language, and Bébéar moved from running the insurance companies to chairing the group.

6. 1986AXA

   Acquisition of the Présence Group

   AXA bought the Présence Group in April 1986, continuing the consolidation of French insurers.

7. 1988AXA

   Merger with Compagnie du Midi

   The merger with Compagnie du Midi made AXA the second-largest French insurance group behind UAP and brought Equity and Law, then the sixth-largest life insurer in the United Kingdom. Bébéar was elected Manager of the Year the same year.

8. 1991AXA

   Control of The Equitable in the United States

   After a failed attempt to buy Farmers, AXA agreed in July 1991 to demutualise and take control of The Equitable, then the fifth-largest life insurer in the United States, which also brought Alliance Capital Management.

9. 1994ICICI Bank

   ICICI Bank Incorporated

   ICICI Bank was incorporated as part of the ICICI group during India's post-liberalization banking opening. The move gave ICICI a deposit-taking commercial bank able to serve retail, corporate, and transaction-banking customers.

10. 1996AXA

    Acquisition of UAP

    AXA bought UAP, a French insurer twice its size, doubling its French business and reaching critical mass in the United Kingdom, Belgium and Germany. The merger took effect in 1997.

11. 1999AXA

    Guardian Royal Exchange and Nippon Dantai

    Guardian Royal Exchange joined AXA in early 1999, adding scale in United Kingdom property, casualty and health insurance, and AXA took control of Nippon Dantai, then the thirteenth-largest life insurer in Japan.

12. 1999ICICI Bank

    NYSE Listing Milestone

    ICICI became the first Indian company and the first bank or financial institution from non-Japan Asia to list on the New York Stock Exchange. The listing expanded global visibility and imposed a higher disclosure profile on the group.

13. 2001ICICI Bank

    Bank of Madura Amalgamation

    Bank of Madura was amalgamated with ICICI Bank with effect from March 10, 2001. The deal added branches, customers, and a southern India presence that helped the young bank build distribution faster than organic expansion alone.

14. 2002ICICI Bank

    Reverse Merger Created Universal Bank

    ICICI, ICICI Personal Financial Services, and ICICI Capital Services merged into ICICI Bank.

15. 2006AXA

    Acquisition of Winterthur

    AXA agreed to buy Winterthur from Credit Suisse for ~$14.8 billion (CHF 12.3 billion), about $8.93 billion (EUR 7.9 billion) in cash, strengthening its position in Switzerland, Germany and central and eastern Europe.

16. 2010ICICI Bank

    Bank of Rajasthan Merger

    The Bank of Rajasthan merger strengthened ICICI Bank's branch network, especially in northern and western India. The transaction mattered because local branches and deposits still supported private-bank scale even as digital channels were growing.

17. 2011AXA

    Sale of AXA Canada

    AXA sold its Canadian operations to Intact Financial Corp. for ~$1.87 billion (C$2.6 billion) as part of a portfolio review.

18. 2018AXA

    Acquisition of XL Group

    AXA bought XL Group for $15.3 billion in cash, shifting the group toward commercial property and casualty lines and creating the AXA XL platform.

19. 2018ICICI Bank

    Sandeep Bakhshi Became MD and CEO

    Sandeep Bakhshi became Managing Director and CEO in October 2018 after Chanda Kochhar requested early retirement. His tenure has been associated with a sharper focus on risk controls, asset quality, governance, and steady retail-led growth.

20. 2024AXA

    Launch of the Unlock the Future plan

    With its 2023 results in February 2024 AXA presented a 2024 to 2026 plan targeting underlying earnings per share growth of 6% to 8% a year, an underlying return on equity of 14% to 16% and a new capital management policy.

21. 2025AXA

    Sale of AXA Investment Managers to BNP Paribas

    AXA completed the sale of AXA Investment Managers to BNP Paribas Cardif on July 1, 2025 for ~$5.76 billion (EUR 5.1 billion) in cash, a total transaction value of ~$6.1 billion (EUR 5.4 billion), and signed a long-term agreement for BNP Paribas to manage a lar…

22. 2025AXA

    Death of founder Claude Bébéar

    AXA announced on November 4, 2025 that Claude Bébéar, its founder and Honorary Chairman, had died at the age of 90. He ran the group from 1975 to 2000 and created the AXA name in 1985.

23. 2025ICICI Bank

    FY2025 Balance Sheet Scale

    The FY2025 integrated report listed Rs 16,103.48B in deposits, Rs 13,417.66B in loans and advances, Rs 21,182.40B in standalone total assets, and a 16.55% capital adequacy ratio.

24. 2025ICICI Bank

    FY2025 Profitability

    ICICI Bank reported Rs 472.27B in standalone profit after tax and Rs 510.29B in consolidated profit after tax for FY2025. Profitability matters because the bank has to fund technology, compliance, provisions, and growth while keeping capital strong.

25. 2025ICICI Bank

    IMobile and Card Scale

    IMobile processed 558M transactions worth Rs 11,238B in FY2025, and the bank had close to 18M active credit cards at March 31, 2025.

26. 2026ICICI Bank

    Q1 FY2027 Profit Up 15.9%

    Standalone profit rose 15.9% to Rs 14,805 crore for April-June 2026, with net interest income up 12.7% and net NPAs at 0.35%.

27. 2026ICICI Bank

    Bakhshi Reappointed to 2028

    The RBI approved Sandeep Bakhshi's reappointment as MD and CEO for two years from October 4, 2026.

28. 2026ICICI Bank

    FY2026 Profit Crosses Rs 50,000 Crore

    Standalone net profit rose 6.2% to Rs 50,146.6 crore in FY2026, with a 4.32% net interest margin and 15.8% loan growth.

Acquisitions

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