Kotak Bank to boost global presence

Kotak Mahindra Bank would like to boost its international presence, though its geography-specific partnerships model has also worked in its favour till now.

Kotak Bank's Executive Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Uday Kotak said here on Monday that arrangements with Sumitomo Mitsui Bank in Japan and Evercore in the US have worked well. "Additionally, ING Group, which now owns 6.5 per cent in the bank, will also be of help in Europe," Kotak said. The Kotak Mahindra Group has a presence in New York, London, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Mauritius and Singapore, including representative offices and branches.

The bank recently completed the Rs 15,000-crore merger of ING Vysya Bank with it to become the fourth largest lender in the private space. The new shares created as part of the merger were listed on Monday.

Under the merger, ING Vysya Bank shareholders were given 725 shares of Kotak Bank for every 1,000 shares held. The merged entity now has a significant national footprint of 1,250 plus branches and 1,900 plus ATMs.

The Kotak Bank stock closed lower 2.2 per cent at Rs 1,338 on the BSE. Kotak said the bank plans to open a branch at the international finance centre (IFC) at the GIFT City in Gujarat. The bank will be tracking developments on the regulatory and taxation fronts in its effort to start operations from the GIFT City near Ahmedabad, which is the country's first IFC.

Though located physically in the country, an IFC is aimed at acting like a foreign operations office to facilitate easy movement of capital. Kotak said developing an ecosystem beyond the regulatory and taxation fronts is also very important.

Kotak Mahindra and associates are significant shareholders in Business Standard Private Limited