Kotak to grow dominance in M&A transactions

TV Raghunath, MD & CEO, Kotak Mahindra Capital speaks on the bank's strategy

Kotak Mahindra Capital, the prestigious investment banking arm of Kotak Mahindra Bank is building a more dominant position in transactions which are either by Indian corporates or are India centric in the leadership of T V Raghunath fondly referred as T V by friends and colleagues. 

The Kotak group veteran took the reins of the investment banking business in July after moving from his earlier role of head group strategy for Kotak Mahindra Bank where he was instrumental in group’s entry in the commodity exchange business and for the investment by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation of Japan in the bank. 

“We are now targetting broader corporate India and does not believe in eat that you kill strategy,” said Raghunath who does not trust individual or star centric investment banking culture but believes in building the institution. He is looking at leveraging Kotak Mahindra Banks’s over 2000 wholesale banking clients to increase its footprint.

He joined the Kotak Mahindra group in 1998 with the investment bank and for a decade built the M&A franchise of the firm before moving to head group strategy position . He has advised a number of clients including, Wal-Mart on its India entry strategy, Standard & Poor’s on its acquisition of CRISIL and Bombay Stock Exchange on its demutualization among many others.

“We want to be the go to house for the value added advice,” said Raghunath emphasizing that their expertise in quality advisory would help them service wider corporate India. With the revival of sentiments in the Indian markets he is expecting greater traction in merger and acquisitions activities led by telecommunications, infrastructure and industrial segments taking the lead.

To increase its dominance in India centric transactions he has been instrumental in developing strategic partnership in other key markets. Building an Indo-Japan corridor has been at the heart of T V’s strategy that brought the fruition of six transactions in the last year alone.

In equity capital markets also he is expecting the revival of sentiments in the secondary markets will soon lead to come back of qualified institutional placement (QIP) offers followed by initial public offers (IPOs), the key primary markets instruments.