Kotak Investment Banking and Evercore Partners Announce Strategic Alliance

Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited (“Kotak Investment Banking”), a subsidiary of Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited and one of India’s leading investment banks, and Evercore Partners (NYSE: EVR), a leading investment banking advisory firm headquartered in New York, USA, today announced that the two firms have entered into an exclusive strategic alliance for cross-border M&A advisory services between India and the United States, the United Kingdom and Mexico.

Through this alliance, two leading investment banks will leverage their combined expertise, strong knowledge of global and local markets and deep corporate relationships to provide high-quality objective advice to their clients.

Evercore Partners was founded in 1996 by Roger Altman, former Deputy Secretary of the US Treasury, and has become one of the most active independent investment banking advisory firms in the US and UK. The firm has 67 Senior Managing Directors and 360 M&A and restructuring professionals in the US, Europe and Mexico. Since its inception, Evercore has advised on over $1 trillion of transactions and in CY 2011 year-to-date has advised on over $195 billion of transactions.

Commenting on the alliance, Uday Kotak, Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank said, “In the changing landscape of global investment banking, where specialized advisory firms are gaining prominence over bulge-bracket investment banks, we find in Evercore a strong, world-class advisory firm. As the international ambitions of Indian companies grow, their need for high-quality and strategic advice gains importance. With a view to servicing this need, Kotak Investment Banking is building a global footprint with a network of strong partners across key geographies thereby giving our clients expertise and access.”

Roger Altman, Executive Chairman of Evercore said, “We are very pleased to be partnering with Kotak, the leading Indian investment bank. This strategic relationship further expands our global reach and is another critical step in our ability to serve our clients around the globe.”

The US-India and UK-India corridors are important markets for cross-border mergers and acquisitions involving India. In FY 2011, 7 of the 10 largest announced M&A transactions involving India took place in these two corridors. This is expected to continue and increase in the future as the linkages between these economies continue to grow.