Kotak Bank eyeing Japan, Middle East

The Kotak Mahindra Bank is looking at spreading its wings to the Middle East and Far East countries including Japan. The bank, which currently has 84 branches across the country, is also planning to take its total number of branches to 110 by the end of the current financial year.

"The Middle East and Far East countries hold a significant potential for banking services, and hence we are looking at leveraging our presence, especially in Japan, by opening offices and subsidiaries in those regions. Money is not a constraint  as we are comfortable with the $100-million funds raised through a global depository share in April 2006," Uday Kotak, vice-chairman and MD of Kotak Mahindra Bank, said today.

"Plans are also afoot to scale up our branch network to 110 from the existing 84 by the end of March 2007. We also intend to add 5,000 employees this year, " he added.