Uday Kotak’s journey – from a cotton trader to India’s richest banker

Sep 4, 2023

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Uday Kotak resigns

Uday Kotak, India’s richest banker with a net worth of $13.7 billion has resigned from Kotak Mahindra Bank as its MD and CEO, around 21 years after being appointed as its head in 2002. Let’s look at Kotak’s life history and how he has emerged as one of the country’s richest bankers.

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A family of cotton traders

Uday Kotak was born in 1959 into a Gujarati family. His father Suresh Kotak came to Mumbai from Karachi after the partition and started a cotton trading business, which was also the joint family business.

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The wrong pitch

Uday Kotak did his MBA from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies. He dreamt of becoming a cricketer but during his college days, he was hit on the head by a ball during a league match, forcing him to miss college and cricket for a year.

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Lending to Tatas

Kotak, who was unhappy with his family business, entered the bill discounting businesses. He made a killing by lending to Tata’s Nelco at 16 percent while borrowing from friends and family at 12 percent interest.

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A marriage at the wedding

The birth of Kotak Mahindra Bank happened at Kotak’s wedding in 1985 where he met Anand Mahindra, who agreed to invest ₹1 lakh to form Kotak Mahindra Finance, which carried both their family names.

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Car financing

Kotak, who often looked for innovative ways of making money, also entered the car financing business by booking the cars in the company’s name and offering the cars to interested buyers without them having to wait for a long period to get possession of the cars.

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The three Ks

In 1991, it entered the investment banking business. In the following years, Kotak was one of the top i-bankers of the country – being a part of three Ks of the market – along with Hemindra Kothari and Nimesh Kampani. It also made its own debut on the D-street the same year.

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Global partnerships

The bank also forged partnerships with companies like Goldman Sachs, Ford Motor Company – and launched an insurance JV with Old Mutual – expanding the bank’s business.

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The big break

The bank’s next biggest break came in 2001 when the RBI allowed private companies to apply for a banking licence and Kotak Mahindra Finance then became Kotak Mahindra Bank in 2003.

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From ₹30 lakh to ₹3.5 lakh crore

Kotak Mahindra which began with an investment of ₹30 lakh, today has a market cap of over ₹3.5 lakh crore – making Uday Kotak one of India’s richest bankers with a networth of $13.7 billion as per Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Credit: BCCL