Summary

Uday Suresh Kotak was born on March 15, 1959 in Mumbai. He founded Kotak Mahindra Bank, a top private sector bank in India. He built a diversified financial services group out of a small bill-discounting business. Kotak retired as the managing director and CEO in September, 2023 and became the non-executive director of the bank.

Personal Information

Career Highlights

• 1985: Uday Kotak established Kotak Capital Management Finance, a company focusing on bill discounting.
• 2003: Kotak Mahindra Finance became the first non-banking finance company to be granted a banking license by the RBI.
• 2014: Kotak Mahindra bank acquired ING Vysya Bank in a $2.4bn deal, significantly augmenting the bank's presence.
• 2015: Kotak Mahindra Bank acquired 19.90% stake in Airtel M Commerce Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, to start a payments bank.
• 2023: He resigned as the MD & CEO, replaced by Dipak Gupta as interim CEO and became the non-executive director of the bank.

Achievements

• Made Kotak Mahindra Bank India's fourth-largest private sector bank in market capitalisation.
• He was named Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year in 2014.
• He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Magna Awards 2019 by Businessworld.
• He was awarded the Forbes India Leadership Award for Institution Builder in 2024.

Challenges and Controversies

In 2022, A Kotak Mahindra Bank loan officer was arrested for cheating and forgery. Uday Kotak was mentioned in the FIR but was not summoned for questioning and the bank repudiated all the claims.

In 2024, Sebi issued a show-cause notice to Hindenburg for allegedly violating Indian regulations, including on how it traded and profited. In its response, the research firm said Sebi didn’t disclose the involvement of a Kotak bank subsidiary's fund in shorting Adani stocks.

Kotak Mahindra (International) responded by stating that Hindenburg Research had never been a client or investor in its K-India Opportunities Fund. But it acknowledged that the fund had facilitated the shorting of Adani shares for Kingdon Capital Management, an investor-partner of the US short-seller.