Kotak Mahindra Bank to invest Rs 120 crore in next three yrs

By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 25 March 2003, 20:30 IST
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MUMBAI: Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd (KMB), slated to start operations by the month-end, will invest up to Rs 120 crore to establish 75 branches and ATM network. KMB's focus would be on households with an annual income of Rs 4-4.5 lakh for retail activity and would set up 25 branches by March next year, most of them in dense customer areas of Mumbai and Delhi region, the newly formed private sector bank's vice-chairman and managing director, Uday Kotak told reporters on Monday. The bank with a capital adequacy ratio of 28 per cent and net non-performing asset base of 0.01 per cent would initially have a fixed deposit base of Rs 200 crore from one lakh depositors of Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd (KMFL), KMBs earlier avatar, he said. Currently, the bank's net worth is Rs 550 crore while that of Kotak group is Rs 1,400 crore. The bank has met with the Reserve Bank of India's minimum requirements for cash reserve ratio (CRR) and statutory liquidity ratio (SLR), KMBs treasurer, Mohan Shenoi said. About diluting promoters stake of existing 60 per cent to 49 per cent to meet RBI guidelines on ownership, Kotak said FIIs, private equity and strategic investors have shown interest to pick up stake and "we have 12-24 months time to work on it". On the growth plans for KMB, he said: "we would tap KMFL's five lakh customers, approach new clients and are open to inorganic route -- mergers and acquisitions".