Kotak Mahindra Bank to Acquire Deutsche Bank’s India Retail, Private, and Wealth Units

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• A strong strategic fit with Kotak’s affluent and SME focus; consistent with Deutsche Bank’s Global Hausbank strategy

Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. (“KMBL” / “Kotak”) and Deutsche Bank AG (XETRA: DBKGn.DB / NYSE: DB), acting through its India branch, today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Kotak to acquire Deutsche Bank’s retail banking, affluent private banking and wealth management business in India.

The business comprises approximately INR 29,000 crore (Euro ~2.7 billion) in loans, INR 16,000 crore (Euro ~1.5 billion) in deposits and INR 10,500 crore (Euro ~1.0 billion) of assets under management and serves around 150,000 customers through a team of about 1,000 employees.

Commenting on the acquisition, Ashok Vaswani, Managing Director and CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank, said, “This transaction aligns well with our focus on the affluent and SME segments. It is a strong strategic fit and makes sound commercial sense. It also brings a high-quality customer franchise and experienced teams and adds incremental scale and adjacency opportunities. We look forward to warmly welcoming these customers and colleagues to the Kotak family and our priority will be on disciplined integration and ensuring continuity, while building further depth and capability in this business.”

Kaushik Shaparia, CEO, Deutsche Bank Group India and Emerging Asia, said, “This transaction marks an important step in sharpening Deutsche Bank’s portfolio and focusing on areas where we have scale, strength, and the ability to deliver sustained returns. India’s growing integration into the global economy reinforces its position as a core market for Deutsche Bank. As the leading European bank in the country, we are closely aligned with India’s economic priorities, underpinned by our strong Corporate Bank and Investment Bank and the continued growth of our businesses, including DWS. We believe Kotak Mahindra Bank provides a strong domestic platform to ensure long-term continuity for our onshore private banking and wealth clients, while creating meaningful growth opportunities for our employees.”

The acquisition reflects Kotak’s inorganic growth strategy of pursuing targeted opportunities that strengthen its core franchise. Kotak’s established presence in these segments, alongside a relationship-led approach and its broader suite of banking and investment solutions position it well to provide Deutsche Bank’s customers with a seamless and integrated experience post transition. For Deutsche Bank, this step aligns with the group's Global Hausbank strategy of simplifying the business and focusing on competitive strengths, including Private Bank’s continued focus on global ultra-high net worth clients (including non-resident Indians) outside of India.

Both banks will work closely to ensure continuity of service for customers throughout the transition and post-closing. Approximately 1,000 Deutsche Bank employees in India are expected to join Kotak as part of this transaction, underscoring the importance both banks place on continuity for customers and long-term opportunities for employees.

Closing, including onboarding of customer relationships, employees and associated products, is expected by September 2027, subject to applicable regulatory approvals (including from the Competition Commission of India) and other customary conditions precedent.

At closing, the transaction is expected to be ROE[1] accretive for Kotak bank and CET1[2] accretive for Deutsche Bank.

Kotak Mahindra Bank's board approves Fundraising Proposal; to Raise about Rs 7,500 Crore

The board of private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) on Wednesday approved a proposal to raise capital through issuance of 6.5 crore shares.

According to the current price of its shares, sale of 6.5 crore shares will entail raising up to Rs 7,500 crore.

The capital raising may help the bank's promoter group led by its chief executive Uday Kotak reduce its holding in the bank to comply with a plan mandated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). As part of the bank's plan approved by the RBI, the lender is required to get down the promoters' stake to 26 per cent from the over 30 per cent held as of December 2019.

The approval involves sale of 6.50 crore shares of a face value of Rs 5 each either through a private placement of shares, a follow-on public offering (FPO), qualified institutions placement (QIP) or a combination thereof, the bank told stock exchanges.

The markets have been very volatile because of the coronavirus pandemic and there are also questions about the long-term economic impact of the pandemic in India, with many analysts predicting a contraction in the economy.

In a recent report, global ratings agency Standard & Poor's said Kotak Mahindra Bank can weather the challenges which will be posed by the infections and affirmed its rating on the lender.

"The bank will be able to withstand our current expectations of a deterioration in operating conditions over the next 12-24 months. This is due to its above-industry-average risk management, earnings and capitalization buffers, and improving funding profile," the rating agency had said.

The bank had last raised core capital in 2017, when it raised Rs 5,800 crore through the QIP route.

Its shares were trading 1.86 per cent up at Rs 1,151.50 apiece on the BSE at 1315 hrs. PTI AA

Venture Garage Conducts “Find Your Investor” Programme in Hyderabad Supported by Kotak Mahindra Bank

Venture Garage conducted the first leg of the FY2019-20 edition of the Find Your Investor (FYI) programme in Hyderabad, in association with Kotak Mahindra Bank (Kotak) at the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT). Over 18 investors including Endiya Partners, Touchstone Equities, 50K Ventures, Tomorrow Capital, Sprout Venture Partners and Pegasus Fininvest, and over 100 enthusiastic start-up entrepreneurs building next-generation technology-enabled businesses participated in the event, which is a fund-raising platform for start-ups.

VCs discussing their funds' investment decision process. From left to right: Vivek Kumar (Venture Garage), Vasudha Thirani (Tomorrow Capital), Abhishek Srivastava (Endiya Partners), Vikrant Varshney (SucSEED Venture Partners), Utkarsh Sinha (Touchstone Equities), Radhesh Kanumury (Arka VC), Uday Pilani (50K Ventures), Subhash Lode (Pegasus FinInvest), Anirudh Jayagopal (Sprout VP), Vineet Sagar (Venture Garage)

In addition to covering the nuances of raising capital, banking and legal aspects, a set of shortlisted 20 start-ups also got to pitch one-on-one to investors in a speed dating format. A small sampling of the ideas not only demonstrates Hyderabad’s foray into technology, but that these start-ups are well on their way to building next-gen India that is dreamy, vibrant and cutting-edge.

Key disruptive start-ups at FYI are working on areas such as:

• Building India’s first bionic prosthetic arm


• Vernacular online mock tests with an emphasis on State Level Exams


• End-to-end omnichannel solutions for small businesses to sell across 80+ countries


• ReCommerce Marketplace: Two-way, for used gadgets (smartphones, tablets, laptops)


• FDA compliance of products manufactured by global contract manufacturers


• Further, Kotak conducted a session on banking for start-ups which covered aspects such as a start-up focused current account, credit facilities and making the road just a little bit easier with a customised suite of banking solutions for start-ups.

Puneet Kapoor, Senior Executive Vice President, Kotak Mahindra Bank said, “Venture Garage’s Find Your Investor programme is proving to be one of the key fund-raising platforms for start-ups with strong participation from both investors and start-ups. We are delighted to play our part in supporting the dreams of entrepreneurs. The Kotak Start-up Current Account is customised to meet the unique requirements of start-ups and help entrepreneurs scale their businesses and manage their day-to-day business needs efficiently.”

The Kotak Start-up Current Account comes with a host of features such as no balance commitment for the first 12 months, customised payment and collection solutions to suit each start-up’s business model, corporate salary accounts for employees, special forex pricing, cost-effective payment solutions and trade forex solutions.

Vikrant Varshney, Managing Partner, SucSEED Venture Partners said, “I had the privilege to moderate a very enriching panel with esteemed investment professionals and a very engaged audience who asked so many intelligent and pragmatic queries. We are happy that SucSEED was a partner to this event that did well on parameters such as quality of start-ups and investors, participation rate and engagement between start-ups and investors.”

Radhesh Kanumury of Arka VC added, “It is generally hard to find quality B2B start-ups at events. Venture Garage did a good job at curating the pitching start-ups and ensured the right mix of B2B vs B2C start-ups particpated at FYI.”

A key highlight of the program was a fire-side chat with Mr. Rajat Ojha, CEO of Gamitronics, which focuses on theme parks, next-gen museums and bringing smart toys in the market. An active angel investor, with a keen eye for adventure and technology, Rajat commented, “Founders need to be extremely focused on building technology with a clear problem-solution in mind and then execute.” Rajat related his story of his dream and the struggles he faced along the way, which fired up the entrepreneurs to dream big and strive hard to achieve their goals.

While opening the session and equipping founders with an understanding of the psyche of venture capitalists, Vineet Sagar, Managing Partner at Venture Garage stated, “Founders must build a strong co-founding team with a focus on business models that can rapidly scale the enterprise to become a unicorn. VCs don’t like to invest in lifestyle businesses.”

FYI has become the go-to platform for new-age entrepreneurs to interact one-on-one with investors, enabling them to meet the right investor(s) and equipping themselves with tools to build large, scalable businesses.

FYI FY2019-20 is being organised in five cities - Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune and Chandigarh.

For more details on FYI FY2019-20 and to register, please visit www.venturegarage.in/fyi.

About Venture Garage

Venture Garage handholds startups to help them raise capital from its network of 700+ Angel Investors, Venture Capitalists, Strategic Investors and Family Funds. Venture Garage specializes in early-stage investments across Seed to Series B stages starting from $100K to $5mil. Established in 2015 and with offices present in Mumbai, Bengaluru and NCR, Venture Garage also manages a network of 30,000+ entrepreneurs.

For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.venturegarage.in.

About Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited

Established in 1985, Kotak Mahindra Group is one of India's leading financial services conglomerates. In February 2003, Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd. (KMFL), the Group's flagship company, received banking license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), becoming the first non-banking finance company in India to convert into a bank - Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd.

The Bank has four Strategic Business Units - Consumer Banking, Corporate Banking, Commercial Banking and Treasury, which cater to retail and corporate customers across urban and rural India. The premise of Kotak Mahindra Group’s business model is concentrated India, diversified financial services. The bold vision that underscores the Group’s growth is an inclusive one, with a host of products and services designed to address the needs of the unbanked and insufficiently banked. As on 30th September, 2019, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd has a national footprint of 1,512 branches and 2,429 ATMs, and branches in GIFT City and DIFC (Dubai).

For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.kotak.com.

Kotak Bank Starts "Innovation Lab" in Bengaluru; To Invest In Startups

Bengaluru city has a new innovation lab, courtesy Kotak Mahindra Bank. The Private sector bank recently started an Innovation Lab in Bengaluru with an aim of exploring the best of the best technology that could have an impact on its operations. In addition to this, the bank is even considering investing in promising startups.

This particular initiative by the fourth largest private sector bank in the country is majorly going to benefit startups working in the fintech sector.

“We started an ‘Innovation Lab’ recently which is right now a dedicated space from where we are partnering with startups in the fintech space to test concepts and launch them into commercial products,” said Deepak Sharma, Kotak Bank’s Chief Digital Officer in a statement to PTI.

In an effort to get things started, the bank has already formed a seven-member core team which is now working meticulously with an equal number of startups belonging to the machine learning, artificial intelligence, biometric, analytics and iris scanning arena.

Majority of the selected startups are based out of Bengaluru, while two are headquartered in United States and one belongs to the land down under, Australia.

Recent times have seen private domestic lenders taking an extra interest in increasing their communication with the growing fintech startup community in the country so as to keep itself close to all their future technologies that will help them stay updated and relevant to the then world.

In order to keep the engagement going, they have undertaken various initiatives like organising ‘hackathons’, ideation contests, launching dedicated funds to invest in startups, and starting incubation centres.

Kotak Mahindra Bank has itself had an eye on the flourishing Indian startup industry for quite sometime now. Prior to this Bengaluru innovation lab, the bank had joined hands with NASSCOM’s Startup Warehouse to provide services to Indian startups and entrepreneurs under the NASSCOM 10,000 Startup Programme.

Even though the facility at MG Road, garden city, Bengaluru is open to the idea of investing in promising ideas and startups, it isn't an incubation centre as of now as they currently don't have a dedicated fund for the same. Hence, for now, the bank is calling the facility as its innovation lab.

Through this initiative, Kotak Mahindra Bank plans to keep reviewing promising opportunities of incubating, partnering and investing in deserving startups. The bank's current to-do list includes hiring more human resources for the Bengaluru innovation lab in the period of next 3-6 months.