In our article “Uday Kotak 101: Who is the Famous Billionaire and Banker?” on Zatrun.com, we will delve into everything you need to know about Uday Kotak, the renowned billionaire and banker that our readers are curious about.

Who is Uday Kotak?

Uday Suresh Kotak, the Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, is an Indian billionaire banker born on March 15, 1959. In a time when India’s economy was still closed and economic growth was limited, Kotak chose to turn down high-paying job offers from several multinational companies to start his own business. Within a few years, he built a strong presence in various areas of financial services, including bill discounting, stockbroking, investment banking, car finance, life insurance, and mutual funds.

On March 22, 2003, Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd. received India’s first banking license of the corporate era from the Reserve Bank of India. As of April 2021, his net worth is estimated to be $14.8 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. In 2006, Goldman Sachs ended their 14-year partnership by selling its 25% stake in two subsidiaries to Kotak for $72 million.

Kotak grew up in a middle-class Gujarati joint family, where 60 people lived under the same roof and shared a common kitchen. The family was initially involved in joint trading, which he described as “capitalism at work and socialism at home.” His hobbies were playing cricket and sitar. However, in a 2014 interview with NDTV, he admitted that he no longer continued playing the sitar. His aptitude for mathematics influenced his career choice. He received his undergraduate degree from Sydenham College and a postgraduate degree in management studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies in 1982.

Career Life:

After completing his MBA, Uday Kotak launched Kotak Capital Management Finance Ltd (later renamed Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd) with seed capital of less than $80,000 borrowed from family and friends. From a bill discounting venture, it has grown into a financial services conglomerate with assets of over $19 billion as of March 2014 and a programmatic commercial bank with more than 1,250 branches, the second largest private and PSU market share in India.

In 2014, shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank reached an all-time high after signing a $2.4 billion deal in November 2014 for rival ING Vysya Bank, partially owned by Dutch financial services group ING, nearly doubling Kotak’s wealth. In 2015, Kotak entered the general insurance business and partnered with telecommunications billionaire Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel to launch a small payment bank.

He has reduced his shareholding in Kotak Mahindra Bank to 30% in compliance with RBI guidelines as he was required to bring it down to 20%. In August 2019, he was reported to be one of the highest-paid CEOs of any Indian bank with a monthly salary of Rs. 27 lakh ($34,000). He was appointed as the President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the year 2020-21. Kotak is married to Pallavi Kotak, has two children, and lives in Mumbai.

Achievements and Awards:

• In June 2014, Uday Kotak was named the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year.
• He was honored with the ‘Business Leader of the Year Award’ by the Economic Times in 2015.
• Kotak was the only Indian financier to make it to Forbes’ list of “Masters of Money: The Most Powerful People in the Financial World” (May 2016).
• India Today ranked him 8th among the 50 most powerful Indians of 2017.
• In 2018, he was presented with the Global Leadership Award by the US-India Business Council.

Memberships:

Uday Kotak is a member of the High Level Committee on Infrastructure Financing of the Government of India, the Primary Market Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the Board of Directors of the National Securities Markets Institute, and ICRIER. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Mahindra United World College of India and the National Council of the CII. Additionally, Uday Kotak serves as a strategic board member providing advice to the national law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas.