Uday Kotak is an Indian philanthropist, banker and businessman who owns the banking and financial services company Kotak Mahindra Bank. In 2023, he was ranked as the third richest banker in the world and the richest banker in India.
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Wiki/Biography
Uday Suresh Kotak was born on Sunday, 15 March 1959 (age 64 years; as of 2023) in Bombay, Bombay State (now Mumbai, Maharashtra), India. His zodiac sign is Pisces. In an interview, Uday told that he lived in a joint family of sixty people in Mumbai. Talking about this he said,
I was born in Mumbai in a family where 60 people lived together. It was a huge floor of a big house. My father returned to India from Karachi after partition. He was from a large family; My grandfather had five brothers. When my father came to India, we joined the main branch of the family who were already living here.”
After completing his schooling at Hindi Vidya Bhavan in Mumbai, he joined Sydenham College, Mumbai, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce; He was the topper of his class. He later joined Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) in Mumbai, where he earned a master’s degree in Business Administration. In an interview, Uday revealed that he had to leave his MBA studies for a year because he had to undergo emergency surgery after he was hit on his forehead in a cricket match.
Physical Appearance
Height (Approx): 5′ 9″
Hair Color: Salt and Pepper
Eye colour: dark brown
Family
Uday Kotak belongs to a middle-class Gujarati family from Mumbai.
parents and siblings
His father, Suresh Kotak, is a businessman who traded cotton and agricultural products with countries like China and Poland. His mother’s name is Indira Kotak. His sister Aarti Suresh Kotak is an entrepreneur.
A picture of Suresh Kotak and Indira Kotak
wife and children
His wife, Pallavi Kotak, is a businesswoman and mountaineer who trekked to Everest Base Camp in 2014. He married her in 1985.
A picture of Pallavi Kotak
The couple have two sons. The elder son, Jai Kotak, is a businessman who works at Kotak Mahindra Bank. The younger son, Dhaval Kotak, is a graduate of Columbia Business School.
A picture of Jai Kotak with Uday Kotak
A picture of Dhaval Kotak with Uday Kotak
livelihood
family business
After Uday undergoes surgery and leaves his studies temporarily, he joins his family business of trading in Mumbai; However, he later left the family business and established a finance firm. In an interview, Uday revealed that he became disenchanted with working in the family business due to differences of opinion with other family members on how to run the business.
starting a business in finance
After completing his MBA, Uday received an offer to work with Hindustan Unilever; However, he rejected the offer and set up a finance firm in Navsari, Mumbai. He talked about this in an interview and said,
I had applied for a job in Hindustan Lever, got selected and had made up my mind to join it. At that time my father and I had a serious conversation. He asked, Uday what do you want to do in life? I said, I don’t know; But I will not join the family business. I don’t want to deal with 14 family members and be one of them. Then he said, what if I convince the family to give you a small office space to work? Then what would you like to do? I said I would like financial counseling. He asked the family and I took the bait. I was given a small office space to understand what I had to do.”
After setting up the finance firm, his father, Suresh, introduced him to Shivanand Mankekar, a finance guru, who taught Uday about the workings of the stock market and finance.
Kotak Mahindra Bank
In 1985, he founded a finance firm called Kotak Capital Management with Sidney Pinto, a banker. He started the company with an initial investment of less than US$80,000 (approximately Rs 30 lakh) by borrowing from his family and friends. The company joined the bill discounting business with Tata Group and Mahindra. While working with Mahindra, he came in contact with Anand Mahindra, who was then the General Manager at Mahindra & Mahindra. Uday Kotak asked Anand to invest Rs. He invested Rs 1 lakh in his company and proposed to change the name from Kotak Capital Management to Kotak Mahindra Finance. In 1989, as the company’s profits increased, Kotak expanded its business from bill discounting to car loans. In 1990, he acquired HL Financial Consultants and Management Services Pvt. Ltd. Ltd. On 8 April 1992, Udaya purchased a 10% stake in Bank of Madura. According to Uday Kotak, at that time, private entities were not allowed to buy more than 1% stake in banks, as a result of which they had to buy stakes through different companies registered under different names; He sold the stake in 2001. In 1994, he took over as Director of Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company Limited (KMAMCL).
A photograph of Uday Kotak taken in the 1990s
In 1995, he entered into an agreement with Goldman Sachs for investment banking and broking. On 27 July 1995, he founded Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited (KMCCL). In 1997, Uday bought the national newspaper Business Times (now Business Standard) for Rs 1 crore; The deal was signed at a time when Kotak Mahindra Finance was burdened with debt worth Rs. 1000 crores. He talked about this in an interview and said,
This has reached a situation when the government would have taken more strict action. But before that, I said, add up whatever the book value of your plant and machinery is and we will make a financial investment, but we don’t want to run it. They were happy. That’s how we joined Business Standard.
On 13 December 1996, he founded Kotak Mahindra Prime Limited and took over as its director. Kotak Mahindra Finance ventured into mutual funds in 1998 and life insurance in 2001. In the 1990s, after Ford acquired a 40% stake in Kotak Mahindra Primus, Kotak Mahindra and Ford Credit entered into a joint venture; However, the partnership broke down after Kotak Mahindra bought Ford Credit’s stake in 2005. After this the name of Kotak Mahindra Primus was changed to Kotak Mahindra Prime.
Uday Kotak during a press conference
On 31 August 2000, he became the director of Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance Company Limited (KMLICL). Kotak Mahindra Finance received a banking license from the Reserve Bank of India in February 2003. This made it the first finance company in India to become a bank. After this Kotak Mahindra Finance changed its name to Kotak Mahindra Bank.
In 2006, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Goldman Sachs broke their partnership after selling their shares for US$72 million. Kotak Mahindra Bank in November 2014 finalized a $2.4 billion deal to acquire its competitor ING Vysya Bank, which was partly owned by ING, a Dutch financial services group. In the same year, Kotak Mahindra Bank bought 15% shares in Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) from Financial Technologies Group for Rs. ₹459 crore (equivalent to US$75.21 million). This made Kotak Mahindra Bank the largest shareholder of the company. Kotak Mahindra General Insurance started operations in 2015 with IRDAI approval; It is a subsidiary of Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Gerry Grimstone and Uday Kotak with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Uday Kotak became the Managing Director (MD) of Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited on 1 January 2021. In 2023, Kotak Mahindra Bank bought Sonata Finance, a small loan provider, for Rs. ₹537 crore (US$67 million). Uday Kotak resigned as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Kotak Mahindra Bank on 1 September 2023.
Awards, Honors, Achievements
- In June 2014, he received the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Uday Kotak with his EY Entrepreneur of the Year award
- He won the Economic Times Business Leader of the Year Award in 2015.
- In May 2016, he was the only Indian financier to be featured in Forbes Magazine’s Money Masters: The Most Powerful People in the Financial World.
- In the same year, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Best Banks Awards organized by the Financial Express.
Uday Kotak receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from Nitin Gadkari at the Financial Express Best Bank Awards
- He received the Businessman of the Year award from Business India in 2016.
- In 2017, he was ranked 7th out of 50 in the list of 50 most powerful people in India by India Today.
- He received the USIBC Global Leadership Award at the 2018 India Ideas Summit.
- In 2019, he won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Magna Awards organized by Businessworld.
- In 2021, he received the India Business Leader of the Year award by CNBC-TV18.
car collection
salary/income
Uday Kotak’s annual income in 2023 was estimated to be Rs 3.24 crore.
net worth
As on June 15, 2023, Uday Kotak’s net worth was estimated at $13.7 billion.
A snippet of Uday Kotak’s net worth on Forbes
Facts/General Knowledge
- In an interview, Uday revealed that he loved playing cricket and wanted to pursue a career in professional cricket; However, he had to give up his dream of becoming a cricketer after he was seriously injured in a cricket match in the Kanga League in Mumbai in September 1979.
A picture of Uday Kotak when he was playing cricket
- In 2014, he served as the Chairman of the Panel on Corporate Governance of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
- Uday follows a vegetarian diet.
- Her favorite holiday destinations are Japan (during cherry blossom season in April), Spain and Brazil.
- In October 2018, the Government of India appointed Uday as the non-executive chairman of the IL&FS board.
- He has served as a member on the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s International Advisory Panel as well as President-designate of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
- In April 2020, he was ranked as India’s third richest billionaire.
- In April 2023, during a panel discussion for the ET Awards for Corporate Excellence, Uday Kotak mentioned that the US dollar is the most powerful and influential currency in the world, and its power has made it the biggest financial terrorist. However, he later clarified his comment and said,
In a recent discussion on the US dollar I inadvertently used the term “financial terrorist” which I would like to correct. What I meant to say was that a reserve currency has disproportionate power, and whether it’s the Nostro account, a 500 bps rate hike, or emerging countries having $ for liquidity.
- In his spare time, Uday likes to play the sitar.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn