Cut stake in bank to 20%, RBI tells Kotak

Mumbai: Kotak Mahindra Bank has been asked by Reserve Bank of India to bring down its promoter stake from existing 45.21% to 20% by March 31, 2018.      RBI has also said that it might ask the bank to bring down promoter equity further from 20% to 10% or any other level depending on the new guidelines that it comes up with. Although, in the past RBI had indicated that private banks should bring down promoter stake to 40% and subsequently to 20%, Kotak Bank had a special dispensation as the banking licence it received was upon conversion of a non-banking finance company. As a result of the conversion and consolidation of the group, the promoter continued to hold a large chunk of equity.      Of the 45.21% promoter stake, 41.35% is directly held by Uday Kotak, the bank's promoter, and the remaining shares are held by his family members. Given that the bank currently has a market capitalization of around Rs 43,000 crore, the value of the shares to be offloaded would be over Rs 10,000 crore.