Kotak Mahindra Bank board to consider fundraising proposal this week

Mumbai, Apr 19 () Private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank on Sunday said its board will deliberate on a fundraising plan later this week, which can possibly help promoter group led by Uday Kotak cut its stake.

The Mumbai-headquartered bank's board will meet on Wednesday to consider capital raising either through a follow-on public offer, private placement, qualified institutional placement (QIP) of shares or a combination of the routes, it said in a regulatory filing to the bourses.

As part of a bank's plan approved by the Reserve Bank of India, the lender is required to reduce the promoters' stake to 26 per cent from the over 30 per cent held as of December 2019. The lender's total market capitalisation as of Friday's close stood at nearly Rs 2.27 lakh crore.

The intimation to the exchanges, which comes amid the worries over the economic climate due to the COVID-19 pandemic, did not specify the total amount that the bank is looking to raise.

In a recent report, global ratings agency Standard & Poor's had said Kotak Mahnidra Bank can weather the challenges that 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 capitalisation 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. AA HRS