Warburg Pincus exits Kotak Mahindra Bank

Global private equity major Warburg Pincus, on Monday, sold its 3.6 per cent stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank for about Rs.1,400 crore, marking its exit from the Indian private sector bank. When contacted, Kotak Mahindra Bank Chief Financial Officer Jainmin Bhatt confirmed that there was a block deal in the bank's shares at the National Stock Exchange on Monday. However, he said the name of the buyer or the seller would be known only by the end of the day. But sources confirmed that the shares were sold by Warburg Pincus at an average price of Rs.530 a share and Kotak Institutional Advisers advised on the sale. Kotak Mahindra Bank shares, on Monday, closed 1.18 per cent higher at Rs.530.95 on the BSE, although the overall market sentiment was weak and the benchmark Sensex plunged by 1.8 per cent or 309 points. This is the second time in as many months that Warburg has sold shares of the bank. On February 2, it sold about 17.5 million shares of Kotak Bank through stock market deals, raising about $170 million (about Rs.800 crore). Wargbug had picked up stake in the Mumbai-based private sector lender in 2004, and Monday's deal marks its exit. Since February, this is the fifth deal, involving a foreign investor selling shares in an Indian financial sector entity. Among various deals, Citigroup has sold its entire 9.9 per cent stake in HDFC for $1.90 billion, and Khazanah Nasional of Malaysia quit Yes Bank for $110 million, raking in a 150 per cent profit in the second week of this month. On February 2, Carlyle had sold 1.3 per cent of its stake in HDFC for about $270 million (Rs.1,354 crore), and a week later, on February 8, Temasek Holdings, the State investment group of the Singapore Government, had also sold 1.4 per cent of its stake in the country's largest private lender ICICI Bank for $299 million. — PTI