Raised in an upper-middle class Gujrati joint family, self-made Indian billionaire banker, Uday Kotak lived in a household with 60 people sharing one roof. His two pastimes had been cricket and playing the sitar.
A 20-year old Mr Kotak was harbouring the dream of becoming a professional cricket player, when he had a brush with death. While playing cricket, a ball hit him in the head and led to an emergency surgery which left him bed-ridden for months and made him give up his cricket dream.
So, after a brief stint at his family's cotton-trading business, he pursued an MBA degree at the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai and developed an interest in finances at 26 in 1985.
If he wouldn't have almost been killed 40 years ago, Kotak wouldn't have gone ahead to become the World's Richest Banker. Now, 61, Kotak has been able to build a fortune estimated at 61 billion US dollars.
But the journey wasn't that easy, as after MBA Uday was set to join Hindustan Unilever for a well-paid job but he decided to set up his own investment company named Kotak Capital Management Finance Ltd. In 1985, with a seed capital loan of less than $80,000 from family and friends, he took a major risk with a new venture and successfully went on to partner with Mahindra the next year.
The partners went on to expand their business converting into an official lender in 2003. Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd. became the first company in India’s corporate history to receive a banking license from Reserve Bank of India.
During 2014, Kotak almost doubled his wealth as shares of his Kotak Mahindra Bank hit an all-time high after he sealed a $2.4 billion deal in November 2014 for rival ING Vysya Bank and the same year the bank also became second largest schedule commercial bank by market capitalization in India (private and PSU) with over 1250 branches.
Uday has been handling the position of CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank ever since its founding and he is currently also the executive vice chairman and managing director of the bank. Even recently, his term as CEO has been extended by RBI and he has been doing an impeccable job in managing the bank single-handedly. Uday Kotak also took over as President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the year 2020-21.
With the country dealing with a post-lockdown financial crisis and most companies going under stress, Kotak Mahindra Bank has been able to maintain stability in its rise, with good governance and gaining trust of investors. The bank was also one of the firsts to raise capital to fortify its balance sheet, making it one of the biggest winners in the current state of economy.
