Kotak launched its first US based mutual fund for the American retail market on April 11.
All but 2 of 40 branches of Kotak Mahindra Bank in Mumbai stayed open.
Banker Uday Kotak bought out Goldman Sach's stake in his bank's investment banking and brokerage arms.
Post the deal with Sumitomo, Kotak will have 46% and Mahindra just under 3%.
Kotak sees a golden opportunity here, a free run of the road for the next three years.
Take Uday Kotak, 47, whose Kotak Mahindra Bank is taking advantage of partial liberalization of financial services.
Kotak said his bank will use the money raised from the sale to fund expansion and acquisitions.
But, "there's heavy pre-emption by the regulator, which prevents capital from finding its most productive use, " sighs Kotak.
Such subsidies and schemes pushed up rural incomes by 12% last year, according to Kotak Institutional Equities, a broker.
The remaining tangle is not something the avowedly free-market Kotak says he relishes.
Billionaire banker Uday Kotak, who founded and runs the bank, says this latest move signals a strategic shift.
Suvodeep Rakshit, an economist at Kotak, a broker, says the states' finances could be hit by a slowing economy.
Right now, Jain is still allocating to the fund from other Kotak holdings.
In 2003 Kotak Mahindra pocketed one of two commercial banking licenses to be offered then (to domestic parties only) by Delhi.
Tractor tycoon Anand Mahindra was an early backer, who lent his family's name and took a 15% stake in Kotak's startup.
Kotak said they would look at helping Indian companies to raise foreign funds and work with Japanese companies operating in India.
Runs Kotak Mahindra Bank, which he cofounded as finance firm in 1985.
"Kamath's done a great job of managing such a diversified portfolio and balancing the risks, " acknowledges Uday Kotak of rival Kotak Mahindra Bank.
To prove a point that solar can work for every day practical uses, Kotak Solar recently electrified a village in India with solar power.
Kotak had just the good name of his boutique financial firm.
Individual investors and fund managers looking at India, however, can take a few cues from Jain, who has been with Kotak since 2006, a Chartered Financial Analyst.
The bank was originally co-founded by Kotak and tractor tycoon Anand Mahindra in 1985 as a small financial services firm which acquired a banking licence in 2003.
"But that's the contradiction of India for you, " smiles Kotak.
Sanjeev Prasad at Kotak, a broker, says that the recent results season saw a host of firms booking losses as the value in rupees of their foreign debts rose.
Additionally, in the near-term, a report released earlier this week by Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance says Indian stocks will rise another 15% to a record high by March 2011.
Sanjeev Prasad of Kotak, a broker, studied inflows in the 2011 fiscal year, and found only a fifth could be explained by mainstream funds (excluding most sovereign-wealth funds, where data are scarce).
"Uday's never been one to follow the beaten track and has a sixth sense about spotting hidden opportunities, " says Mahindra, who's been happy to let Kotak run the show and now holds 4% of the bank.
Other financial firms with banking licences, such as Kotak Mahindra, have been shifting towards the lending business and away from capital markets where profitability has fallen, partly thanks to a rush of foreign investment banks into India.
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