Published 13:14 IST, July 2nd 2024
Kotak Mahindra Bank falls 3.8% after name pops up in Adani-Hindenburg saga
The share of the country’s one of the largest lenders dipped from today’s high of Rs 1,820 to Rs 1,739.30, falling as much as 70 points or 3.84%.

Kotak Mahindra Bank shares: The shares of the Kotak Mahindra Bank fell as much as 3.8 per cent in intraday trade after the bank’s investment arm Kotak Mahindra Investments Limited and its founder Uday Kotak were mentioned in Hindenburg Research’s response to Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) show cause notice.
The share of the country’s one of the largest lenders dipped from today’s high of Rs 1,820 to Rs 1,739.30, falling as much as 70 points or 3.84 per cent as of 01:00 pm on July 2.
Hindenburg Research, the US-based short seller, who released a research report alleging Adani Group of grave financial irregularities, was recently served a show cause notice from the country’s securities and commodities market regulator. In reply to SEBI’s notice, Hindenburg accused SEBI of vaguely mentioning Kotak Mahindra Investments Limited as KMIL and not clearly highlighting its role in the dealings.
Hindenburg said, “While SEBI seemingly tied itself in knots to claim jurisdiction over us, its notice conspicuously failed to name the party that has an actual tie to India: Kotak Bank, one of India’s largest banks and brokerage firms founded by Uday Kotak.”
Hindenburg shared that Kotak Mahindra Investments Limited “created and oversaw the offshore fund structure” used by Hindenburg’s investor partner to bet against Adani. The short seller alleged SEBI of masking Kotak’s name under the acronym ‘KMIL.’ Instead, it simply named the K-India Opportunities fund and masked the “Kotak” name with the acronym “KMIL”
Hindenburg, for the first time in its responses, named Uday Kotak, the founder and former CEO of the Kotak Mahindra Bank, suggesting that SEBI is trying to underplay the role of its former Corporate Governance Chief in the Adani short-selling bets to ‘protect yet another powerful Indian businessman’.
“Uday Kotak, founder of the bank, personally led SEBI’s 2017 Committee on Corporate Governance. We suspect SEBI’s lack of mention of Kotak or any other Kotak board member may be meant to protect yet another powerful Indian businessman from the prospect of scrutiny, a role SEBI seems to embrace,” Hindenburg said.
Updated 13:14 IST, July 2nd 2024