Kotak Mahindra likely to bid for Royal Bank of Scotland Indian assets

Kotak Mahindra Bank may be the first Indian bank to join the race along with the other international suitors to buy out the Indian operations of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which has put some of its Asia Pacific operations on the block after being badly hit by the global financial crisis.

Uday Kotak, vice-chairman & managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, did not rule out a possible bidding for the takeover of RBS-India operations. Speaking on the sidelines of an event in Mumbai last Friday, he said, “Although nothing has been decided on this issue as on date, we will certainly evaluate such an opportunity if the need arises in the future.’’

Earlier, speaking with FE when announcing bank’s Q3 FY09 results Kotak Bank’s executive director Deepak Gupta had said that the bank is currently cutting down its business expansion plans and conserving capital to avail of mergers & acquisitions opportunities.

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With big bucks flying, Indian Premiere League just got bigger

The auction for the second season of the DLF Indian Premiere League (IPL) kicked off the usual drama and sensation.Although just about 17 players went under the hammer in the current season, and the bidders remained cautious while spending as the spending limit of all teams was set at $2 million(Rs9.8crore) each, it was not bereft of action.

The biggest action took place when the battle for capturing Mashrafe Mortaza, the Bangladesh all rounder heated up, between the Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders. The heated bidding started from $50,000 for Mortaza and finally KKR got him for $6,00,000, 12 times more than the base price. This climb set a new record after was Manoj Tiwary’s, bidding had seen a jump from $100,000 to $675,000 last year.

Another high of sorts was created when English cricketers Andrew Flintoff bagged by Chennai Super Kings and Kevin Pietersen bought by Bangalore Royal Challengers for Rs 7.5 crore each,

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