Ashneer Grover vs Uday Kotak: BharatPe co-founder-MD Ashneer Grover and wife Madhuri have sent a legal notice to Kotak Mahindra Bank MD and CEO Uday and senior management, one of India’s top bankers, including beauty firm Nykaa ( Nykaa) has accused the bank of failing to secure financing and allocation of shares.
The matter came into the limelight after the audio went viral
The notice was sent on October 30, 2021, but came into limelight when an audio call allegedly by Grover about abusing and threatening a Kotak employee on the issue went viral. In this case, India’s most successful new generation entrepreneur Grover has come out against the richest and most respected entrepreneur, Uday Kotak.
The notice has also been addressed to Osharya Das, CEO, Kotak Wealth Management, Shanti Ekambaram, Group President (Consumer Banking), Kotak Mahindra Bank, and KVS Maniyan, Head of Corporate, Institutional and Investment Banking.
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compensation sought
The notice has sought compensation of Rs 1 lakh cost incurred on the legal notice, besides loss in the form of potential gains arising from subscribing shares worth Rs 500 crore in the company.
Moneycontrol has reviewed a copy of the notice sent by Sumit Agarwal, partner and founder, Regstreet Law Advisors, on behalf of Grover and his wife.
Grover declined to comment on the issue. Kotak Mahindra Bank did not immediately respond to Moneycontrol’s query.
IPO financing denied at the last minute
The notice mentions the name of Kotak executive Rohit Mohan, whose name also appeared in the audio clip that went viral last week. According to the legal notice, even though Kotak told Grover and his wife that the subscription formalities for the Nykaa IPO had been completed, they were soon told that he was facing “irregular FII movements” and “very high lending rates”. Will not be able to do IPO financing for
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Grover missed investment opportunity
“The refusal of Kotak to finance the IPO at the last minute renders our client Nykaa unable to participate in the IPO and a business/investment opportunity which they have communicated to Kotak since the launch of the IPO,” the notice said. Was told more than a month ago. Had Kotak informed our clients early on that it would be unable to do IPO financing for Nykaa IPO, our clients would have approached other financiers who were willing and willing to offer IPO financing to our clients for this IPO. “
These questions raised in the notice
Interestingly, the notice also mentioned that even though Kotak had talked about not funding the IPO to any individual for Nykaa’s IPO, it actually did so for Suhail Sameer, who is the chief executive officer of BharatPe.
Also invested in Zomato and Cartrade through IPO financing
According to the notice, Grover used Kotak’s services to invest more than Rs 100 crore each in the IPOs of Zomato and Cartrade through IPO financing. On January 6, Grover claimed that the viral audio clip was “fake” and that the person releasing it was a “scamster”. Grover tweeted, “This is a fake audio from which scammers were trying to extort funds ($2.4 million worth of bitcoins). I refused to give.” However, Grover later deleted the post which claimed the audio to be fake.
Last year unicorn became Bharatpe
Grover’s fintech company BharatPe, founded in 2018, became a unicorn last year. On the other hand, Uday Kotak-led Kotak Mahindra Bank is the third largest private bank in the country in terms of market capitalization after HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank.
Grover’s BharatPe has also forayed into banking after acquiring the troubled Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) in a joint venture with Centrum Financial Services in 2021. The JV got the small finance bank license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in October last year.
According to sources, Kotak has also sent a counter notice in this matter. However, Moneycontrol could not get its details. Sources said Kotak is being represented by law firm Khaitan.
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