Beena Parmar and Tarun Sharma Moneycontrol News
Kotak Mahindra Bank is not looking to sell its 15 percent stake in Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), according to the bank’s managing director Uday Kotak.
Kotak said he has no plans to sell stake in the India’s largest commodity exchange. “We have no intention to sell stake. We continue to hold shares in MCX,” he told Moneycontrol on the sidelines of a CII event.
However, the billionaire banker refused to divulge more details on the reasons behind his decision to hold on to the stake.
Recently, there have been media reports that BSE and NSE were interested to buy the stake from Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange was also keen to buy Kotak Bank's stake in 2016 but differences over valuations had stalled talks.
In July 2014, the fourth largest private sector lender had bought shares of MCX from Jignesh Shah-promoted Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL) to hold 15 percent stake.
Kotak Mahindra Bank had bought the stake for Rs 459 crore, or Rs 600 per share, a discount of 24 percent to the then market price of Rs 783. It had made the investment after the
National Spot Exchange Limited scam broke out, and Forward Market Commission (FMC) directed FTIL to reduce its stake in MCX to below 2 percent.
Other prominent shareholder in the company includes ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, who has a 3.92 percent stake.
Kotak Mahindra Bank’s stake in MCX increases the confidence of other investors in the exchange including mutual funds.
With SEBI clearing the universal exchange policy from October 2018, stock exchanges can offer commodity trading without having to set up a separate exchange for the same. Market experts say MCX would be the most impacted exchange with this move.
NSE and BSE have already filed papers with the Securities and Exchanges Board of India. As per source, that both NSE and BSE may enter the non-agri segment – which at present is dominated by MCX and could shower customers with freebies. This will hurt MCX's revenues and thus its valuations.
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