Kotak Mahindra Bank’s reshuffle likely to arrest top management attrition, say analysts; shares gain

Kotak Mahindra Bank share price gained over a percent in early trade on Tuesday after the private sector lender announced the reorganization of its top management.

Kotak Mahindra Bank has elevated KVS Manian as Joint Managing Director (JMD) of the Bank replacing ex-JMD Dipak Gupta, and Shanti Ekambaram as Deputy Managing Director (DMD) from March 1. 

Meanwhile, there were reports suggesting that Manian could be one of the candidates for the MD & CEO post at Federal Bank, due to be vacated in September 2024. However, Kotak Mahindra Bank’s latest move should potentially eliminate any such risk.

Analysts believe such a rejig by Kotak Mahindra Bank should possibly alleviate any immediate risk of top management attrition, but the new MD will have to face many challenges.

Read here: KVS Manian new joint managing director in Kotak Mahindra Bank reshuffle

“The new MD will still have the task of curbing attrition at the operational level, manage the ensuing asset quality risk, and hopefully review Bank’s strategic stance on business/ branch expansion, investment portfolio rejig given higher share of AFS, sub-optimal dividend/capital consumption policy, stake reduction in subsidiaries, etc,” Emkay Global Financial Services said.

The brokerage retained an ‘Add’ rating on the stock with a target price of ₹1,950 per share.

Kotak Mahindra Bank siad its retiring group CFO Jaimin Bhatt will be replaced by Deepak Gheewala (COO), while Milind Nagnur will now hold the dual position of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Bank, with effect from April 1.

Paul Parambi, currently the Chief Risk Officer of the Bank, as the Group Chief Risk Officer of the Bank, with effect from March 1, 2024.

These appointments are subject to approvals, the bank said.

On January 1, Ashok Vaswani took over as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kotak Mahindra Bank, the role held by founder and billionaire banker Uday Kotak. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had approved a three-year term for former Barclays veteran Vaswani.

Meanwhile, Federal Bank share price tanked nearly 7% on Tuesday as Kotak Mahindra Bank elevating Manian as its JMD has possibly dashed hopes of him being a candidate for the MD post at Federal Bank.

Read here: Federal Bank share price falls 8% amid overall weak market environment

Federal Bank shares have recently rallied around 10% owing to news-flow about inclusion of KVS Manian as one of the three candidates for the post of MD & CEO. 

Thus, Emkay Global believes any stock run-up attributed to this news-flow should come off.

The brokerage has retained a ‘Buy’ call on Federal Bank with a target price of ₹180 per share, given the Bank’s healthy RoA/RoE trajectory, reasonable valuations (1x FY26E ABV), and lower exposure to unsecured retail loans.

At 9:35 am, Kotak Mahindra Bank shares were trading 1.24% higher at ₹1,753.00 apiece, while Federal Bank shares were trading 6.07% lower at ₹153.10 apiece on the BSE.

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