The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the appointment of Anup Kumar Saha as the new Managing Director and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank. Saha will lead the bank for a term of three years, effective 1 January 2027. He will take over from Ashok Vaswani, who took charge as MD & CEO on 1 January 2024, for a two-year term until 31 December 2026. So, even after the announcement of the new CEO and MD, Vaswani will continue to lead the fourth-largest Indian private lender until his tenure ends. But the market tends to discount ahead of events, and we witnessed strong upside in Kotak Mahindra Bank once Anup Saha’s name was announced as Ashok Vaswani’s replacement, effective 1 January 2027.
Kotak Mahindra Bank shares during Ashok Vaswani’s tenure
As mentioned above, Ashok Vaswani took over as the CEO and MD of Kotak Mahindra Bank on 1 January 2024 (Monday). Ahead of his joining, Kotak Mahindra Bank’s share price ended at ₹381.62 apiece on NSE on 29 December 2023, the last trading session for his predecessor.
On Wednesday, ahead of the announcement of his successor, Anup Saha, Kotak Mahindra shares ended at ₹417 on the NSE. This means during the tenure of Ashok Vaswani, Kotak Mahindra Bank shares have delivered just 9% return to irs shareholders.
Jefferies India stock recommendation
Despite a mere 9% return in 21 months, global brokerage Jefferies is bullish on Kotak Mahindra Bank shares. Jefferies India has given a ‘buy’ tag to the private lender’s stock, predicting a 10% upside.
On rationale for giving a ‘buy’ tag to Kotak Mahindra Bank shares, Jefferies research report says, “RBI has approved the appointment of Mr Anup Saha as CEO of Kotak Bank from 1-Jan-27 for a 3yr term. This is a positive, as Saha has extensive experience leading retail segments at Bajaj Finance & ICICI Bank; a timely team reorg (if any) will help. Uptick in banks’ retail deposit & NII growth, along with op. efficiencies, can lift earnings. Investors were expecting this change, so the price is up ~10% over 2M (vs Nifty Bank, down 4%). Maintain Buy.”
Anup Saha profile
Why Anup Saha, new CEO and MD of Koak Mahindra Bank, is a factor, Jefferies India report says, “Saha joined the Bank in January 2026. In his role as Whole-time Director (Executive Director) of the Bank since March 2026, he oversees the entire Retail Bank, Government Business, Data Analytics and Marketing function.”
Before joining the Bank, Saha was associated with Bajaj Finance Limited (“BFL”) (from October 2017 to January 2026) where he progressively held senior roles, starting as President–Consumer Finance (from October 2017 to March 2019), then as Deputy CEO–Consumer, MSME, Marketing, Operations & Service and Digital platform (from April 2019 to March 2022), as Executive Director (April 2023–March 2024), Deputy Managing Director (April 2024–March 2025) and finally, as the Managing Director & CEO (from April 2025 until his resignation in July 2025). In his Executive Directorship roles at BFL, Saha was responsible for BFL’s entire standalone business.
Before BFL, Saha spent 14 years at ICICI Bank Limited (ICICI Bank) (May 2003–June 2017), where he served in senior roles, leading Retail Secured Assets, Business Intelligence, Retail and Rural Collections, Credit Cards, and Retail Structured Finance. He also served as a Nominee Director of ICICI Bank on the boards of TransUnion CIBIL Limited and ICICI Home Finance Limited.
Earlier in his career, Saha worked with GE Capital (1999–2003), looking after credit cards, sales and analytics and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (1991–1995) in production engineering, following a brief stint in consumer durable sales.
Disclaimer: This story is for educational and informational purposes only. The views and recommendations above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, not Mint. We advise investors to check with certified financial experts before making any investment decisions.
