BharatPe's Co-Founder sues Kotak Mahindra Bank for missing share allocation in Nykaa's IPO
2022-01-10BharatPe's Co-Founder and MD Ashneer Grover and wife Madhuri Grover sent a legal notice to Kotak Mahindra Bank's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Uday Kotak and his senior management, accusing the bank of failing to secure financing and allocation of shares in an IPO launched by beauty firm Nykaa.
The notice was sent on October 30, 2021, but assumes significance after a leaked audio call that has Grover allegedly abusing and threatening a Kotak employee on this issue, went viral. The notice was also addressed to Oisharya Das, CEO of Kotak Wealth Management, Shanti Ekambaram, Kotak Mahindra Bank's Group President for Consumer Banking and KVS Manian who heads Corporate, Institutional & Investment Banking.
The notice has sought damages for the gains Grover and his wife would have made after subscribing to shares worth Rs 500 crore in the company besides Rs 1 lakh towards the cost of the legal notice.
"This notice was received by us and was replied to appropriately at the time, including placing on record our objections to inappropriate language used by Mr. Grover," the statement by Kotak read.
So far, Kotak Mahindra Bank had refrained from commenting on the conversation between Grover and the Kotak executive. However the bank has now said that it has placed on record objections to inappropriate language used by Grover as per the statement.
On January 6, Grover had claimed that the viral audio clip was “fake” adding that it was a “scamster” who put it out. Grover subsequently deleted the post where he claimed the audio is fake. The audio too has been taken down. The statement by Kotak now raises questions over Grover's claims that the audio clip was fake.
The legal notice also mentions the name of a Kotak executive Rohit Mohan who was also briefly mentioned in the audio clip that went viral last week. According to the legal notice, while Kotak had informed Grover and his wife that the subscription formalities for the Nykaa IPO was done, they were soon informed that it would not be able to provide the IPO financing due to ‘erratic FII movements’ and ‘very high lending rates’.
See What’s Next in Tech With the Fast Forward Newsletter
Tweets From @varindiamag
Nothing to see here - yet
When they Tweet, their Tweets will show up here.