Feb 5 (Reuters) - Private sector lender Kotak Mahindra BankLtd said on Tuesday it acquired the business loansportfolio of the Indian arm of Barclays Plc.
With this acquisition, Kotak will have 6000 customers withtotal loans outstanding of about 7 billion rupees ($131.44million), Kotak said.
In December 2011, Barclays had said it would stop makingretail loans as part of its new strategy to focus only on wealthmanagement and corporate and investment banking operations inIndia.
Foreign banks in India face stiff competition from local rivals such as top lender State Bank of India and No. 2ICICI Bank Ltd, and have managed to capture only asmall share of the country's retail banking business.
Barclays (BARC)