Kotak Mahindra Bank said it has bought a 10% stake in Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS) for Rs 1 crore. The bank bought the stake from BSE, which had put its 30% stake on the block more than a year ago. IiAS is a proxy advisory firm that provides investors in the Indian market with independent opinion, research and data on issues relating to corporate governance and also recommendations about how they should vote on resolutions by companies put up to shareholders for voting. In November 2011, BSE, along with Tata, HDFC and Fitch Group, had together bought 74% in IiAS. Till recently it had BSE, Axis Bank, Fitch Group, HDFC, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and Tata Investment Corporation as its institutional shareholders. The two main promoters of IiAS are Amit Tandon, a former Fitch India chief, and Anil Singhvi, former managing director at Ambuja Cements.
