Private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd said on Tuesday it acquired the business

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loans portfolio of the Indian arm of Barclays Plc.

With this acquisition, Kotak will have 6000 customers with total loans outstanding of about Rs 7 billion ($131.44 million), Kotak said.

In December 2011, Barclays had said it would stop making retail loans as part of its new strategy to focus only on wealth management and corporate and investment banking operations in India.

Foreign banks in India face stiff competition from local rivals such as top lender State Bank of India and No. 2 ICICI Bank Ltd, and have managed to capture only a small share of the country's retail banking business.