Kotak eyes Citi's India consumer loan ops - report

MUMBAI May 13 (Reuters) - Mid-sized Indian private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank (KTKM.BO) is in talks with Citigroup (C.N) to buy the U.S. bank's consumer finance business in India, the Mint reported on Thursday.

Kotak Mahindra is conducting due diligence on CitiFinancial, which gives home and personal loans to retail borrowers in the low income segment, the newspaper said, citing an investment banker it didn't name. A Citi India spokesman said that the bank would not comment on market speculation, and a spokesman at Kotak Mahindra said that the report was speculative.

A Kotak Mahindra official, who did not want to be named, told the Mint that talks between the banks were "currently at a very, very preliminary stage" and "general" in nature.

For details on the newspaper report, see:

www.livemint.com (Writing by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)