“I believe India is going into a clear unprecedented economic growth I think markets only recognising that and I’m bullish on India more than anything else for the economic growth that lies ahead”
—Rakesh Jhunjhunwala
Dalal street is recovering from the Panic of suchita dalal’s shocking news article on the harshad Mehta scam the index fell from 4500 to 2500 points a loss of rupees one lakh crore in market cap not just a bloodbath but a tsunami of Blood on the street from the ashes of the scam by the first big bull harshad Mehta will soon emerge the next big bull who will change the hierarchy of Heroes of Dalal Street forever. 12 bomb explosions rocked Mumbai in March 1993. the single day attacks resulted in 317 fatalities and 1400 injuries in the middle of the chaos was a man shouting
” don’t worry if you die will die together don’t try to save only yourself”
—Rakesh Jhunjhunwala
It was the only instance when both stock exchanges were shut one man who will build the dream and hold the confidence of India’s middle class the face for coming generations to enter the stock markets for the next 40 years one man who will enter the stock markets with rupees 5000 in 1985 when sensex was at 150 points and exit the world on 14th August 2022 when sensex was at 59462 points the man would be called as India’s big bull hero of Indian stock markets the best known face of Indian Investments
The Boy with Big dream
Born in an ordinary middle class marwadi family he was the son of an income tax officer he used to play cricket and table tennis in the compound in the so-called income tax Colony he was the youngest of four children his father talked about stock markets over drinks with his friends one day Rakesh asked his father why do the stock prices fluctuate and his father responded if there is news in the stock markets on gwalior rayon the stock price will change well gwalior is nothing but today’s Grasim Industries limited a 13 billion dollar giant of the flagship Aditya birla group as every person wants to earn money quickly so did Rakesh however his dad asked him to have a professional qualification and therefore he enrolled in the renowned synonym College in South Mumbai and then he finished his chartered accountancy from the prestigious Institute of Chartered Accountants of India in 1985. Rakesh always wanted to work in the stock markets during the those days stock market was not considered as a great place to start your career it was considered to be a very speculative Market. “there’s a magic in risking everything for a dream that nobody sees but you” the first problem ‘Capital’ he earned rupees 60 per month as stipend at a CA internship training for three years he had some money saved by his father when Rakesh was a kid in a separate account that was the only amount of rupees 5000 that Rakesh had to invest in the stock markets he was in need of more capital his brother who was a practicing chartered accountant introduced him to some of his clients those days clients used to get 10 to 12 percent return in the bank another client gave him rupees 10 lakhs on pure trust and in the first year itself he earned rupees 25 lakhs and that’s how it was the first taste of success. but the next two to three years Rakesh did not make any major money from his trades he struggled and stuck to preserve his savings while living with his parents in a joint family
Scared Money never wins
The years 1983 to 1985 were of historical importance for the world tea industry new records were established in World production and exports World tea prices staged a recovery after remaining depressed for several years Rakesh could sense this trend and purchased 5000 shares of Tata tea at just rupees 43. the stock Rose to rupees 143 within just three months with over three times profit he was already worth rupees one crore till then in 1987 Rakesh married his wife Rekha to start a new journey of his life he was very good at networking and making smart friends on the Lal Street in 1988 he made his first million dollars betting on Cesagoa now known as vedanta with extreme bearishness in the market every investor on the Lal Street was skeptical to invest in stocks in 1989 VP Singh’s government was going to announce the budget that was about to be a big milestone in his career there was absolute bearishness in the market until the budget was announced by the then finance minister Madhu Dhanvate Rakesh had a strong intuition that VP Singh government will announce budget in favor of businesses Destiny favored the young bull who took the plunge by investing heavily by just the power of contrarian conviction his net worth increased from rupees 2.5 crores to a whopping rupees 45 crores six months after the budget was announced
“knowledge is power only when you use it to make money shower”
In the 1990s the Indian stock market was dominated by cartels of bears one such bear cartel was led by Manu manik known as black cobra the cattle included Radakishan Damani Rakesh, Jhunjhunwala, Ajay Kayan, Shankar Sharma, Dinesh dalmia, ramdev agrawal, nimesh Shah among others the harshad Mehta Bull Run ended when suchita dalat broke the news of the scam in the times of India harshad Mehta’s talks fell heavily and the bears made huge money. big bull had big Ambitions and markets favored big brains and now with the right friends it was time to unlock big gains.
Identify the Megatrend Gorillas
In the year 2003 Rakesh established his own stock trading from rare Enterprises this is 2003-2004 two top analysts from rare Enterprises are at the headquarters of Titan Industries in Bangalore after two days of meetings with 20 senior Executives of the watches and jewelry market the Dior Rush is back excitedly to Mumbai the same night one of them makes a presentation of their findings to Rakesh illustrating the bright prospects he forces for Titan particularly in jewelry this man was with utpal sheth who convinced Rakesh about the company’s potential in the jewelry business and the Titan stock. at 2 am while reviewing with utpal financial model for five year projections for Titan. The stock zoomed more than 8100% since the big bull entered and was the highest valued stock in his portfolio today utpal is the CEO and partner at rare Enterprises Titan’s jewelry brand tanishq is a market leader in the jewelry segment with 400+ stores in 200+ cities it has a 5% market share in India in the 30% organized jewelry market historically Titan used to generate 70% of the revenue from the sale of watches but today the what segment generates merely 15% of revenue for the company with utpal rightly predicted this dominance and Trust in the Tata groups brand back in the year 2003. Rakesh says utpal and I complement each other we believe our Synergy makes 1+1=11.
Make mistake you can afford, live to fight another day
Rakesh made tons of money during the Harshad Mehta’s scam in 1992. again he made good money in the ketan Parekh scam in 2001. the real stock market Legends are greedy when others are fearful however his investing Journey had his fair share of setbacks when he invested in an NBFC, DHFL – Diwan Housing Finance Limited in 2018 one major nbfc Island FS went bust causing alarm bells to ring throughout the industry Banks became much more careful about lending money to nbfc but this led to a liquidity crunch since there was limited access to Credit in September 2018 after the island FS crisis emerged DHFL stock also took a hammering by as much as 60% in January 2019 an independent investigation claimed that the company’s promoters were involved in a rupees 31000 crore scam to siphon off money in October 2013 Rakesh bought 25lakhs of shares of DHFL at price of rupees 135 in 2019 DHFL stock fell from rupees 150 levels to rupees 93 levels within a span of three months he then decreased his Holdings in DHFL going down to less than one percent in December 2019 and then zero he says prepare for losses, losses are part and parcel of stock markets investor life just like with great power comes great responsibility with great stock market knowledge comes great insider trading possibility. Around early 2021 Rakesh was on his way to the SEBI office in Mumbai why to settle a regulatory probe that was initiated against him and his family members including his wife and brother in July 2021 sebi passed a settlement order against Rakesh his wife Rekha and his brother and two other relatives the gist of the matter was that Aptek made an announcement on 7 September 2016 that it is foreing into the preschool segment however the information was considered unpublished price sensitive information or UPSI according to sebi both Rakesh and utpal were allegedly in possession of the upsi and shared the information with others barring utpal all were alleged to have traded in the shares of aptech based on this upsi Rakesh says Regulators are like your spouse right or wrong you should always defer to them to keep Harmony life is all about perspectives let’s settle it and move on.
Wealth and health – a tale of choices
The Bold and contradictory bets in the booming Indian economy in 2021 a surprising announcement shocked everyone when a whopping 35 million dollar was invested by Rakesh to build the D Mart of Airlines industry akasair what was the strategy deploy some best cost cutting strategies to tackle big guns and big losses in a high demand sector akasa Airlines first flight took off from Mumbai at 10 05 A.M.
For rupees 176 crores in 2013 Rakesh acquired six of the 12 units of the Ridgeway Flats at Malabar Hill from Standard Chartered Bank in 2017 he paid HSBC Bank rupees 195 crores to purchase the remaining six units in the same building after demolishing the previous structure he started building a new 70000 square feet a 13-story mansion in 2021 this was his dream Apartment project also his philanthropic portfolio includes nutrition and education he planned to give away 25% of his wealth to charity he was building an Eye Hospital in Navi Mumbai which will perform 15000 eye surgeries free of cost he always said that his father was his first role model in life giving him morals guts thoughts and curiosity his second role model is the house of tatas that is blessed by the hand of God he once quoted third comes the ex-british Prime Minister Winston Churchill for tenacity and sheer guts for trading he looked up to American billionaire George Soros but Mentor is only one Radha kishan Damani.
“presence or absence of money does not change people it just magnifies who they really are”
but as it is said the good people die young as God needs them his biggest mistake has been not investing more into his own health he smoked up to 25 cigarettes a day Jeffries was his favorite Watering Hole he ordered his drinks in doubles large whiskeys especially in happy hours he was referred to as India’s Warren Buffett with a difference Warren worked from a clean desk with no paper read for five hours a day and hardly got any phone calls Rakesh insisted on a Bloomberg screen even inside the ICU he once said in an interview if I am going to die I would ask for just three hours I would buy some stocks I would do some trading I would have a couple of drinks I would spend time with my wife and children and then God you can burn me
living in a duplex residence on the 16th and 17th floor of the 20 story building in El plazo in Malabar Hill he suffered from a cardiac arrest died at the age of 62 on 14th August 2022 at breach candy Hospital in Mumbai there was only one Rakesh jhunjhunwala of India the big bull one man who was eternally bullish on the Indian economy.
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