By Navneet Saini
“Cigar-puffing, whiskey-loving stock market investor, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, has his own cult following. One fan writes a blog called The Secret Journal of Rakesh Jhunjunwala. Stocks he buys often jump on news of his investment.” -says his Forbes Profile A trader by profession, a Chartered Accountant by qualification and a believer in the funda of “Trend is my best friend” Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is one of the most respected and famous equity investors in India. Jhunjhunwala, who is the chairman of Aptech Ltd and chiefly a partner in Rare Enterprises, an asset management firm, his acute perspective in investment in companies based on its business model, growth potential and the potential for longevity, has earned rightfully the title of the Guru investor of the Indian stock market. For the one who took off at a time when the BSE Sensex was at 150, scaling the heights he is at, today is surely not a meagre matter. He took off with a profit of Rs 0.5 million in 1986 selling 5,000 shares of Tata Tea at a price of Rs 143 which he had purchased for Rs 43 a share just 3 months earlier. This was followed between 1986 and 1989 with earnings around Rs 20-25 lakhs and eventually came his first major successful bet which was an iron mining company Sesa Goa in which he bought 4 lakh shares in forward trading, worth Rs 1 crore later selling about 2-2.5 lakh shares at Rs 60-65 and another 1 lakh at Rs 150-175. The price rose to Rs.2200 during his final sales and riding high on the waves of Madhu Dandavate’s Union budget 1990 came the inflection point for his investing career during which quintupled his net worth.
Progressing with leaps and bounds into the world of investment markets, riding high on the waves of Indian Economic Revolution of 1990s, he has got himself a portfolio tracked religiously by many across the globe. Basically keeping himself focused upon being a long term investor, he still remains an active trader just for the sake of keeping intact his own market habits and practices like he believes that active trading keeps him alert and his initial capital base was the result of active trading only. He no doubt remains the subject of much debate and analysis besides getting fancy terms from magazines like the “pin-up boy of current bull run” and the “Pied Piper of Indian bourses.”
As far as his investment philosophy is concerned he admits to owing a lot of it to the lessons from Mr. George Soro’s trading strategies and Dr. Marc Faber’s analysis of economic history. Lessons to be learnt, you always don’t need to start rich to become richer. Holds true to the maximum in the case of this big guy whom in 2007, Forbes rated as India’s 51st richest person with a net worth of $1.1 billion.
Entrepreneurship at IIT Delhi 