Thread by @stockifi_Invest

Mega-Thread on the Indian billionaire, legendary investor, businessman and the founder of DMart: Radhakishan Damani

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1) Radhakishan Damani was born in the year 1954 to Shivkishanji Damani in a Marwari family in Bikaner, Rajasthan.

2) Unlike several veterans, he lacked interest in academia and dropped out after the first year of college.

3) Initially, he didn’t have any interest in the stock market and was into the ball and bearing trading business.

4) After his father’s death he closed the ball bearing shop and started a stockbroking business with his brother.

5) Since he didn’t have much understanding of the stock market, he started as a speculator; buying stocks and hoping that they will go up.

6) Soon he realized that speculation is not the best way to grow capital.

7) Manu Manek, the dreaded market operator, ruled Dalal Street in the 1980s.

8) RKD, in his late-20s, would stand at the farther end of the loud trading ring and watch the Manu Manek in action.

9) It is evident that the young Damani learned a lot by watching cunning Manek spoiling the bulls’ party time and again.

10) A few years later, RKD did employ similar tricks to outgun his opponent – the big bull Harshad Mehta.

11) The late-80s and the early-90s were dark ages for the Indian stock market. Bombay exchange was clearly divided – with Gujaratis on one side and Marwari traders holding fort on the other end.

12) Gujarati traders found their voice when Harshad Mehta emerged from the shadows to become the most powerful trader on D-Street in the late-80s.

13) At around the same time, a nondescript group – locally called the ‘triple-Rs’ – cut some real smart deals on the street.

14) The ‘triple-R’ group comprised RKD, a chartist named Raju, and a young greenhorn Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, who later became a big name in the Indian stock market.

15) According to old-timers, Harshad and the ‘triple-Rs’ first locked horns over Apollo Tyres.

16) Harshad was long in the counter, but triple-Rs could not digest such lofty valuations for the tire company.

17) Triple-Rs went on shorting the stock, without really knowing the source of Harshad’s endless funding.

18) But this was just the beginning of a long war that spanned for nearly two years – until the scam was unearthed in 1992.

19) Several years later, RKD revealed: "Had Harshad held his position for seven more days, I’d have taken a begging bowl and walked on the road".

20) RKD cleaned up after the Mehta scam and turned into a long-term investor after 1992 as he came too close to bankruptcy then.

21) Then he started investing in MNC and banking companies and he was fascinated by consumer businesses and invested in those as well.

22) In 1998, once again the battle continued between RD & Harshad, same speculation, but on three stocks namely Videocon, BPL & Sterlite.

23) Towards the fag end of 1998, the overall market sentiment began to improve.

24) Before long, the market was in the grip of a bull run led by technology stocks, which would peak out in February 2000.

25) Some players say that Mr. Damani found himself a bit out of depth during the technology boom of 1999-2000.

26) He stuck to the classic rules of trading, short selling shares that he felt were overvalued and going long on the undervalued ones.

27) But stocks from the sectors that he had a sound understanding of, cement, automobile, steel, were out of favor.

28) Irrespective of whether Technology companies were making money or not, investors were falling over each other to buy them.

29) Mr. Damani’s old school strategies did not work well for him in this period.

30) Having seen several downturns in his life he still transformed himself into a value investor from a mere observer of the stock market.

31) During the late 1980s, he invested heavily in MNC stocks and eventually became one of the leading stock-market investors in the country.

32) Some of his best-performing stocks were 'VST Industries,' 'Sundaram Finance,' and 'Blue Dart.'

33) Despite his flourishing success in the market he started to get back to the business in the retail industry.

34) He always had an affinity for consumer companies as he always believed that they will be a big success in the coming times.

35) In 1999, RKD and Damodar Mall, then CEO of ‘Reliance Retail’ bought a franchise of ‘Apna Bazaar’, which later became the foundation of D-Mart.

36) The IPO of D-Mat was a big hit as it had an overwhelming response and created a new record in the market.

37) This big success of the company’s IPO placed Radhakishan on the list of top 20 billionaires. Since then he is known as the retail king in the country.

38) His property portfolio includes a 156-room Radisson Blu Resort in Alibag, a popular beach-front gateway close to Mumbai.

39)He is a person who speaks very little and listens with the utmost attention.

40)Often referred to as Mr white (white because of far-fetched low-profile, simple life and always wearing a white trouser and white shirt) dressed in spotless white clothes, he began his success story as a humble trader and now rules 'Dalal Street.'

41) He doesn’t believe in social media, keeps a distance from media and public appearance. However, his actions are louder enough to make him go unnoticed.

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