Radhakishan Damani is the owner of DMart – a hypermarket chain with over 175 stores spread across 12 states. Known for his strong business acumen and in-depth trade knowledge, Damani is a self-made billionaire with stints at the Dalal street as well as retail business. Here are the top 10 facts about the professional and personal life of Radhakishan Damani:
- Early Life
Radhakishan Damani was born on March 15, 1954 in Bikaner, Rajasthan.
- College Dropout
Radhakishan Damani quit his Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of Mumbai in order to chase his dream of becoming a businessman.
- Slow career start
Damani lost his father at the age of 32 and began to work in a small ball-bearing business before beginning as a stockbroker for family business.
- Chandrakant Sampat as a Guru
While being a stockbroker at Dalal Street, Damani learnt a lot of trading secrets from veteran investor Chandrakant Sampat including investing his own money, the concept of short-selling, and holding multi-bagger stocks for long-term returns.
- Harshad Mehta link
Damani was active as an investor in the market during the Harshad Mehta tenure and made his initial capital sum by short-selling his stocks.
- The DMart Strategy
Due to the 2001 market crash, Damani opened his first DMart store in Mumbai and only bought a successive store with profit from the previous one throughout DMart’s expansion.
- Residential stores
Instead of buying commercial spaces in established markets, Damani trusted his sense of consumer demands and opened DMart stores in or near residential areas.
- Late IPO
After 16 years of DMart, Damani launched his company’s IPO at Rs 299 per share and overwhelming market response listed his share at Rs 604. This is one of the rare over-subscription market incidents.
- Top-rated stocks
Radhakishan Damani has made a fortune out of investing long-term in specific stocks namely India Cements, VST Industries, BF Utilities, Astra Microwave Products, and Spencer’s Retail.
- Personal Life
Damani is known as Mr. White for his classic white trousers and shoes combination.
