Radhakishan Shivkishan Damani is an Indian billionaire investor,business magnate and the founder of Avenue Supermarts Limited. He also manages his portfolio through his Investment firm, Bright Star Investments Limited. On 19 August 2021, he was ranked #98 richest person in the world by Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
Damani’s fortune is derived from publicly traded Avenue Supermarts, the Indian retailer that operates D-Mart retail stores in more than 300 locations, according to its website.
The 60% stake attributed to him is held by a promoter group, which includes Mumbai-based Bright Star, which he owns with his wife, and three trusts in the names his children, according to a March 2023 stock exchange filing. Only the stakes held by his immediate family are included in the net worth calculation.
The billionaire has a history of active investments in publicly traded Indian companies, according to a Bloomberg Quint report. Cash & Other Assets reflects estimated stock holdings as well dividends, insider transactions, taxes and market performance.
A company representative didn’t reply to a request for comment.
Biography
Radhakishan Damani was born in Mumbai, in 1956, where he was raised in a one-room apartment in a tenement block. He dropped out of commerce college after his first year, and entered the stock market as a broker and trader in the late 1980s.
Damani exited the stock market in 2000 and began building a retail business by buying cheap land in Navi Mumbai. He tested the ground with his first D-Mart store in 2002, seeing slow growth for almost a decade, opening 25 stores in its first 9 years, compared to 21 stores opened by Avenue Supermarts in 2016 alone. Damani operates more than 200 D-Mart-branded stores in 45 Indian cities.
Investments
Damani also holds stakes in a range of companies, from tobacco firm VST industries to cement producer India Cements. Damani picked up a 1% stake in Andhra Paper. Damani also picked up 15% stake in India cements in May 2020 taking his investment in India Cements to 19.89%. Damani publicly holds 6 stocks in his investment portfolio and total value of his stock portfolio is approx ₹102,077 crore (US$13 billion) in 2021
Personal life
He is married and has three children. He lives in Mumbai.
Milestones
- 1956 Radhakishan Damani is born in Mumbai, India.
- 1995 Becomes biggest individual shareholder in HDFC Bank.
- 2000 Exits the stock market and works on setting up his retail business.
- 2002 Founds Avenue Supermarkets
- 2002 Opens his first D-Mart store in Mumbai.
- 2010 Operates 25 stores under D-Mart name.
- 2016 21 new D-Mart shops are opened.
- 2017 Avenue Supermarts jumps 106 percent over IPO price in Mumbai debut.
- 2017 Avenue Supermarket is publicly listed in India.
