Raamdeo Agrawal is an Indian businessman, stock market investor and Chairman of

Motilal Oswal Group Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited is an Indian financial services company offering a range of financial products and services. The company was founded by Motilal Oswal and Raamdeo Agrawal in 1987. The company is listed on BSE and NSE ...

which he co-founded with Motilal Oswal in 1987. According to

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

he had a net worth of $1 billion in 2018 but dropped off their list of billionaires in 2019.

Life

Agrawal was born in a middle-class Marwari family.Raamdeo is a Chartered Accountant from Institute of Chartered Accountants of India He was brought up in a village in

Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh (, ) is a landlocked state in Central India. It is the ninth largest state by area, and with a population of roughly 30 million, the seventeenth most populous. It borders seven states – Uttar Pradesh to the north, Madhya Prade ...

. He moved to

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

to study to become a chartered accountant.His ancestors belong to

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

He is married to Mrs Sunita Agarwal and together they have a son Vaibhav Agarwal. In a dramatic turn of events two kidnappers had taken away Vaibhav from his hostel in Kota when he as preparing for IIT entrance. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of Rs 10 crore from Agarwal. Later after joint operation by police across 6 states, after 15 days Vaibhav was rescued by the police arrested when they arrested the driver of the kidnappers.

Career

Agrawal pursued chartered accountancy in Mumbai and began his career as a sub-broker in 1987. He co-founded

Motilal Oswal Financial Services Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited is an Indian financial services company offering a range of financial products and services. The company was founded by Motilal Oswal and Raamdeo Agrawal in 1987. The company is listed on BSE and NSE ...

and his family today owns about 36% of the company. In 1986, he wrote the book ''Corporate Numbers Game'', along with co-author Ram K Piparia. He also authored the book ''The Art of Wealth Creation''. Agrawal was awarded the Rashtriya Samman Patra by

Central Board of Direct Taxes Taxes in India are levied by the Central Government and the State Governments by virtue of powers conferred to them from the Constitution of India. Some minor taxes are also levied by the local authorities such as the Municipality. The authori ...

for a consistent track record of highest integrity in tax payments for a period of 5 years from FY95-FY99.He considers Warren Buffett as his mentor and says that his investment strategy is largely inspired by him.

Investments

By the time Agarwal became a sub broker, he was able to build a portfolio of 10 lac. This grew to almost 30 crore during the bull run of Harshad Mehta scam of the 1990s however it fell to 10 crore after the scam was exposed. Later he went to the US to meet his inspiration Mr Warren Buffett. Here he made a point to study all the letters of Buffett written to his company Berkshire Hathway. Until this point he held 225 stocks in his portfolio which he later scaled down to just 15 stocks. Eventually by the year 2000, his portfolio grew to Rs 100 crore. Some of his notable and early investments were Hero Honda, Infosys and Eicher motors.

References

Indian businesspeople Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Indian investors Indian accountants {{India-business-bio-stub Rajasthani people