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.

Career

Radhakishan Shivkishan Damani was raised in a

Maheshwari Maheshwari, also spelled Maheshvari, is a Hindu caste of India, originally from what is now the state of Rajasthan. Their traditional occupation is that of commerce and as such they form part of the wider Bania occupation-based community that ...

Marwari family in single room apartment in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

. He studied commerce at the

University of Mumbai The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed h ...

but dropped out after one year. After the death of his father who worked on

Dalal Street Dalal Street ( hi, script=Latn, dalāl path, mr, script=Latn, dalāl gallī) in Financial District of Fort in Mumbai, is the address of the Bombay Stock Exchange and several financial institutions of the world. The term “Dalal Street” ha ...

, Damani left his ball bearing business and became a stock market broker and investor. He made profits by short-selling stocks that were inflated by illegal means by

Harshad Mehta Harshad Shantilal Mehta (29 July 1954 — 31 December 2001) was an Indian stockbroker and a convicted fraudster. Mehta's involvement in the 1992 Indian securities scam made him infamous as a market manipulator. Of the 27 criminal charges br ...

in the 1990s. Damani was reportedly the largest individual shareholder of

HDFC Bank HDFC Bank Limited (also known as HDB) is an Indian banking and financial services company headquartered in Mumbai. It is India's largest private sector bank by assets and world's 10th largest bank by market capitalisation . It is the third lar ...

after it went public in 1995. In the year 1992, after the Harshad Mehta Scam came to limelight, he saw a major rise in his income due to the short-selling profits during the time. In 1999, he operated a franchise of Apna Bazaar, a cooperative

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

, in

Nerul Nerul (Pronunciation: eɾuːɭ is an upmarket residential and commercial node in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Nerul is located in the Harbour Line, Trans-Harbour Lines and Nerul-Uran Line of Mumbai local train network where Kharghar ...

, but was "unconvinced" by its business model. He quit stock market in 2000 to start his own

hypermarket A hypermarket (sometimes called a hyperstore, supercentre or superstore) is a big-box store combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including ...

chain,

DMart Avenue Supermarts Limited, d/b/a DMart, is an Indian retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets in India. It was founded by Radhakishan Damani in 2002, with its first branch in Powai's Hiranandani Gardens. It has 302 stores in 10 ...

, setting up the first store in

Powai Powai (Pronunciation: əʋəiː is an upscale residential neighbourhood located in central Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is situated on the banks of Powai Lake, and is bound by the hills of Vikhroli Parksite to the south-east, Chandivali ...

in 2002. The chain had 25 stores in 2010, post-which the company grew rapidly and went public in 2017. Today he has 234 DMart stores across India. Damani keeps a low profile and rarely gives any interviews. He has also taught his Stock Trading Techniques to Indian Billionaire Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. In 2020, he became the fourth-richest Indian with a net worth of $16.5 billion. He was ranked #117 on the global list of billionaires. He was ranked #87 on the global list (

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 r ...

) of billionaires 2022 with a net worth of $18.9 billion.

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 in 2021.

Personal life

He is married and has three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Damani, Radhakishan Indian businesspeople Businesspeople from Mumbai Marwari people 1954 births Living people Indian investors University of Mumbai alumni