Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is an Indian Chartered Accountant by qualification but an investor / trader by profession. He is a famous equity investor in India and manages his own portfolio as a partner in his asset management firm, Rare Enterprises. Jhunjhunwala was described in a magazine as the "pin-up boy of the current bull run" and by another as "Pied Piper of Indian bourses". He is tagged by the media as "India's Warren Buffett".
Son of an income tax officer, he started dabbling in stocks while in Sydenham College and plunged into investing as a full time profession soon after completing his education. He started his career with $100 in 1985 when the BSE Sensex was at 150. He made his first big profit of Rs 0.5 million in 1986 when he sold 5,000 shares of Tata Tea at a price of Rs 143 which he had purchased for Rs 43 a share just 3 months prior. Between 1986 and 1989 he earned Rs 20-25 lakhs. His first major successful bet was iron ore mining company Sesa Goa. He bought 4 lakh shares of Sesa Goa in forward trading, worth Rs 1 crore and sold about 2-2.5 lakh shares at Rs 60-65 and another 1 lakh at Rs 150-175. The prices then went up to Rs 2200 and he sold some shares.But he credits Madhu Dandavate's Union budget of 1990 as the inflection point for his investing career which quintupled his net worth. His privately owned stock trading firm Rare Enterprises, derives its name from the first two initials of his name and wife Rekha's name.
Under the guidance of Mr Radhakrishna Damani, he made a lot of money shorting stocks at the time of Harshad Mehta scam post 1992."My decision to aggressively invest in the asset class of Indian equities at the right time was a very important determinant of my success,” said Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.
Like Warren Buffett, Jhunjhunwala is a long term investor, however he acknowledges that it was 'trading' income which helped him built his initial capital base and continues to remain an active trader as he believes it keeps one alert and always on your feet.
In 2010, Forbes rated him India's 51st and the world's #1062 richest man with wealth of $1.0 billion.
