RK Damani is the founder of supermarket chain D Mart and third richest person of India. However, before becoming a retail king, he was a stock investor and even taught Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.
India’s Third Richest Man RK Damani: Dalal Street Investor to D Mart
Radhakishan Damani is a prominent businessman and founder of the supermarket chain D Mart. With a net worth of 14 billion dollars, he has established himself as a business leader. But his journey from a dropout to India’s eighth richest man was never a cakewalk. So in this article, we will read the inspiring story of Radha Kishan Damani and learn what traits helped him become a self-made billionaire.
RK Damani: Bikaner Life
Radha Kishan Damani was born on 15 Mar 1954 in Bikaner in a Maheshwari family. He lived in a one-room flat in Mumbai. He was sent to Mumbai College to study Commerce, but he dropped out in his first year.
RK Damani: First Business
Radha Kishan had a natural inclination towards business. After dropping out of college, he started a ball bearing business. But he was not satisfied with it. Therefore, he ventured into stock marketing and created an investment firm named Bright Star in 1989.
Radha Kishan Damani & Stock Market
After the death of his father, Damani joined his brother in stock marketing broking. This led to the foundation of his stock broking career. Radha Kishan Damani made profits by short selling stocks in 1990. After the Harshad Mehta scam, his income further rose due to these short selling stocks.
He took inspiration from legendary investor Chandrakant Sampat. He had understood that investment is more critical than stock broking to earn money. Therefore he ventured into stock marketing, which proved to be very profitable. He started investing in multi-bagger stocks like Indian Cement, Century textiles, VST Industries, Sundaram Finance, TV today network, Jubilant FoodWorks, 3M India, etc.
Damani left stock marketing in 2001 to enter the retail market.
Radha K Damani: Founding Supermarket Chain, Dmart
Radha Kishan never restricted himself to one business. He started a franchise of a department store named Apnaa Bazaar. This gave him the idea of creating his supermarket chain, Dmart.
He set up a supermarket and hypermarket chain named Dmart in Powai in 2002 after quitting the stock market in 2000. The company expanded rapidly, and today, it has almost 214 stores spread across various Indian cities. Headquartered in Mumbai, D Mart offers multiple personal and home products like stationery, beauty, food, toys, kitchenware, etc. In 2017, the IPO of D Mart was announced, and the company became the 18th most valuable company.
Radha Kishan Damani: Investments
Radha Kishan Damani owns stakes in:
United Breweries
Avenue Supermarts
Mumbai’s Radisson Blu Resort
Tobacco firm, VST Industries.
India Cement (19.89% stakes).
Andhra Paper (1% stake).
He also became the largest shareholder of HDFC Bank in 1995.
The value of his stocks is approx. 10.20 US billion Dollars, presently.
Decoding RK Damani: Personality Traits
Simple Life: Radha Kishan Damani has always led a simple life. Even after becoming so successful, he has given very few interviews in his lifetime. His simplicity also reflects in his attire. He wears a simple white kurta with white trousers, despite so much fame and name.
Mentorship: He is also a great mentor. He has taught various stock trading techniques to prominent billionaires like Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and Dilip Bhandari. Today both of them are successful businessmen.
RK Damani: Achievements and Recognition
Radha Kishan Damani is popularly known as Mr. white and white, Warren Buffet of India and Retail king of India due to his stock marketing and retail skills.
With a present net worth of 14.5 Billion Dollars, Radha Kishan Damani has become the eighth richest Indian according to the 2021 Hurun India Rich List.
He was the second Indian Billionaire in the 2020 Forbes Billionaire list.
Mr. Damani’s D Mart became the first retail chain to cross the billion-dollar market profitably.
Lessons to Be Learnt
Value investing: (PUT LINK OF VALUE INVESTING ARTICLE) One can learn various stock marketing skills from his journey. The first stock marketing skill is value investing. Radha Kishan Damani used to buy extremely cheap stocks that could become profitable in the near market. Using this value investing, he earned a lot from stock marketing. This strategy of value investing is vital in stock marketing, and various investors like Warren Buffet also used this strategy for higher returns. So if you also want to do wonders in stock marketing, you can’t ignore the importance of value investing.
Diversified business Radha Kishan Damani never restricted himself to a single business. He kept on venturing into different businesses until he was satisfied. First, he started a ball bearing business, then looked for opportunities in stock marketing and then finally started his supermarket business, D-Mart. This shows the importance of diversifying your business for long term success. Almost every prominent company, including Reliance, Amazon etc., diversifies its business. The rationale is that even if one product started making losses, others would cover those losses. So in this way, we see the importance of diversification in a businessman’s life.
Simple living High thinking Another trait from his personality that we should include in our life is leading a simple life. It’s a famous saying that whether you are successful or failure, you should be able to handle it. Radha Kishan also handled his success with simplicity. Known for his simple lifestyle, he always stays away from media attention. This trait is the actual identification of a successful person. When you lead a simple life and stay away from distractions, you can concentrate more on your business. This simple mantra helped him to take strategic decisions and become a billionaire.
RK Damani’s D Mart Competitor: Reliance Retail
Challenges are an inseparable part of human life. No matter how successful you become, there will be challenges in your way. Similarly, Radhakishan Damani’s Dmart faces a stiff challenge from Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance retail. As Reliance is set to acquire Future Retail and Big Bazaar, DMart fears a downfall.
In the first quarter of this financial year, Dmart’s parent company Avenue Supermarket recorded a fall in profits. Therefore, Radhakishan Damani has to devise an appropriate strategy to maintain D Mart’s present position.
Damani: Dalal Street to D Mart
Radha Kishan Damani’s life from Dalal Street to D-Mart, from a dropout to a billionaire, is an inspiration for everyone. Even after becoming a successful businessman, he never left his simple lifestyle. He successfully broke this notion that degrees are essential for a successful business. To sum up, one should learn from his business skills and understand that ups and downs are natural but how you deal with them determines your fate.
Muskan Garg
I am a hardworking law student, trying to explore the content writing field. I am curious to know more and share my knowledge with others.
