Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is arguably the most popular name in India’s stock markets. With the rising number of retail investors in the country, the curiosity about “the big bull of India” has grown manifolds. Jhunjhunwala is arguably the only person in India who became a billionaire solely in the stock trading profession.
Jhunjhunwala, who comes from a Marwari family, grew up in Mumbai, where his father was posted as an Income Tax Officer. After graduating from Sydenham College, Jhunjhuwala became a trader and chartered accountant.
Mr. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala entered the stock market with just Rs 5,000 in 1985. At that time, Sensex was at 150 points (currently Sensex is hovering at 58,500 points), and today his wealth is above 5 billion dollars.
He is known as a stock market expert throughout the country and so what we should know is what makes Rakesh Jhunjhunwala so special? After all, the Prime Minister described him as “one and only Rakesh Jhunjhunwala”. So, he has to be someone extraordinary to be described in such a special way.
Believe it or not, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala was once a bear in the Harshad Mehta days. He admittedly made a lot of money short-selling in the post-Harshad Mehta era. However, in the succeeding decades, he turned into the big bull of India’s stock market.
Today, Jhunjhunwala has an impressive portfolio of 37 stocks including Titan Company, Tata Motors, Crisil, Lupin, Fortis Healthcare, Nazara Technologies, Federal Bank, Delta Corp, DB Realty, and Tata Communications, with a combined net worth of Rs 19,695.3 crore. His ‘Titan’ investment leads the chart at Rs 7,879 crore, followed by Tata Motors with Rs 1,474.4 crore and Crisil at Rs 1,063.2 crore.
Jhunjhunwala is indeed a very special personality. He epitomises risk-taking, which enabled his dramatic rise despite a middle-class family background and this is exactly what seems to have prompted PM Modi’s words of appreciation for Jhunjhunwala.
Known as the “Warren Buffett of India”, Jhunjhunwala plans to launch an ultra-low-cost airline Akasa Air. Jhunjhunwala’s plans are likely to resurrect the aviation market by enabling highly affordable air travel and setting off the impact of heavy losses in the aviation industry due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is an ace stock investor and also possesses a brilliant business mind. For his airline, Jhunjhunwala has mobilised a team of industry veterans including former Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube and former president of Indigo, Aditya Ghosh.
Jhunjhunwala has played it very smart. He waited for the Pandemic to get weak and then invested in an airline when the air traffic started going up, aircraft lease rates went down and pilots/ crew availability started improving. Banking on such favourable market conditions, Rakesh plans to launch an impressive airline with really low prices to revolutionise air travel.
With low costs and a travel-hungry middle class in the country, Rakesh will enable affordable air travel and position Akasa Air as a leading carrier in low-cost travel.
Jhunjhunwala’s second innings in the airlines business maybe even more successful than his career as a trader. There are also chances of going down the road because airline business has turned many billionaires into millionaires in the last few decades. However, if a trained risk-taker like Rakesh Jhunjhunwala would not be excited with such an industry with an adrenaline rush, then who would?