D-Mart owner RK Damani breaks into list of world’s top 100 richest people

MUMBAI: The media-shy billionaire investor Radhakishan Damani has broken into the top 100 of the world’s richest people, according to the data maintained by the Bloomberg Billionaires’ index.

Damani, who owns retail chain-operator Avenue Supermarts, is currently worth $19.2 billion and is positioned at 98 in the list of the world’s wealthiest individuals.

The reticent billionaire who made a name for himself by investing in value-oriented stocks in the 1990s before venturing in the organized retail business with the flagship brand D-Mart has seen his wealth surge $4.3 billion or 28 per cent so far in 2021.

Much of those gains have been driven by Damani’s biggest holding Avenue Supermarts, whose stock is up 32 per cent so far in 2021. The majority of the gains in the shares of Avenue Supermarts have come in the past three months as investors piled into the stock hoping that the company will benefit from the re-opening of the economy post a grueling second wave of the pandemic.

Despite dedicating much of his time to D-Mart, Damani continues to invest in his personal capacity. The billionaire investor has made a major investment in cement manufacturer India Cement over the past two years with a stake of 12.7 per cent that is worth Rs. 674 crore.

Damani, however, has some way to go to catch up with the next richest Indian billionaire in the top 100 – the steel baron Lakshmi Mittal.