D-Mart's dazzling market debut propels Radhakishan Damani into India's richest 20

New Delhi: Radhakishan Damani, the founder of Avenue Supermarts and a low-profile investor, has made his way into India’s richest 20 club with a blockbuster listing of his company that runs D-Mart retail chain. With the listing at a premium of over 114 per cent, the shares controlled by 61-year-old Damani, including through his family members and investment firms, are now worth a stellar US $5.1 billion. [caption id=“attachment_3347264” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  D-Mart owner Radhakrishan Damani[/caption] This makes him richer than several other well-known billionaires, including Anil Ambani, Rahul Bajaj, Ajay Piramal and Kalanithi Maran, to become the 16th richest Indian. Mukesh Ambani remains the richest with an estimated net worth of US $27.6 billion, as per the real-time data of Forbes, known for its rich lists across the world. The total net worth of over US $5 billion includes US $2.4 billion worth of shares in Damani’s own name, which has taken the entire marketplace by a big surprise where Damani is known to keep a low profile despite a reputation of picking right stocks as a broker. The market grapevine has it that he has been the mentor of ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and is also invested in a number of other companies, giving him a stature like Warren Buffett of India. Continuing its stellar performance, the company’s shares soared for the second day today. After opening on a positive note, the stock further rose by 2.61 per cent to Rs 657.50 on BSE, helping the company’s market valuation surge past Rs 40,019.42 crore (US $6.1 billion). It has already become the country’s most-valued retail firm. The stock had yesterday closed 114.29 per cent above its IPO price of Rs 299. Future Retail’s market valuation stands at Rs 11,674.84 crore. Avenue Supermarts, the operator of retail chain D-Mart, saw a remarkable debut at the bourses yesterday, helping the company’s market valuation jump to Rs 39,988.21 crore by the end of trade yesterday. The IPO, the biggest since PNB Housing Finance’s Rs 3,000 crore offer in October last year, was subscribed more than 104 times earlier this month. Last year, Advanced Enzyme’s initial share sale was subscribed 116 times and that of Quess Corp by 145 times. The price band for the public issue of Avenue Supermarts was fixed at Rs 295-299 and the IPO was open to subscription on March 8-10. D-Mart is owned and operated by Avenue Supermarts Ltd (ASL) a company founded by Damani. In addition to Mumbai, D-Mart has multiple stores in cities such as Ahmedabad, Baroda, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Surat.