Radhakishan Damani: With $19.2 billion, DMart owner breaks into world top 100 | India Business News – Times of India

MUMBAI: Radhakishan Damani, the main promoter of organised retail chain DMart, is now among the top 100 richest people in the world. With a net worth of $19.2 billion, translating into about Rs 1.4 lakh crore, Damani is now placed at the 98th spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
From about $12 billion as on March 1 last year, in nearly 18 months, his net worth has jumped more than $7 billion, or by about Rs 50,000 crore.
The promoters of DMart currently hold 74.9% in the company. This is just a tad below the regulatory requirement of sub-75% promoter holding in listed entities.
Among others, Damani also holds an 11.3% stake in India Cements, 26% in VST Industries, 2.4% in Sundaram Finance and several other companies.

Over the last 18 months, the stock price of Avenue Supermarts, the holding company that runs DMart, has jumped 64% to its Wednesday close of Rs 3,652 on the BSE.
In between, at the peak of Covid-induced selloff in March last year, the stock had also fallen to below Rs 1,800. Since then, the stock has more than doubled as DMart has shown strong resilience to weather the economic slowdown.
In addition, latest broking house reports said that the company’s digital services are making good strides to compete with established e-commerce giants.
The company has also managed to enhance the pricing power of the articles sold in its shops.
“Based on our FMCG products pricing data, we believe DMart’s price offering vs JioMart is currently the strongest since the latter’s launch in 2020. Compared to its online competitor, Big Basket, DMart’s pricing basket remains competitive and the gap is almost highest compared to the historical range,” Goldman Sachs said in its latest report on Avenue Supermart.