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Addressing a gathering after the financial crises Rakesh Jhunjhunwala once joked that people asked him if he was a billionaire still; and if so, did he mean in dollars or rupees?
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala became a billionaire in the last bull-run which ended in 2008.
The crushing fall afterwards had an impact on everybody, and his portfolio was no exception.
The publicly available value of his holdings touched a low of Rs 1,130 crore (Rs 11.3 billion) in March 2009, less than a third of the Rs 3,461 crore (Rs 34.61 billion) at the end of December 2007.
The new bull-run seems to have more than repaired the damage.
He has made the equivalent of more than a million dollars a day, at Rs.8.4 crore (Rs 84 million) in daily gains over the last one year.
The increase in his networth has been at the rate of Rs 59 crore (Rs 590 million) a week-or Rs 256 crore (Rs 2.56 billion) a month.
If one breaks down the time frame to a smaller interval, he made Rs 35 lakh (Rs 3.5 million), or enough money to buy an Audi, Mercedes-Benz or BMW -- every hour.
The combined net worth of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and his family increased to Rs 7,261 crore (Rs 72.61 billion) from Rs 4,192 crore (Rs 41.92 billion) in a year ago, according to figures at the end of the June quarter. These figures are based on holdings of more than one% which have to be publicly declared on exchanges.
The National Stock Exchange benchmark index, CNX Nifty, touched a record high of 7,841 in July, and has rallied 53 per cent from its 52-week low of 5,119 touched in August last year.
Stocks in his portfolio such as Titan, Lupin, Crisil, Rallis India, Aurobindo Pharma, Dewan Housing Finance Corporation, Geometric and Federal Bank have hit lifetime highs in the past one month.
Jhunjhunwala and his family hold equity shares amounting over Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) each in the above companies, according to latest shareholding data.
The combined net worth of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and his family is much higher than the market capitalisation of listed companies like -- Indian Hotels (Rs 7,041 crore or Rs 70.41 billion), Muthoot Finance (Rs 7,028 crore or Rs 70.28 billion), Unitech (Rs 6,837 crore or Rs 68.37 billion), Suzlon Energy (Rs 6,254 crore Rs 62.54 billion) and Dish TV India (Rs 6,171 crore or Rs 61.71 billion).
During the recently concluded quarter, Jhunjhunwala added Multi Commodity Exchange of India, Federal Bank, Edelweiss Financial Services, Prakash Industries, Polaris Financial Technology, Orient Cement and McNally Bharat Engineering Company in his portfolio.
He picked up 1.45 per cent stake in MCX in the June quarter through open market purchases. He bought an additional one million shares or 1.96 per cent stake of MCX at Rs 664 on the NSE.
However, he cut his stake in Titan Company, Lupin, Crisil, Karur Vysya Bank and A2Z Maintenance Engineering Services.
The holdings do not reflect his holdings in companies where his stake is less than 1%.
Nor does it reflect his holdings in other assets-he is said to have picked up Mumbai properties worth well over a hundred crores.
He is also said to be the owner of a number of horses, according to news reports.
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