D-Mart's debut catapults Radhakishan Damani into top 20 billionaires list

Damani pipped Anil Agarwal, Anil Ambani and Rahul Bajaj to become the 17th richest Indian on the back of first day performance of Avenue Supermarts on bourses, an analysis by Bloomberg and The Economic Times shows. Avenue Supermarts owns D-Mart, one of India's most profitable retail chains.

ALSO READ: D-Mart IPO: A sneak peek into financials of its competitors

The Avenue Supermarts' stock closed on Tuesday with a market value of Rs 39,988 crore, making it the 65th most valuable Indian firm ahead of Britannia Industries, Marico and Bank of Baroda.

Damani popularly known as the guru of 'Big Bull' Rakesh Jhunjhunwala spent over two decades in the stock market and earned huge returns betting on the elementary aspects of businesses of little known companies over the long term.

Damani's best investments include Gillette, VST Industries, Crisil and 3M India. He also invested in GE Capital Transportation Industries, Samtel, Schlafhorst Eng (I), Somany Ceramics and Jay Shree Tea, among others.

Damani is fondly called "Mr White and White" due to his penchant for wearing white shirt and white trousers.

Damani, 61, has a net worth of $2.3 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Damani was ranked 98th in the Forbes India Rich List 2015 with a net worth of $1.15 billion.

D-Mart is among the most profitable food and grocery retail chains in India. The firm clocked a profit of Rs 300.21 crore in fiscal 2016 on a revenue of nearly Rs 8,600 crore.

Its profit after tax (PAT) rose 50 per cent year-on-year. Since FY 12, the firm has logged 100 per cent rise in its revenue every two to three years. According to Technopak, in fiscal 2016, D-Mart was the largest and the most profitable F&G retailer in India. Its total store count rose from 75 in fiscal 2014 to 110 in fiscal 2016.

For the year ended March 31, 2016, stores in Maharashtra and Gujarat together contributed 81.40% to its total revenue. Furthermore, 18 out of 21 distribution centres are located in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

D-Mart follows everyday low price/everyday low cost (EDLP/EDLC) strategy similar to global retailer Walmart and does not conduct discount festivals to raise its sales.

The firm owns real estate for majority of its stores. D-Mart says that owning the real estate for majority of our stores helps it control fixed costs per store and helps in execution of EDLP/EDLC strategy effectively which it continously plans to implement in the future.

ALSO READ: D-Mart IPO: Avenue Supermarts lists at 100% premium to issue price