Top 20 Investors in India Share Their Philosophy
From Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, who spotted Titan's potential early on, to Raamdeo Agrawal, who bet on Hero Honda in the '80s, successful Indian investors believe in long-term bets
Rule no 1: never lose money; rule No 2: Don’t forget rule No 1.” There is no better way to set the tone for this ‘investor-pedia’ than by recalling this succinct advice from the mightiest investor of them all—Warren Buffett. You could respond with: Easier said than done. And he would nod sympathetically. The times, after all, have been turbulent. And wisdom has been pouring in from all quarters—every television set, newspaper, and even your neighbourhood uncle.
Instead, we bring you the voices that actually matter—some of which have shaped investing strategies over the last few decades. The country’s 20 most influential investors comprise Forbes India’s inaugural Wealth Wizards package. They have seen the markets through roller coaster rides and survived to tell the tale. We got them to share their respective investing philosophies; a common theme that emerged was: “Invest in equities for the long term and you will eventually make money.”
We picked fund managers, individual investors and academicians who are all trailblazers in their own right. Take Chandrakant Sampat: The man who made money by investing in FMCG way back in the ’50s. Bharat Shah and Samir Arora garnered huge fan followings amongst investors during the dotcom boom of the ’90s. The infrastructure wave belonged to Sunil Singhania who refused new money for Reliance Growth Fund in 2006 because he thought the market had heated up. Then there is Motilal Oswal’s Raamdeo Agrawal who picked Hero Honda very early. Professor Aswath Damodaran, who teaches corporate finance and valuation at the Stern School of Business in New York University, has worked in the US markets since he moved out of India in 1979. However, his teachings are a byword for fund managers across the world.
Our Wealth Wizards are not infallible either. They admit to failures even as they take pride in their successes. They are also optimists who have a long-term faith in equity investing. Many have followed the Buffett style of value investing but, at the same time, have created rules of their own —and these are as significant a checklist on investing approaches as you can get.
Like any other skill, investing should be learnt from the best. However, it is also a personal thing, they say. Carve out your own rules and follow them strictly. And that, perhaps, is the biggest lesson from this exercise.