Billionaire dubbed India's Warren Buffett dies at 62

MUMBAI • India's best-known stock investor, Mr Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, dubbed the country's Warren Buffett, died yesterday, prompting an outpouring of tributes for a self-made billionaire whose fortunes rose with the country's economy.

Mr Jhunjhunwala died at the age of 62, a week after the launch of his budget airline, Akasa Air. He had looked and sounded frail while promoting the carrier.

The cause of his death was not immediately known.

He is survived by his wife, whom he used to call his only client, and three children.

He leaves stakes in around three dozen Indian companies and a legacy of quoting one-liners like "The trend is your friend" and "The only rule I have is there are no rules".

"All I've known is trading and investing. I don't want to do anything else in life," he told Reuters 10 years ago. "I'll call it quits the day I die."

Last Monday, he told CNBC-TV18 that India's economy, Asia's third biggest, was "entering a golden age", expressing the hope that "my fellow Indians are as optimistic as I am".

Mr Jhunjhunwala was a big public supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who lauded him yesterday as "indomitable, full of life, witty and insightful".

Mr Jhunjhunwala's communication skills helped small investors understand the stock market, said businessmen and bankers in India's financial capital Mumbai who had interacted with him for over 30 years. His insights into the economy and companies made him a TV celebrity.

Born in Rajasthan state and trained in chartered accountancy, Mr Jhunjhunwala started dabbling in stocks as a teenager and went on to manage a stock trading firm, Rare Enterprises. His net worth was about US$6 billion (S$8.2 billion), according to Forbes.

He made his first big profit by buying 5,000 shares in Tata Tea with borrowed money, confident the markets had underestimated the potential of a company looking to grow at a time of rising yield production. He trebled his money within months.

Better, bigger investments followed, including a leveraged bet in the late 1980s on iron ore exporter Sesa Goa. Mr Jhunjhunwala bought the stock at 60 to 65 rupees and sold at 2,200 rupees.

His firm's investments include many Tata Group companies, such as Tata Motors, watchmaker Titan, Tata Communications and Indian Hotels Co, which runs the Taj hotels. Other investments include Indiabulls Housing Finance and Star Health Insurance.

REUTERS