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    Rakesh Jhunjhunwala was about possibility that one can start with Rs 5,000 and make Rs 50,000 crore: Madhu Kela

    Synopsis

    “Jhunjhunwala showed that you can make money in the market with integrity, you do not have to do any manipulation, you do not have to do anything. The third thing he has shown was that the more you share, the more you prosper. Fourth, he said that relationships you make are very important.”

    Madhu Kela2-1200ETMarkets.com
    :It is unfair to compare him to anyone in the world. There are people and there are investors in the world who might be better than him and there are people who are definitely worse than him and there are people in the world who have made much more money than him but there was only and only and only one Rakesh Jhunjhunwala," says market veteran Madhu Kela.


    This is a difficult patch in your life.
    Yes, indeed it has been quite tough.

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    I would like to extend our condolences. You also lost your mother about a month ago.
    Yes more than a month ago I lost my mother and then I actually lost my master Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. He was a true master to me. Mentor and a friend is too mild a word. He was someone who was truly responsible for my grooming even in the very early days and selflessly continued to contribute to my professional and personal development in the last 20-22 years of me knowing him so well. There are numerous people who will come in the stock market and in life, but I can tell you there will be none like him.

    Why do you say that?
    Our business is very competitive. Nobody wants to share even an idea. What RJ was different. It is said sharing a fish is one thing but teaching someone how to fish is at a different level altogether. He did exactly that. He shared his deepest trade secrets with people like me wherein he will actually explain that this is how you need to think, this is how you need to evaluate a company and that is why I said that he was the master.

    There will never be a personality like him. I have not come across anyone who is so large-hearted. That is another point. One thing is someone is teaching and someone like me I have even observed and learnt a lot. Everything need not be taught. Once you are in the company of someone like Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, you learn by seeing his deeds.

    What touched me the most during all these years was that he knew so many people. He knew many politicians. We will tell him Bhaiya please check this out and he would say let it be; it will happen when it will happen.

    He never liked to misuse the money which he made, the life which he lived. The money which he made in a country like India where people are so shy of admitting their success, people are so shy of admitting how much money they have, his portfolio was like bhav copy right.

    So as a real tribute will Madhu Kela also start sharing a lot now?
    A real tribute would be if we continue to extend that helping hand to people like what he did to us.

    Training and sharing.
    Training, sharing, mentoring, holding hands. For me, it was much, much more. The whole point is that everyone knows how to analyse the balance sheet, but he taught how to analyse cash flows etc. etc. but teaching intrinsically about integrity, about how you should take risk, when you should take money, how you should take a large bet in your life, when do you completely avoid markets, when do you go completely in.

    Recently, when Covid broke out, I called him. Nifty was at 7,500 or 7,600 the day the lockdown was announced. I asked kya lagta hai bhaiya (how does it look, brother)? He said, dur rehne ka (Keep away). Maybe two months later Nifty would have been 9,000 and in his own typical language he said bangdi bech ke laga de (Sell your jewels and out it in the market). I asked him, you told me to keep out at 7,500 and at 9,000 asking me to buy? His words were: “Bawa ji ko bhi nahi malum tha do-teen mahine ke andar Covid ka kya hone wala hai. Par aaj mujhe malum hai ki yeh koi lamba chauda virus nahi hai" (Nobody knew what is going to happen to Covid in 2-3 months. But now I know it is not life threatening or community threatening). Life threatening it was there but he was clear that it is anyway it is a virus.

    He used to call it just a flu.
    I think he took one of his biggest bets of life during Covid. How many people will do this?

    He came on our show and he said that I am 60 plus, but I feel like a kid in a candy store and I have taken the biggest leverage bet of my life. I would meet him every time and he would come back not knowing more about markets but more about life attitude, approach.
    And that is what in my view made him the greatest investor he was. His biggest asset was his relationships. Woh ek baar jisko milte they na usko apna deewana bana dete they (Whoever met him, became his fan).

    When did you meet him first?
    I met him in 1998.

    And how did you both meet?
    I was working in Peregrine Securities and I had a block to sell – 5% equity in all the Vijay Mallya Group companies and it was costing some Rs 15 crore. Peregrine was in trouble and we were stuck. So someone told me the only guy who can really buy this is Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and I did not know him at all. He used to sit in his Fort Office and I was a salesman.

    This is a world, the office outside the stock exchange.
    I went in straight without any appointment and sat before him. Honestly speaking, I knew nothing about investing. I had prepared the spiel that the liquor business is going to grow very big and I am giving 5% in all the companies for on;y Rs 15 crore. He asked me where have I come from? I said I work in Peregrine, one of the largest broking houses. I am the chief dealer there. He made me sit and he said okay, deal closed.

    Within a minute?
    Within 30 minutes. He said the deal is closed but you have to give me the share first and then I will give you the money. I said I can’t do that, but you have to trust me. So he trusted me and after that I did a lot of very good transactions for him including sourcing a big block of CRISIL for him etc. etc. as long as I was on the broking side.

    But again I have no hesitation in saying that the stock market for me from 1991 till maybe 2000-2001 was only the means of making money. I had no concept of wealth creation. I had already spent 10 years in the stock markets. I came in 1991 and maybe I had learnt 10-20% but we never understood the concept of cheap shares.

    This is before Reliance?
    Before Reliance. We knew the 3 PE, 4PE shares we bought were cheap but cheap was only getting cheaper. It was Rakesh Jhunjhunwala who was instrumental in my career and that of so many other people. You know what I told him in my fourth or fifth meeting? I told him that in the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, I have a friend who is a good fund manager, if you want to sell me any good stock idea, you can do that. He said: “Ladki khoobsurat hoyegi na behane wala apne aap aajaega, mereko meri ladki ko leke ghumne ka nahi hai. Tu salesman hai, tera kaam hai tu kar, but mera koi interest nahi hai ki mera koi bhi share mein market karun ya koi fund manager ko dilwaun" (If the girl is beautiful, suitors come on their own. I don’t have to go around selling my idea. You are a salesman, do your work, I don’t need any fund manager.).

    Even when I was working in Reliance, he never called to say you have to take this share because he never believed in that. He believed that markets are larger than companies, markets are larger than individuals.

    When people say he is India’s Warren Buffett, I sincerely feel that he is much larger than Warren Buffett. Mathematically, Buffett is a great investor but he did have an advantage of the Berkshire free float? Here comes Rakesh Jhunjhunwala who has mathematically multiplied wealth even if it is mathematically impossible?
    According to me it is unfair to compare him to anyone in the world. There are people and there are investors in the world who might be better than him and there are people who are definitely worse than him and there are people in the world who have made much more money than him but there was only and only and only one Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.

    Smart trader and a great investor.
    And a phenomenal human being. This combination in a phenomenal human being, that phenomenal human being captures everything in it.

    Did you ever have disagreements with him?
    A lot of times. A lot of times.

    Who would win the final?
    No, no, he gave us the courage to disagree. That is what he taught us. You have to be opinionated. If you carry my opinion, you will not grow up. We disagreed vehemently on Divi’s Lab. At that time, he was invested in Matrix. Divi’s became larger than Matrix. He said Matrix will grow 100% and actually Matrix did very well in that timeframe before it got acquired. So we disagreed a lot of times but I must say sometimes when I look back what he told me was pearls of wisdom. I disagreed with him, a lot of times I still took a bet on some management which turned out to be not so good.

    I wish I had listened to him and not disagreed for the sake of it. If you had a point of view, he always listened. Ultimately he will have his own way but still allow you to make your point.

    If I look at the history of the Indian stock market, in the 1990s, 2000s there were ups and downs and periodically there was massive market manipulation. Here was a guy who created wealth. He was very open about his book, invited others, gave Indians and retail investors the confidence to trust in the Indian capital market. He made stock broking and investing a respectable business?
    And so respectable that even the prime minister himself is tweeting now that he is dead; the home minister is tweeting, the finance minister is tweeting. Enough people have spoken about Rakesh Jhunjhunwala as an investor, I am here to talk more about Rakesh Jhunjhunwala as a person because in a way, I had the privilege of having numerous meetings with him. He was the embodiment of possibility. He truly inspired us that someone can start with Rs 5,000 and make Rs 50,000 crore.

    What he has achieved, can that be achieved by anybody else?
    I do not know but at least he has shown that it is possible. The second thing is he showed you can do it with integrity, you do not have to do any manipulation, you do not have to do anything. The third thing he has shown was that the more you share, the more you prosper. Fourth, he said that relationships you make are very important. We did not have a blood relationship but I would say my relationship with him was larger than any blood relation. I think 20 other of my friends can claim the same.

    What would be your tribute to him?
    My tribute to him will be two things; one whatever are the gaps in me as a human or me as an investor I would like to fill that. It is a process, it is not a destination.

    When we did a joint interview, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala said that this decade belongs to India. It looks like things are falling into place now.
    Yes, beautifully so. And again I had a meeting with him 10 days back in Breach Candy Hospital on his birthday. That hospital room was converted into a party room. The food came from four places and he was staying in the hospital suite. He was in a terrific mood. He said: Aisa teji lagta hai Hindustan mein cash mat rakhna (this is not the time to keep cash).



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    (What's moving Sensex and Nifty Track latest market news, stock tips and expert advice, on ETMarkets. Also, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stocks alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .)

    Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today.

    Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price

    ...more
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