Kalpraj Dharamshi
The fifth-floor office of Kalpraj Dharamshi in central Mumbai reminds one of the den of Gordon Gekko, the protagonist in the Hollywood movie Wall Street. The room, not large, has soft lighting and is filled with an L-shaped work bureau facing three dealer tables, an array of computer monitors (each displaying charts, excel sheets and portfolio listings), two bronze bull figurines, telephones, piles of neatly arranged folders and an elliptical trainer at the far-end. It is from here Kalpraj Dharamshi punches in his winning trades.
Kalpraj Dharamshi (KD to his friends) is reclusive unlike his more famous friends Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and Ramesh Damani. Dharamshi prefers to be like his mentor Radhakishan Damani - silent in his approach and dead accurate while making investments.
Dharamshi and his friends were among the first to find value in niche businesses. Stocks like Amara Raja Batteries and Titan have yielded decent portfolio returns for this pack of value-hunters. Dharamshi is also a big investor in Delta Corp, which runs offshore casinos in Goa.
After much persuasion, Dharamshi met ET in his office a few days ago. His only condition was: "No interview please." Why should I come out now? I've nothing to tell anyone," he dismissed our pleas for an interview in one brutal stroke. Nevertheless, Dharamshi played a gracious host for the next 90 minutes, discussing stocks, markets, market cycles and strategies. He entered the market in the late 80s as a stock dealer. A few years of internship with leading brokers, some experience calling out trades on the trading ring and friendship pacts with a handful of young promising investors, Dharamshi was ready to start his own broking venture.
A few years later, Dharamshi shut his broking business and turned a fulltime investor. His first big jolt as an investor came in 2001, when the markets went into a tailspin post the 9/11 attack. Dharamshi, at that time, was betting big on stocks — especially of IT companies. After lying low for a few months, Dharamshi cleaned up his portfolio for a fresh start.
The cornerstone of Dharamshi's investments is solid research. KD relies a lot on technical research, according to friends. He is also known to meet managements before making large core-portfolio investments. Dharamshi is also fortunate to have well-connected friends like Damani and Jhunjhunwala to guide him through tough times. "Friends are important in stock markets... you need sensible people to correct you when you are reading markets wrong.," Dharamshi is known to have told an old acquaintance.
Dharamshi hunts for quality companies with good growth prospects. He is not much of a "sector picker" as he believes there could be several well-managed companies in sectors facing temporary cyclical headwinds. He does not buy highly-leveraged companies and 'turnaround stories' either. Marksans Pharma, Elecon Engineering, TVS Motors and Natco Pharma have been some of Dharamshi's best investments in recent years. Besides investments in stocks, Dharamshi has a small portfolio of private equity investments, but these have not yielded very well for him, say market insiders. "KD is not a very interesting investor. He's more long term," says a Mumbai-based high-profile stock investor.
Winning stocks: Elecon Engineering, Natco Pharma, Delta Corp, SQS India, E-Serve (later merged with TCS), TVS Motors, Marksans Pharma.
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Hitesh Ramji Zaveri
Barring a few old-timers on Dalal Street, nobody knows Hitesh Ramji Zaveri that well. Zaveri has no clique or friends, a trait he shares with some of the most successful investors. Not many brokers have dealt with him, and barring a few spreadsheet enthusiasts, no one has seen the depth of this portfolio.
Zaveri holds more than 1 per cent in nearly 60 companies, mostly penny stocks with prices ranging between Rs 5 and Rs 15 a share. Shervani Industrial Syndicate, Mahasagar Travels, STEL Holdings, Shree Steel Wire Ropes, Belapur Industries and Farry Industries are among his top picks.
"These are mostly kabaddi stocks (scrap quality); don't know why he's holding so many such stocks in his portfolio," says a stock researcher.
"For all you know, Zaveri must have bought these shares at very low prices. Since he holds large chunks, any minute bounce in prices would bring in good gains," adds the researcher.
Zaveri could be a very influential shareholder in several of these companies, according to a Mumbai-based stock broker. This is evident from his predatory dealings in consumer durables company IFB, where Zaveri picked about 14.35 per cent in early-2000. The IFB management had then approached the Company Law Board (CLB) seeking protection against a hostile takeover bid by Zaveri.
The CLB ruling favoured IFB and forced Zaveri to exit the company, though he made a neat profit. In 2014, Zaveri thwarted DIC India's delisting plans by asking for a better share buyback price. Zaveri holds 2.72 per cent in DIC India.
"He must be a very dominant shareholder in companies where he has chunky holdings. Zaveri seems to have a lot of interest in 'special situations' like delisting, where he can force companies to pay better buyback prices," the broker adds.
A savvy Mumbai-based operator, who says he met Zaveri once socially, recalls: "He seems to be a well-informed investor... His investment style is more penny stock-focussed. He likes small MNC stocks as well."
Winning stocks: DIC India, IFB, Williamson Magor, AP Paper Mills, Tarai Foods, Uniply Industries.
Credit: - Shailesh Menon, ET Bureau.
