Big Bull Jhunjhunwala’s favourite CEOs

RJ's favourite business leaders are from the houses of Tata and Godrej

Moneycontrol revisits the investing philosophy of late Rakesh Jhunjhunwala on his first death anniversary

Bhasker Bhat, MD of Titan Industries and Adi Godrej, Chairman of the Godrej Group were Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s favourite Indian CEOs. These two picks were shared by the market maestro in an interview with CNBC TV18 held in 2010.

Jhunjhunwala admired the returns that Titan has delivered under the powerful leadership of Bhasker Bhat. He considered Titan to be his favourite stock pick. “I like Titan because I wear it on my hand,” he said. However, beyond this emotional attachment, Jhunjhunwala highlighted the phenomenal performance of the stock over the years and the strong management that runs the company.

The Titan stock has delivered a 85,660.68 percent return over the past 20 years.

Speaking of Adi Godrej, Jhunjhunwala commended the transparency and sharing-with-people attitude of the then Godrej Chairman. He also appreciated the return on capital derived by Godrej under his leadership back in the early 2000s. “I don’t own his stocks but that doesn’t mean I don’t respect him. He has done exceedingly well. Unfortunately instead of Godrej Industries or Godrej Consumer, I bought Geometry,” said Jhunjhunwala.

The Godrej Industries stock has delivered a 18,945.98 percent return over the past 20 years and the Godrej Consumer Products stock has delivered a 12,963.22 percent return over the past 20 years.

Coming from a family of Income Tax officers and chartered accounts, Jhunjhunwala has always been appreciative of passion, hard work, and strong managerial and leadership skills.