File image of investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala (Reuters)
In an interview with Moneycontrol Rakesh Jhunjhunwala shared his future investment plans and the results of past investments. The stock market bull told us that he is “in the process of negotiating two-to-three deals at the moment”.
Jhunjhunwala said that more private investments – at least around two – will be done in the next six months. Adding that among these is an animal healthcare business that is “a fairly large deal of nearly $ 100 million”, for which he has no limited partners – “it is all my money.”
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On his past investments, Jhunjhunwala stated that at least four of his large investments will be listed over the next 12-18 months, and pointed out that Nazara Technologies – also among his investments, was recently listed.
In fact, the Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed mobile gaming company had a stellar debut as the share opened with a massive 80.74 percent premium on March 30.
Nazara Technologies is a leading India-based diversified gaming and sports media platform with a big presence in the domestic market and across emerging and developed markets, offering interactive gaming, eSports and gamified early learning ecosystems.
It owns some of the most recognisable IP, including WCC and CarromClash in mobile games, Kiddopia in gamified early learning, Nodwin and Sportskeeda in eSports and eSports media, and Halaplay Technologies and Qunami in skill-based, fantasy and trivia games. It also has market-first positions in India across sports simulation and eSports.
On what he looks for while investing, Jhunjhunwala said: “As a property comes (up for investment), there’s just me and my partners Rupal and Amit in a private room, we don’t have a third person. We are already managing budget in large investments so it is quite a taxing job. But I want to make large investments or investments with good potential.”
Speaking on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the planned initial public offering (IPO) of his Star Health Insurance business, Jhunjhunwala said he “cannot speak much” due to regulatory reasons.
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“I cannot speak much about Star… I have four large ones (investments) – in Star, Metro, Conquered Biotech in Gujarat and Noresolutions. Whatever you conclude, for regulatory reasons, I just made an investment,” he added.
Sources had told Moneycontrol in January that the Jhunjhunwala backed Chennai-based Star Health Insurance is planning its D-Street debut in 2021.
The company is India’s first and largest private standalone health insurance providers.
Star Health, the brainchild of V Jagannathan (who earlier headed United India Insurance) was founded in 2006 and provides health insurance, overseas mediclaim and personal accident policies. As of October 2020, the firm, a market leader in the standalone health insurance segment, had a 52 percent market share. Its focus area is retail health insurance, where it commands a market share of 30 percent. It is now the country’s fourth-largest private insurer in the non-life space with a market share of 4.36 percent as of August 2020 and a network of more than 9,500 hospitals.
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Watch the video for full interview here
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