Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s portfolio: Titan Company zoomed 8,100% since big bull’s entry

Big Bull Rakesh Jhunjhunwala's favourite stock Titan Company played a major role in making him a crorepati. Jhunjhunwala first bought shares of Titan in 2002-2003 at a price of Rs 30-32. Since then, he had been buying and selling Titan shares.  

Jhunjhunwala, who is also called India's Warren Buffett owned Titan stocks worth Rs 11,086.9 crore with a stake of 5.10 per cent or 4,48,50,970 shares in the last quarter.  

Titan Company comprises almost one third (in value) of his portfolio of 32 stocks. His total portfolio was worth over Rs 31,900 crore for the quarter ended June, according to data from Trendlyne.  

The Titan company stock has zoomed over 82 times or 8,139 per cent since Jhunjhunwala bought the stock for the first time.  

Also Read: Rakesh Jhunjhunwala: India’s Warren Buffett held these stocks for more than 10 yrs

The stock, which stood at Rs 30 to Rs 32 level when Jhunjhunwala bought it 20 years ago, closed at Rs 2,471.95 on August 12, 2022 on BSE.  

During this period, Jhunjhunwala kept on trimming and adding to his stake according to the periodic review he undertook.   

Interestingly, the big bull invested in Titan Company stock at a time when the firm was not doing well on the financial front.  

Also Read: From Rs 5,000 to over $5 bn: How Rakesh Jhunjhunwala became a rockstar investor

In FY 2001-2002, net profit fell 44.25 per cent from Rs 23.48 crore to Rs 13.09 crore.  In FY 2002-2003, net profit further slipped 55.25 per cent to Rs 6.21 crore from Rs 13.09 crore in the previous comparable period.

However, jewellery business grew 29 per cent in 2002-2003 to Rs 345 crore which might have prompted Jhunjhunwala to believe in the company's growth story at a time of poor financial performance.  

The company's Times Products business clocked a degrowth of 1 per cent at Rs 453 crore in 2002-2003. Time Products Division, comprised watches and clocks. Watches were sold under the brand names Titan and Sonata.  

The degrowth occurred due to the partial lockout at Hosur, which significantly affected production and availability of watches during the peak selling season of January-March 2003, the company said.  

"Despite improving the supplies from our other facilities, the shortfall in production of 0.5 million watches could not be made up. This affected the mix of stocks held and depleted the stock levels in the Company and the trade," it added.  

The then Titan MD Bhaskar Bhat in a television interview had said that Rakesh understood the business of the company along with opportunities and risks very well.  

He said every time JhunJhunwala made a presentation, the management felt very inspired.

During the earnings conference of Titan Industries for the June 2022 quarter, the big bull inquired about Fastrack's growth outlook with the management.   

Jhunjhunwala asked about the growth of Fastrack, as Titan had also introduced handbags recently.  

Replying to the query, Suparna Mitra, CEO, Watches & Wearables Division, Titan said the Fastrack watches segment grew at the rate of 120 per cent in the quarter in comparison with June quarter of the last fiscal.

The luxury goods firm reported a multi-fold rise in net profit in Q1 of the current fiscal. Titan Company reported a consolidated profit of Rs 785 crore in the last quarter mainly on low-base effect.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 20 crore in the year-ago period, which witnessed a hit from the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. Sequentially, Titan's net profit rose 54 per cent from Rs 510 crore in the previous quarter (Q4FY22).