Avenue Supermarket gains 5% upper circuit amid equity rout
Supermarket Billionaire’s Wealth Surges Amid India Lockdown. The Indian tycoon whose net worth surged the most among peers as the deadly coronavirus roils markets worldwide can thank nation’s hoarders with millions scrambling to stock up on staples amid the world’s biggest isolation effort.
The net worth of Radhakishan Damani, who controls Avenue Supermarts Ltd., has surged almost 11% this year to $10.7 billion, singling him out as the billionaire with most gains among the 12 richest Indians. Shares of Avenue Supermarts, which contribute nearly all of the wealth to Damani’s net worth, have advanced 24% this year. Damani, who was raised in a one-room apartment in a Mumbai tenement block, has seen his wealth swell at a time when a stocks rout has shaved more than a quarter off the net worth of his billionaire compatriots Mukesh Ambani and Uday Kotak on fears that the pandemic will gut economic growth. Damani’s
supermarket chain, known for its thrifty cost structure, gained from panic buying of household essentials after India decided to place its 1.3 billion people under a three-week lockdown last month - Bloomberg.
