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Pieter Slegers — The best investor you've never heard of

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, "The Big Bull of India": ₹5,000 in 1985 to a $5.8bn fortune by 2022, three principles (India as a growth story · value plus growth · patience, then swing heavily), and three signature holdings — Tata Motors, Star Health and Titan.
2026-SEP-15 · Compounding Quality (Substack, paid post) · Pieter Slegers (Compounding Quality) · written post · read ↗ · transcript · actionable insights
One-line take: an investor profile in the same mould as "Who is Peter Lynch?" — biography, three principles, three case studies — and the archive's first look at an Indian investor and Indian stocks. The useful idea is the hybrid: a value buyer "at heart" who "didn't mind paying a fair price, or even a premium, for a wonderful company with excellent management," which the post re-labels "actually a Quality Investor." What it is not is a stock recommendation: no valuation, no price and no rating on any name, and none is in the portfolio. Four things to hold against it. (1) The headline return moves: "62% CAGR over 37 years" in the intro, "an estimated 65% per year" twice later ($100 → $5.8bn over 37 years works out to ~62%). (2) The numbers are net worth, not a portfolio record — a starting sum measured in rupees converted at 1985 rates, with derivatives trading along the way; the net-worth chart even runs to July 2023, after his August 2022 death. (3) Tata Motors no longer exists as described: "cars, vans, buses, trucks… and Jaguar Land Rover" is the pre-demerger company, now split into passenger vehicles + JLR (TMPV) and commercial vehicles (TMCV); the 2020 buy was into the combined entity. (4) A stray line — "Let's build a stock screener together" — sits in the biography, apparently left over from the 13 September screener post; the "₹3 ($0.034)" Titan cost also converts at today's rupee, not an early-2000s one.

1. Stocks & names mentioned

Stance reflects how each name is framed in this post. These are Jhunjhunwala's historical holdings used as case studies, so they are Neutral — except Titan, which the post also argues in the present tense ("Titan is a fantastic business… well positioned to benefit"), and is Positive. Indian listings use the NSE .NS row id. Research legend: STK Stock Analysis (no US listing, so no QT/SA). Written post with no timestamps — the At link opens the article.

TickerNameResearchViewWhat he saidAt
TITAN.NSTitan Company Ltd.STKPositiveCase study #1 — "Rakesh's most famous investment," a 700-bagger held 20+ years. Bought "in the early 2000s for about ₹3 ($0.034) each." "The biggest and most trusted shop in India for watches, jewelry, and glasses" (Titan, Tanishq, Fastrack), and argued as a business today: "a powerful brand, leading positions in its markets, and outstanding management backed by the Tata Group. As more Indians spend on lifestyle and fashion, Titan is well positioned to benefit." Slide: Tanishq alone sits in the ~₹50,000 cr gross-UCP band (FY25), CaratLane and Titan watches ₹1,000-5,000 cr. No valuation.read ↗
STARHEALTH.NSStar Health and Allied Insurance CompanySTKNeutralCase study #2 — a pre-IPO stake: "He invested $114 million. When [the] company went public, his shares were worth $859 million. That's a +650% return." The thesis was the market, not the company: rising healthcare costs, growing insurance awareness, a richer middle class. Fiscal.ai chart: revenue 15,951m (Mar '16) → 161,122m (Mar '25), a 29.3% CAGR, with a doubling in FY22. Cited as history; no view on the shares today.read ↗
TMPV.NSTata Motors (now Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, incl. JLR)STKNeutralCase study #3 — a crisis buy: "In 2020, he bought Tata Motors shares during the COVID-19 crash. As the stock rose over 5x, he made over $71.6 million." The bet was "the long-term growth of India's car industry and… the comeback of Tata Motors." Slide (FY25 consolidated): revenue ₹439.7K cr (+1.3%), EBITDA margin 13.1% (−100 bps), record PBT (bei) ₹34.3K cr, auto FCF ₹22.4K cr, wholesales −2.8%. The post describes the pre-demerger group; the row uses the successor that kept JLR. Cited as history; no view today.read ↗
TATACONSUM.NSTata Consumer Products (formerly Tata Tea)STKNeutral"One of his first big wins? Tata Tea. He bought shares at ₹43… and sold them at ₹500 just five years later." A one-line biographical mention (roughly 11.6x); Tata Tea is today's Tata Consumer Products. No view.read ↗

Checks against the post's own figures. (1) Return: 62% (intro) vs 65% (performance and conclusion); $100 → $5.8bn over 37 years is ~62.1% a year. (2) Star Health: $114m → $859m is +654%, consistent with "+650%". (3) Titan cost: ₹3 at the early-2000s rate (~₹45-48/$) is ~$0.06-0.07, not $0.034. (4) Charts: the "India's economy is expected to grow by more than 6%" line sits over a CII/MOSPI chart projecting 8% growth and GDP of $5.0trn (2026-27) → $8.1trn (2030-31); the "Source: BCG" chart is India's retail market ($250bn 2010 → $820-840bn 2023 → $2trn 2033F), not the patience principle it follows.

2. Talking points

Who he was

Principle 1 — India as a clear growth story

Principle 2 — Combine value and growth

Principle 3 — Be patient, then swing heavily

Performance

The three case studies

Close

3. In plain English

TITAN.NS — Titan Company Positive

Titan is India's best-known seller of jewellery, watches and glasses. Its biggest business by far is Tanishq, a jewellery chain Indian families trust for gold — in a country where gold jewellery is how many households save and celebrate weddings, trust in the purity of the metal is worth a lot. It also owns Titan and Fastrack watches and the Titan Eye+ optical chain, and is part of the Tata group.

Jhunjhunwala bought it for about ₹3 a share and held it for over 20 years, until it had multiplied roughly 700 times — the single stock that made his name. The post's point is that one such holding is enough, and it still calls Titan "a fantastic business" set to benefit as Indians spend more on lifestyle. It gives no price or valuation, so this is admiration, not a buy call.

STARHEALTH.NS — Star Health and Allied Insurance Neutral

Star Health sells health-insurance policies in India to individuals, families and employers. Few Indians have health cover, so the market has lots of room to grow as medical bills rise and incomes climb.

Jhunjhunwala invested $114 million before the company listed on the stock market, and his stake was worth $859 million when it did — about 7.5 times his money. The post uses it to show his habit of buying into a whole growing market early. It says nothing about whether the shares are worth buying now.

TMPV.NS — Tata Motors Neutral

Tata Motors was India's big carmaker and truckmaker, and it also owns Jaguar Land Rover in Britain. Since late 2025 it has been split in two: the cars-plus-JLR company (which this row tracks) and a separate trucks-and-buses company.

Jhunjhunwala bought it during the COVID crash in 2020, when car stocks were at their most hated, betting on both India's car market and a turnaround at the company; the shares rose more than fivefold and he made over $71 million. It illustrates his "swing heavily when the chance comes" rule. The post does not note that car-making is capital-hungry and cyclical — the opposite of the low-capital-intensity businesses the newsletter usually favours — so the lesson here is the timing of the purchase, not the quality of the business.


Summary derived from the archived Compounding Quality post (text and transcribed charts and slides in transcript.txt) for personal study. Not investment advice. © Compounding Quality / Pieter Slegers for source material.