Motilal Oswal explains why stock market investing is about trust, not fear

Lunch with BS: Motilal Oswal MD & CEO, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Motilal Oswal, cofounder and managing director of the eponymous financial services firm, arrives promptly at the decided time of 1:30 pm at Sette Mara, a West Asian restaurant on the ninth floor of The St Regis Mumbai.

 

The luxury hotel, just a mile away from the sleek Motilal Oswal Tower in Lower Parel, offers a stunning view of Mumbai’s skyline, with Mukesh Ambani’s 27-storey residence, Antilia, standing prominently in the distance.

 

His team has cautioned us that Oswal, who was born to a Jain family, is particular about food. However, the man who greets us with a warm smile is anything but fussy. “I’ll eat anything you order,” he says with a chuckle. Sette Mara is temporarily sharing its space with The Sahib Room, a modern Indian restaurant under renovation, and is buzzing with diners. Two menus land on the table — Lebanese and Indian. Given the limited vegetarian options on the Lebanese one, we opt for Indian cuisine, a decision met with unanimous approval. 

As we settle in, with Oswal’s back to the city’s toniest towers, he shares a cultural insight: “In Marwari tradition, we often have dessert first.” His eyes light up at the mention of sweets, though he’s content to let us choose the starters. 

We order Rampuri paneer tikka and dahi ke kebab. Their aromas soon blend with the restaurant’s warm ambiance. For dessert, we encourage him to take charge. He  agrees with a grin, his friendly demeanour belying his stature. A prominent figure in the world of finance, he is as approa-chable as the menu he so casually entrusts us with.

 

As the starters arrive, the 63-year-old chartered accountant leans into a topic close to his heart: philanthropy. 

In 2023, he and cofounder Raamdeo Agrawal pledged 10 per cent of the company’s equity — valued at almost ₹5,000 crore today — for social causes, with education, healthcare, and rural upliftment identified as primary focus areas. With ₹800 crore already deployed — including over ₹100 crore each to the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and Indian School of Business, Hyderabad — Oswal’s vision is ambitious. He reveals plans for a 300-bed charitable hospital in Mumbai’s Goregaon suburb, a hope for the city’s poorest, offering care free of charge. 

Oswal’s days, he confides, now revolve around the foundation. He and Agrawal have handed the reins of their business to professional CEOs, allowing him to focus on impact. “It’s where my time goes,” he says, his voice steady with purpose.

 

As the starters are served, Oswal nudges the larger portions toward us. “I’m not a big eater,” he says. “One chapati a day; and I’ve skipped dinner for years.” A self-proclaimed creature of habit, he prefers the tangy chaos of street-style bhelpuri or chaat over culinary adventures. The simplicity feels at odds with his billionaire status, sparking our curiosity. 

Born in a small village in Rajasthan, Oswal chose to become a chartered accountant rather than join his family’s grain trading business, becoming the first person from the family to go to college. He was living in a Mumbai hostel when he met Raamdeo Agrawal, who was also studying to be a CA in the same hostel. A growing friendship and a shared passion for the stock market led them to launch an accounting firm and later became sub-brokers at the Bombay Stock Exchange (now BSE). 

In 1987, when they started their company, the name “Motilal Oswal”, which was the name of the badge issued to them as sub-brokers, stuck. 

The beginnings were humble. Besides the two promoters — with Oswal handling customer support, operations, and expansion, and Agrawal focusing on finance and research — a peon is all they had in the name of staff. Today, Motilal Oswal has expanded to cover equity trading, investment banking, mutual funds, asset management, and home finance.

 

Today, Oswal’s net worth is $2.1 billion, according to Forbes. 

“What’s it like being a billionaire in Mumbai?” we ask, half-expecting tales of yachts or private choppers. Oswal’s eyes twinkle as he recalls his early days riding local trains from the city’s distant suburbs to the Bombay Stock Exchange’s frenetic trading floor, and walking to a payphone located some 1.5 km from the exchange to take orders from clients. 

“You’re asking the wrong person,” he laughs. “I’m middle-class at heart. No fancy watches. I drive Tatas or Mahindras.” We press further: “What’s the last extravagant thing you bought?” He pauses, then grins. “Maybe my new house on Peddar Road. Mumbai’s real estate prices are insane.” 

As the plates of starters vanish, a pivotal moment arrives: the main course. Sated but not stuffed, we lean toward a simple subz dum biryani. Oswal senses we might still be hungry. “Let’s add dal, kadai subz, and butter kulcha,” he insists. “We Marwaris love our ghee,” he declares, sealing the order with a nod.

 

The table feels abundant. 

The conversation shifts to the heart of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd’s (MOFSL’s) business. Asked about disruptors like Zerodha and Groww, Oswal is unfazed. “They’re making investing popular, lifting the whole ecosystem,” he says. 

MOFSL, a traditional broker, isn’t lagging — over 70 per cent of its orders now flow through mobile phones, a statistic he shares with quiet pride. On contemporaries, he’s candid: “We started in 1987. Most from that era are gone or haven’t scaled. We only talk about the winners.”

 

What’s MOFSL’s secret? “Trust,” Oswal says simply. “Stock market investing is all about trust.” It’s a principle woven into the firm’s DNA, with the founders’ personal investments, too, all channelled through MOFSL’s platforms. 

But isn’t he rattled by market crashes? “We’ve weathered four big ones — Harshad Mehta in ’92, the dotcom bust, the 2008 financial crisis, and Covid. Each time, our holdings dropped over 30 per cent. I’m not worried. Markets always bounce back,” he says, calm as a seasoned sailor.

 

As the biryani, dal, and kulchas arrive, Oswal ensures we’re well-served, topping our plates like a long-time friend. The ease is infectious. We pivot to MOFSL’s workplace culture, a point of pride for Oswal. “We’ve been named the best place to work multiple times,” he says. 

About 15 per cent of the company’s equity rests with employees. He also talks about the leadership training centre coming up on Mumbai’s outskirts. “Employee growth is everything,” he says. He reels off names like Nirmal Jain (IIFL Group’s founder and chairman), Nitin Rakesh (Mphasis CEO), and (seasoned investor) Madhusudan Kela — industry titans who cut their teeth at MOFSL. “We’re an incubator,” he beams. “Their success is our pride.” 

No journey is flawless, though. Oswal admits to missteps, like venturing into lending. “Recovery is the key aspect of the business,” he says, wincing at the memory. 

Lesson learned, MOFSL is doubling down on its core: equity markets. “We’ve barely scratched the surface,” he says, the fire of ambition still burning bright. “We’re planning on how we can scale up 10x-15x from current levels.”

 

As we wait for dessert, the conversation turns to a delicate question: “How have you and Raamdeo Agrawal avoided fallouts all these years?” Oswal’s laughter fills the now deserted restaurant. “It’s a miracle, isn’t it? These days, even marriages don’t last this long.” 

He brushes off breakup rumours as media fiction, admitting to “healthy differences” that have only strengthened their bond. Now, their sons have joined MOFSL, learning the ropes, but the promoters aren’t ready to step back just yet. “We’ll be around another 10-12 years, hopefully,” he says. 

The main course has left us pleasantly full, but we save room for sweets, eager to see Oswal’s Marwari love for desserts in action. He asks the server for gulab jamun, only to learn the menu offers fewer than half a dozen options, thereby limiting his sweet-tooth prowess. We settle for badam malai ki phirni, a creamy finale to a meal that has lasted over an hour. 

“This is the most I’ve eaten in ages,” Oswal says, his plate nearly clean. But he is not satiated — not when it comes to MOFSL’s future. With the zeal of a startup founder, he’s already planning the firm’s next leap. On that note, we call it a day, turning away from Mumbai’s skyline that is visible beyond the windows. 

As he unassumingly pulls off in his Mahindra SUV from the hotel porch, Oswal leaves an impression: a humble billionaire driven by trust looking to craft a lasting legacy.