Wealth

R253 million payday for billionaire Johann Rupert

Staff Writer

 ·23 Sep 2025

Billionaire Johann Rupert’s main South African investment firm, Remgro, has reported a significant jump in earnings for the year ended June 2025.

This has yielded not only a hefty dividend for shareholders, but the group also declared a special dividend, where Rupert scores big.

Remgro houses the South African assets of the Rupert empire, with its history dating back to Anton Rupert’s company, Rembrandt.

South Africa’s richest man is the chairman of the company and owns close to 50% of its shares, including all of the company’s B shares. 

Rupert has 7,553,865 ordinary shares in the company through a controlled associate and controls 39,056,987 B-shares through Rupert Beleggings Proprietary Limited.

The group declared a gross dividend per share for the year ended 30 June 2025 of 344 cents, compared to 264 cents for the year ended 30 June 2024.

In addition to the final dividend, the group also declared a special dividend of 200 cents per share out of income reserves.

The special dividend relates to the disposal of Remgro’s investment in British American Tobacco earlier in the year.

The group said the disinvestment “underscores our commitment to reducing non-core exposures and deliberate capital allocation.”

Notably, the dividend payouts apply to both ordinary and B-shares.

Given Rupert’s total combined shareholding of 46 million shares, the total dividend payout yields a R253 million payday for the billionaire this year.

It should be noted that the dividends are subject to a 20% dividend withholding tax, which means that Rupert’s payout is likely closer to R196 million, pending any tax agreements.

While Rupert is chairman of the group, he does not receive a salary or remuneration. Remgro’s non-executive directors typically receive around R640,000 a year in emoluments.

The billionaire also scores from his other major investment firms, including the luxury goods holding company, Richemont, and Reinet.

Financial performance

For the year under review, Remgro’s headline earnings increased by 38.6% from R5.65 billion to R7.83 billion.

Headline earnings per share (HEPS) increased by 38.4% from R10.18 to R14.09.

The increase in headline earnings was driven by improved operational performances from the majority of the group’s investee companies.

This includes increased contributions from Mediclinic, OUTsurance, Rainbow Chicken and RCL Foods.

Heineken Beverages also returned to profitability. Notably, the impariment of Remgro’s investment in Heineken in the comparative year and Remgro’s portion of the impairment of Heineken Beverages’ goodwill that was created through the Distell/Heineken transaction helped boost total revenue.

The improved operations were partially offset by lower contributions from TotalEnergies Marketing South Africa.

Headline earnings were also boosted by lower finance costs.

Remgro’s intrinsic net asset value per share increased by 16.5% from R251.01 at 30 June 2024 to R292.34
at 30 June 2025.

The closing share price at 30 June 2025 was R158.20 (2024: R136.09), representing a discount of 45.9% (2024: 45.8%) to the intrinsic net asset value.

According to Remgro CEO Jannie Durand, “the path to achieving these results has been far from straightforward, and we had to navigate a series of unforeseen external disruptions along the way.”

“These disruptions notwithstanding, the driving ambition of the process was our steadfast belief that we own quality assets, and I am proud of the transformation in our business and portfolio to date.”

Looking ahead, he said that Remgro will continue to navigate the prevailing global and local macro uncertainty, and continue to sharpen and simplify the Remgro portfolio.