Capitec’s billionaires

Capitec is one of South Africa’s biggest success stories, and in the process, it has created some of the country’s richest people.

Capitec has its origins in the PSG Group’s microlending business. In 1997, PSG acquired SmartFin and FinAid, which had 68 microlending branches between them.

PSG wanted to establish a dominant position in the fragmented microlending industry, which then comprised some 2,500 players.

Following management changes at PSG in 2000, the microlending business was spun out as a subsidiary of PSG’s banking business.

Capitec Bank was established in March 2001 and from the outset it was headquartered in Stellenbosch.

The bank faced significant challenges in the early days, including strict regulations, big capital requirements, and the dominance of large retail banks.

The backing from PSG, which provided Capitec with a significant amount of equity capital, helped it to overcome these challenges.

In 2003, the bank was unbundled out of PSG, leading to a wider shareholding structure for Capitec.

It was initially focused on growing its microlending business and gained 27% of microloans handed out by banks.

It started to focus on transaction banking services, and in 2003, Capitec launched its Global One savings account.

It invested large amounts in technology and disrupted the local banking sector by offering longer banking hours and more accessible branches.

The management team identified four values that would always remain priorities to this day: accessibility, simplicity, affordability, and personalised service.

“Our focus has always been on our clients, and we wanted to make sure that people could access their banking when they needed to,” Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie said.

It showed strong growth, and by 31 August 2005, it had 1,771 employees, of whom only 300 were back-office workers.

In 2008, Capitec entered the online space by introducing Internet banking to simplify banking for its 2 million clients. A year later, it launched cellphone banking.

It also rolled out new biometric scanners approved by the FBI in the USA. At the time, scanning only one fingerprint was the norm, but it scanned all 10 fingers.

By 2011, it had 3.7 million clients and started opening branches on Sundays. Three years later, the Capitec banking app was launched.

The strong growth continued. It went from 55 branches and 25,000 clients after opening the business on 1 March 2001 to 840 branches and 15 million clients twenty years later.

In its latest financial results, Capitec revealed that it has grown its active client base to 23.2 million, with 12.4 million banking app clients.

The company is also entering business banking. In November 2019, it acquired Mercantile Bank and started offering services to South African businesses.

Capitec’s success is seen in its share price growth. It was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) on 18 February 2002.

Since it was listed on the JSE, Capitec’s share price has grown by 235,322%, making the bank one of the most successful shares on the exchange.

This astonishing share price growth had created tremendous wealth for its founders and chief executives.

Although some of the founders, like Riaan Stassen, have sold a large part of their shareholding over the years, they still became ultra-rich.

Here is a look at a few of the key people at Capitec, with an estimate of their wealth through their shareholding in the business.

It should be noted that this is not their net wealth. It is only the value of their Capitec shareholding. Their net wealth is higher than these figures.

Michiel Le Roux – R41.3 billion

Michiel Le Roux founded Capitec Bank and served as the inaugural chief executive officer until 2004. He later served as chairman of the board between 2007 and 2016.

He holds 13.2 million Capitec shares, representing 11.36 million of the company’s total share capital, which is worth around R41.3 billion.

Jannie Mouton – R18.5 billion

The Jannie Mouton Familie Trust and its subsidiaries own 5.9 million Capitec shares, with equates to 5.1% of the company. It is worth R18.5 billion.

Mouton is the founder of PSG, the company behind Capitec.  PSG played a pivotal role in Capitec’s success.

Piet Mouton – R21.2 billion

Piet Mouton is the son of Jannie Mouton and the chief executive of PSG Group.

Mouton owns 6,752,536 Capitec shares, representing 5.82% of the company’s share capital worth R21.16 billion.

Gerrie Fourie – R3.2 billion

Gerrie Fourie is one of the company’s founders and current chief executive, a position he has held since 2014.

Fourie owns 1,027,673 Capitec shares, representing 0.89% of the company’s share capital worth R3.22 billion.

Henk Lourens – R1.6 billion

Henk Lourens served as head of Capitec’s acquisitions department when it was founded and then transitioned to operations manager.

He holds 495,158 Capitec shares, representing 0.43% of the company’s share capital, worth R1.55 billion.

Riaan Stassen – Unknown

Riaan Stassen is one of the co-founders of Capitec Bank. He served as CEO until 2013 and was non-executive chairman from 2016 to 2019.

Stassen was a big Capitec shareholder. However, he sold shares over the years, and by 2017 only owned 1.2 million shares.

It can be assumed that Stassen is a billionaire based on his previous shareholding and the shares he sold.