The woman running a R300 billion financial empire in South Africa

Magda Wierzycka has come a long way from her humble beginnings, becoming one of the richest businesswomen in South Africa by building a financial service sector empire.

She has founded and played a key role in the growth of numerous financial service and asset management companies, most notably, Sygnia.

She co-founded and served as long-time CEO of the company, which currently has a market cap of R3.07 billion and oversees more than R318 billion in assets.

Listed as one of “Africa’s 50 Most Powerful Women” by Forbes in 2020, Wierzycka is one of the country’s most successful businesswomen, with an estimated net worth in the billions.

However, this is far from where she came from.

Born in Poland in the late 1960s, when it was still part of the Soviet bloc, Wierzycka spent her formative years in a 60-square-metre, two-bedroom apartment with her parents, brother, sister, and grandmother.

With the gradual economic collapse of communist Poland due to political sanctions and an ultimate imposition of martial law, Wierzycka and her family defected to Austria in 1981.

The family stayed in a refugee centre for eight months while her parents were looking for work.

In 1982, with $500 dollars in their pocket, the family came to South Africa and settled in Pretoria.

Wierzycka then attended Pretoria High School for Girls, having to play catch-up after she missed close to a year of schooling while in the refugee centre.

“We were refugees needing to start from scratch… I had to learn English and Afrikaans (for schooling), which I didn’t know a word of” as these were the primary medium of instruction at the school, Wierzycka told BusinessTech.

She then went on to obtain a Bachelor of Business Science and a postgraduate actuarial science degree from the University of Cape Town.

Initially wanting to become a medical doctor, “actuarial science was never a huge attraction for me, but my parents could not afford university fees, so I had to find a degree which offered bursaries,” explained Wierzycka.

After obtaining her degree, Wierzycka’s started her career at Southern Life in 1993 (the company that paid for her bursary), working in development and as an investments actuary.

From this, she quickly realised that being an actuary was not the path for her.

Not enjoying the work of the division she was in, Wierzycka then managed to get herself into the investment portfolio of Southern Life.

Here, she began gaining important skills for the financial services sector she would soon dominate.

In 1995, she joined the asset consulting division of Alexander Forbes as an investment consultant.

In 1997, Wierzycka  joined Coronation Fund Managers, a third-party fund management company based in Cape Town, with a current market cap of R13.24 billion

Wierzycka said that she “was there very early on, I think I was the 14th person,” describing it as close to a “start-up” at the time.

She became one of four key senior executives, seeing the institutional assets under her management grow fivefold.

In her book, Magda: My Journey, Wierzycka dedicated a chapter to her “Coronation Years”, where she described herself as being “instrumental” in growing Coronation from a “start-up” to one of the premier asset managers in the country.

After allegedly resigning from Coronation in 2003 “on a tissue” during a meeting, the businesswoman made a promise to herself that she would “never work for anyone else again.”

In the same year, she started a hedge-fund company called IQvest, which was sold to the African Harvest group later that year.

Wierzycka was appointed as CEO of the African Harvest group in 2003.

“That was where I did most of my learning. I learnt how to run a company,” said Wierzycka.

During her time at the African Harvest group, the company’s assets grew from R10 billion in 2003, to R35 billion in 2006.

After selling African Harvest Fund Managers to Cadiz Financial Services in 2006, she guided the buy-out of the remaining African Harvest group, ultimately creating Sygnia.

With Wierzycka as CEO, they began operating with a small team, renting an old building at the Waterfront in Cape Town.

When entering the space with a new company, Wierzycka said that in order for her financial services group not only to survive but thrive, they had “to innovate… never imitate.”

Sygnia offers various financial products and services, including unit trusts, exchange-traded funds, pension and provident funds, tax-free savings accounts, living annuities, discretionary fund management, and institutional investment solutions.

During Wierzycka’s time, Sygnia’s assets went from R2 billion to becoming “the second largest multi- management company in South Africa, one of the two largest passive managers in the country, and the largest provider of international ETFs in South Africa,” according to their annual report.

Its assets under management and administration amount to R318.1 billion, as at 30 September 2023.

The businesswomen has other ventures as well; she has also co-founded a UK-based venture capital firm, Braavos Investment Advisers.

On top of her business ventures, she is known for her outspoken stance against corporate and government corruption.

Wierzycka said that an evident decay of the state caused by corruption and politicians having approached her seeking bribes, are just are some of the key reasons for her standing so steadfast against and vocal about issues of corruption.

Wierzycka shared some advice for budding entrepreneurs looking to make their mark in their industries.

She urged people to get as much experience as they can in companies before attempting to venture out on their own.

“Move sideways in companies – get experience, learn and pick up all the skills that you can to become a sort of ‘Jack of all trades’.”

“Don’t start a company in your 20s, start it in your 30s [when you have become a ‘Jack of all trades’]” and are able as well as prepared to make hefty sacrifices, she added.

“Work very hard; [don’t be afraid] to learn; be transparent and honest,” and “never be driven by greed, as this clouds your judgement,” she said.

Read: The woman running the biggest bank in South Africa – now worth over R400 billion