Wealth

Here is how much money South Africa’s richest man has made this year already

Staff Writer

 ·27 Sep 2017

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s richest people, shows that South Africa’s richest man, Johann Rupert, has made an enormous profit already in 2017 thanks to a continued rise in the share price of the world’s largest jewelry maker, Compagnie Financière Richemont SA.

The Switzerland-based luxury goods holding company was founded in 1988 by Rupert by the spin-off of the international assets owned by Rembrandt Group (now Remgro).

Shares in the company are up nearly 50% over the past year, and earlier this month it reported that sales, excluding currency movements, rose 12% in the five months to August. “That’s the fastest sales growth for the period since 2012, helped by consumers snapping up its Cartier watches and love bracelets,” Bloomberg said.

Compagnie Financière Richemont SA released its annual report in the middle of the year, revealing how much the company paid its directors and executives, including founder and chairman, Johann Rupert – who pocketed more than R40 million.

According to Bloomberg’s billionaire list, as of September 27, 2017, Rupert is the world’s 189th richest person in the world with a fortune of $7.95 billion, up $1.52 billion (R20 billion) so far in 2017.

Nicky Oppenheimer is listed as South Africa’s second richest man according to Bloomberg, with a fortune $6.9 billion – ranking him at 234th on he global list.

Oppenheimer sold his family’s 40% stake in De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond producer, to mining company Anglo American in 2012 for $5.2 billion in cash.

He holds less than 1% of the London-based bulk commodities company and maintains private equity investments in Africa, Asia, the US and Europe, Bloomberg noted.

As of September 27, 2017, Oppenheimer has added $443 million (R6 billion) to his fortune in 2017.

The world’s richest man, Bill Gates, who bosts a fortune of $87.1 billion, has seen his earnings grow by $4.67 billion so far in 2017, while the second richest person, Jeff Bezos, the founder and largest shareholder of Amazon, has seen his fortune swell by $15.4 billion, to $80.8 billion.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, has seen the biggest jump in the top 10 list, adding $19.9 billion to $69.8 billion, as the social network has seen its shares climb steadily in 2017.

One local  billionaire to watch over the remainder of the year is Patrice Motsepe, the mining magnate who has a fortune of $1.7 billion according to Forbes. Motsepe is the founder and executive chairman of African Rainbow Minerals, which has interests in gold, ferrous metals, base metals, and platinum.

Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital Investments listed on the main board of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) earlier this month, while the billionaire is poised to challenge South Africa’s biggest banks with his investment company ARC, close to securing a banking license.

Read: How much you need to be worth to be in the world’s richest 1%