{"id":788685,"date":"2024-08-29T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=788685"},"modified":"2024-08-29T11:36:56","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T09:36:56","slug":"south-african-billionaire-johann-rupert-is-now-the-richest-man-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wealth\/788685\/south-african-billionaire-johann-rupert-is-now-the-richest-man-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"South African billionaire Johann Rupert is now the richest man in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Johann Rubert has overtaken Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote to claim the title as Africa’s richest person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is according to recent data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of 29 August 2024, Rupert’s estimated net worth was $14.1 billion (R250.53 billion), an increase of $1.7 billion (R30.21 billion) year-to-date (YTD).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This net worth makes him and his family the richest on the continent and the 147th richest globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rupert built a business empire on a wide range of products and services in the luxury goods, food, media and broadcasting, private healthcare, tobacco, and telecoms industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The businessman attended the University of Stellenbosch to study economics but dropped his studies to join his father\u2019s business in 1984.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He inherited the family business from his father, Anton Rupert, and has expanded it from mostly tobacco to become a multi-billion-dollar luxury goods venture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After joining his father\u2019s company, Johann spun off Rembrandt\u2019s international assets to create Compagnie Financiere Richemont, a Swiss luxury goods holding company. This new company includes brands such as Cartier and Montblanc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He acquired a significant portion of his wealth primarily through significant holdings in Richemont, as well as stakes in Remgro, a South African investment firm with stakes in more than 30 companies, and Reinet Investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2000, Rembrandt underwent a restructuring, which resulted in the formation of two publicly traded holding companies\u2014Remgro and Venfin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remgro managed Rembrandt\u2019s traditional assets, while Venfin acquired the technology-oriented assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rupert was appointed chairman and CEO of Richemont in 2000. In 2008, the company\u2019s non-luxury-related activities were spun off into Reinet Investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Rupert is the chairman of Remgro, Richemont and Reinet. The family owns a controlling stake in all three companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Bloomberg, the rise in Rupert’s net worth this year was largely buoyed by strong performances in the luxury goods sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the abovementioned ventures have contributed significantly to his wealth, an analysis by Daily Investor<\/a> seen below shows just how diverse Rupert’s business ventures are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The companies that he has a stake in include:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Other billionaires<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nigerian industrial tycoon Dangote was listed by Forbes magazine in January as Africa’s richest man for the 13th year in a row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, economic woes in Nigeria have meant that he has seen his net worth decrease by $1.71 billion (R30.37 billion) this year, bringing his net worth to $13.4 billion (R237.94 billion), making him the second richest person in Africa and 158th globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa’s Nicky Oppenheimer is ranked as the third richest person in Africa. His estimated net worth is $11.3 billion (R200.5 billion), up $1.45 billion (R25.77 billion) this year. This makes him the 214th richest person in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nassef Sawiris, from Egypt, is the continent’s fourth richest person, with an estimated net worth of $9.53 billion (R169.26 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is followed by South African investor Natie Kirsh, who completes Africa’s ‘big-five’ of billionaires with a net worth of $9.15 billion (R162.51 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at the 10 richest people globally, the Bloomberg index ranks them as: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rank<\/strong><\/td>Name<\/strong><\/td>Total net worth<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
1<\/td>Elon Musk<\/td>$233 billion (R4.14 trillion)<\/td><\/tr>
2<\/td>Bernard Arnault<\/td>$196 billion (R3.48 trillion)<\/td><\/tr>
3<\/td>Jeff Bezos<\/td>$195 billion (R3.46 trillion)<\/td><\/tr>
4<\/td>Mark Zuckerberg<\/td>$184 billion (R3.27 billion)<\/td><\/tr>
5<\/td>Bill Gates<\/td>$160 billion (R2.84 trillion)<\/td><\/tr>
6<\/td>Larry Ellison<\/td>$153 billion (R2.72 trillion)<\/td><\/tr>
7<\/td>Larry Page<\/td>$147 billion (R2.61 trillion)<\/td><\/tr>
8<\/td>Warren Buffet<\/td>$146 billion (R2.59 trillion)<\/td><\/tr>
9<\/td>Steve Ballmer<\/td>$143 billion (R2.54 trillion)<\/td><\/tr>
10<\/td>Sergey Brin<\/td>$139 billion (R2.47 trillion)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
Bloomberg Billionaires Index (as of 29 August 2024).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Read: The number of jobs Johann Rupert\u2019s empire has created in South Africa<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African billionaire Johann Rupert has seen his net worth jump this year, which has helped him clinch the spot as Africa’s richest person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":720040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9880],"tags":[1850,4666],"class_list":["post-788685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wealth","tag-bloomberg","tag-johann-rupert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788685"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":788752,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788685\/revisions\/788752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}