{"id":853181,"date":"2026-03-06T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=853181"},"modified":"2026-03-27T13:13:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T11:13:28","slug":"johann-ruperts-company-selling-uk-business-for-r65-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/853181\/johann-ruperts-company-selling-uk-business-for-r65-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"Johann Rupert’s company selling UK business for R65 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Johann Rupert’s Reinet has reached an agreement to sell Pension Insurance Corporation Group (PIC) to Athora Holding Ltd in a deal worth GBP 2.9 billion (R65 billion at the current exchange rate). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reinet is managed by the Ruperts as general partners, with Johann acting as the company’s executive chairman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is one of the three large-scale funds with large Rupert influence, alongside Richemont and Remgro. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company is now selling its 49.5% interest in PIC following the July 2025 announcement of the deal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The acquisition by Athora forms part of a larger transaction structure, which includes the sales of all the shares in PIC held by other entities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, CVC Capital Partners, and HPS Investment Partners, as well as employees and other shareholders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority of the UK have now granted their approval for the change in control arising from the acquisition of PIC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transaction is no longer subject to any further conditions, and completion is expected by around 27 March 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reinet is now expected to receive some GBP 2.9 billion (R65 billion) on the day of completion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PIC was founded in 2006 in the UK and focuses on investments that are secure and socially beneficial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of 2024, it had investments worth \u00a350.9 billion (R1.1 trillion) and managed the pensions of just under 400,000 policyholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another major sale <\/h2>\n\n\n
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The sale of PIC comes shortly after Reinet sold its shares in British American Tobacco (BAT) despite the company’s history with tobacco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ruperts’ wealth was built on tobacco, with Anton Rupert establishing a Voorbrand Tobacco Company roughly 80 years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voorbrand would become Rembrandt, which played a key role in the South African cigarette and tobacco industry after being formed in 1948, and was listed on the JSE a few years later.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the group diversified and formed Richemont and Remgro, Reinet Investments was created in 2008 to house the group\u2019s stake in BAT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March 2024, the group held over 48 million shares in BAT, but these were sold in late 2024 and early 2025, resulting in gross proceeds of \u20ac1.6 billion (around R33 billion). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sales of BAT led to a massive rise in the group’s cash and liquid funds. According to its latest interim financials, cash stood at \u20ac2.1 billion (R40 billion). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sale of PIC is expected to increase only the cash available to Reinet, adding billions to the already large pile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its recent financials, Reinet said that it recognised the importance of a cash reserve in uncertain times and has maintained relationships with numerous highly-rated banking institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investment professionals are unsure about what Rupert plans to do with the massive pile of cash. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, considering that PIC and BAT were Reinet’s largest investments, Jean Pierre Verster<\/a> from Protea Capital Management said that the billionaire may call it a day and close Reinet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should Rupert decide to spend more time playing golf or relaxing on his wine farm, Verster believes that investors could receive a special dividend from the unwinding. <\/p>\n\n\n

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This article has been amended. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Johann Rupert-led Richemonth is selling its UK insurance business in a deal worth R65 billion, which should add to the group’s already massive pile of cash. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":715466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[16204,23029,19951],"class_list":["post-853181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-bat","tag-pension-insurance-corporation","tag-reinet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853181","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853181"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":855152,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853181\/revisions\/855152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}