{"id":870563,"date":"2026-08-17T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=870563"},"modified":"2026-08-17T14:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T12:43:12","slug":"south-africas-biggest-asset-manager-buys-a-big-piece-of-johann-ruperts-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/870563\/south-africas-biggest-asset-manager-buys-a-big-piece-of-johann-ruperts-company\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s biggest asset manager buys a big piece of Johann Rupert’s company"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ninety One, South Africa\u2019s largest private asset manager, has acquired a stake of more than 5% in Remgro, the investment company controlled by billionaire Johann Rupert and his family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remgro disclosed the transaction in a Stock Exchange News Service (SENS) announcement on 17 August 2026, stating that clients of Ninety One SA had acquired a beneficial interest in its ordinary shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFollowing the acquisition, Ninety One now holds 5.0156% of the issued ordinary shares of the Company on behalf of its clients,\u201d Remgro said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said it had, as required by the Companies Act and JSE Listings Requirements, filed the relevant notices with the Takeover Regulation Panel and the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The acquisition gives Ninety One a significant position in one of South Africa\u2019s largest and most diversified investment groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the shares are held on behalf of Ninety One\u2019s clients rather than representing a direct corporate ownership stake by the asset manager itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remgro began in 1948, when Anton Rupert established the Rembrandt Group as a tobacco business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group subsequently expanded into wine, spirits and international markets before listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1956.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 1990s and early 2000s, Johann Rupert oversaw a major restructuring of the family\u2019s business interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This resulted in the creation of Richemont, focused on international luxury goods; Reinet, a Luxembourg-based investment vehicle; and Remgro, which developed into a diversified South African investment company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remgro now has interests across a wide range of industries and businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its portfolio includes stakes in companies such as Mediclinic, OUTsurance, Discovery, FirstRand, RCL Foods, Rainbow Chicken, eMedia, Vumatel, Seacom, Dark Fibre Africa, TotalEnergies and Heineken Beverages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group also has investments in areas such as sport and education, including the Blue Bulls, the Stellenbosch Academy of Sport, and the Stellenbosch Football Club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ninety One is booming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The purchase comes as Ninety One itself enters a period of stronger financial performance following several years of pressure on assets under management and client flows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the financial year ended 31 March 2026, Ninety One\u2019s assets under management reached \u00a3171.8 billion, equivalent to roughly R3.9 trillion at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This represented a 31% increase from \u00a3130.8 billion in the previous financial year. The recovery was particularly notable compared with 2024, when assets under management had fallen to \u00a3126 billion, down from \u00a3143.9 billion in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest contributors to the latest increase was the completion of a 15-year strategic agreement with Sanlam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deal included the acquisition of Sanlam Investment Management and added \u00a318.3 billion, or about R401 billion, to Ninety One\u2019s assets under management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the agreement, Ninety One became Sanlam\u2019s primary active investment manager for single-managed local and global products, while gaining preferred access to Sanlam\u2019s distribution network in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanlam also agreed to act as an anchor investor in Ninety One\u2019s international private and specialist credit strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ninety One also returned to positive net client flows during the year, recording \u00a32.8 billion in net inflows compared with \u00a34.9 billion in net outflows in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revenue increased by 9% to \u00a3763.3 million, while net revenue rose by 9.35% to \u00a3650.2 million. Profit after tax increased by 2.27% to \u00a3153.5 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ninety One CEO Hendrik du Toit said the company was benefiting from improving demand and continued investment in its business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNinety One is a resilient and robust business with positive momentum. The demand recovery for emerging markets is visible, and our offering is competitive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are in a stronger position than a year ago. We are investing through the cycle in talent and technology to be future fit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa\u2019s largest private asset manager, has acquired a stake of more than 5% in billionaire Johann Rupert and his family’s invesment company. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":863325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2089344755490521423","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2178877476265985","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18099302444202968","_sma_x_attempts":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[19703,2591,853],"class_list":["post-870563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-ninety-one-2","tag-remgro","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870563","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":870571,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870563\/revisions\/870571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}