Despite global market turmoil, two of South Africa’s wealthiest men, Johan Rupert and Natie Kirsh, have significantly increased their fortunes this year
Image: Graphic by Se-Anne Rall/IOL
Despite a massive rout in markets across the world, two of South Africa’s three richest men have seen their fortunes increase in multiples of billions of rands since the start of the year.
Both Johan Rupert and his family, as well as wholesale mogul Natie Kirsh, have had massive gains this year, with valuations in the billions of dollars.
These two wealthy men – 142 and 296 respectively on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index – have seen their investments outperform that of the S&P500 and Nasdaq, both key measures of investment sentiment.
How SA's richest men have seen their fortune grow this year
Image: Bloomberg
The S&P500, a key American stock exchange, is down 5.79% for the year so far, having suffered massive losses just after the start of April, when US President Donald Trump announced he was imposing massive tariffs on goods brought into the US.
Likewise, the Nasdaq – which is generally home to tech stocks – has dropped almost 10% in the year-to-date period, with crunch time for the stocks also happening just after Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” statement.
Trump backpedalled somewhat in the days after his announcement, bowing somewhat to market pressure. He dropped the imposition of tariffs against much of the world for 90 days, instead limiting import duties to 10%.
Except for China. His angst against the Communist country was such that it faced taxes of as much as 145% just because of “Liberation Day”. In total, Americans were set to pay 245% extra to buy Chinese goods.
That changed in recent days, with Trump saying that he was willing to negotiate with China. However, the damage has been done, and billions of dollars have been lost.
Not so for two South Africans.
Rupert, chairman of the Swiss-based luxury goods company Richemont, is worth $15.5 billion – that’s R287.5 billion. His value, and that of his family, has gained $1.84bn, or R34 billion since the start of the year.
Now at 142 on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, he has moved up two slots since the middle of April, when IOL last reported on the figures.
Natie Kirsh, who is the last South African on Bloomberg’s list, has reversed the declines IOL reported on in the middle of April. At 296 on the list, he has seen his value climb 6.8% this year to $9.97bn – almost R185 billion.
The 93-year-old Kirsh earned most of his money from New York state cash and carry operation Jetro Holdings, owner of Restaurant Depot and Jetro Cash & Carry.
To put all of that in perspective, last year, South Africa’s total gross domestic product was R7.5 trillion.
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