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This is according to the 2007 edition of Who Owns Whom, which uses beneficial ownership of shares listed on the JSE Securities Exchange as an indication of who might be the country's richest people.
Nicky Oppenheimer of Anglo American is the richest South African-born person, with personal wealth invested in the JSE totalling R14.09bn, but Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal is the richest JSE investor overall.
Mittal just pips Oppenheimer to the number-one spot in the table that lists the top 50 directors in terms of value of their shareholdings in JSE-listed companies, with his 52.02% holding of Mittal Steel SA translating into an investment total of R14.68bn.
Nicky Oppenheimer, of Anglo American and De Beers comes a relatively close second, with his 3.98% stake in Anglo American worth R14.09bn, says Who Owns Whom. Given that Mittal was born in India, Oppenheimer assumes top spot as the wealthiest South African through JSE-listed holdings.
Massive jumps
The total market capitalisation (value) of the JSE at the date of the first table in 2006 was R2.89 trillion, says Who Owns Whom; it has since grown by 20.9%.
Who Owns Whom says 38 of the 50 directors who appeared in the 2006 list have made an appearance again. The average increase in holdings of the 38 directors is 51%, outstripping the growth in value of the JSE.
African Rainbow Minerals' executive chairperson Patrice Motsepe clocked a 179% - or R2.85bn - leap in beneficial ownership over 2007 to R7.94bn. This move sees him jump up to fourth position from eight last year.
Other significant increases in value were enjoyed by Mvelapanda chairperson and presidential hopeful Tokyo Sexwale (a 275.1% increase in value to R979m), Bidvest boss Brian Joffe (a 261.2% leap to R986m) and PSG's Jannie Mouton (who saw his holding grow by 140.1% to R670m).
South Africans listed in the top ten are:
- Johann Rupert (non-executive chairperson of Remgro and delisted Venfin): R8.59bn
- Patrice Motsepe (non-executive chairperson of African Rainbow Minerals): R7.94bn.
- Laurie Dippenaar (non-executive chairperson of Discovery, CE of FirstRand Bank and a non-executive director at RMB Holdings): R5.23bn.
- GT Ferreira (non-executive chairperson of FirstRand, chairperson of RMB Holdings and executive director at Venfin): R5bn.
- Raymond, Wendy and Gareth Ackerman of the Pick 'n Pay food retail empire, who collectively have an investment total of R3.37bn.
- Fellow retailer Christo Wiese, a non-executive director at Invicta, chairperson of both Shoprite and Tradehold, whose investment total is R2.39bn.
- Bill Venter, father of the Allied Electronics (Altron) empire - as chairperson of Altron, Bytes Technology Group and a non-xecutive director at Allied Technologies (Altech, whose investment value totals R2.22bn.
German industrialist Bruno Steinhoff of Steinhoff International, with his 14.3% stake in the company, has an investment total of R3.06bn.
