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South Africans slip down Forbes rich list

Cape Town – The two richest South Africans who made the latest Forbes 400 list of the world’s wealthiest people have dropped down in earnings since the last ranking.

South Africa’s richest man Johann Rupert (64) slipped to 201 with $6.9bn (about R78bn), down 2% ($135.6m) from last year’s position of 179. His luxury goods company, Compagnie Financiere Richemont, owns brands such as Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Montblanc.

“In September the avid golfer spent $4m on a buffalo bull, used for breeding buffalo for private game reserves,” Forbes said in its assessment of the Forbes 400. “It's an investment that he hopes will pay for itself through sales of its offspring.”

Former De Beers head Nicky Oppenheimer came in second at 210 with $6.6bn (about R75bn), down 0.1% ($8.2m) since last year when he was ranked 182.

“For the first time in decades, there is no longer an Oppenheimer at the head of diamond company De Beers,” Forbes said. “Analysts say that De Beers was sold, after 85 years of Oppenheimer family control, because there was no clear successor to Nicky Oppenheimer in the family.”

Billionaires in South Africa

Six other South Africans who made the billionaire’s list were Christo Wiese, Patrice Motsepe, Stephen Saad, newcomer Allan Gray, Koos Bekker and Desmond Sacco.

See below for their ranking (at the time of publishing):

Number 459:
Christo Wiese
Value: $3.6bn
Company/Sector/Investments: Shoprite Holdings, Pepkor and stake in Brait (retail).
Forbes analysis: “He sold more than 7 million Shoprite shares-about 7% of his stake-over the past year at less than half their current value due to an agreement he had entered into with third parties in 2010.”

Number 842:
Patrice Motsepe
Value: $2.2bn
Company/Sector/Investments: African Rainbow Minerals and a stake in Sanlam (mining/investment).
Forbes analysis: “He bought low-producing gold mine shafts in 1994 and turned them profitable. Motsepe benefited from South Africa's Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) laws, which mandate that companies be at least 26% black-owned in order to get a government mining license.”

Number 1105:
Stephen Saad
Value: $1.6bn
Company/Sector/Investments: Aspen Pharmacare (pharmaceuticals) .
Forbes analysis: “Africa's largest producer of generic medicines has been on a tear. Its stock shot up 75% in the past year, which Saad attributes to booming business in Asia and Australia. As a result, his net worth is up by more than $500m from a year ago.”

Number 1310:
Allan Gray
Value: $1.4bn
Company/Sector/Investments: Allan Gray Limited and Orbis Investment Management (investments).
Forbes analysis: “Allan Gray [who is based in Bermuda] is new to the Forbes Billionaires list this year. Fiercely private, he founded his Cape Town-based investment management firm, Allan Gray Limited, in 1973, after earning his MBA from Harvard and spending eight years at Fidelity in the US.”

Number 1325:
Koos Bekker
Value: $1.3bn
Company/Sector/Investments: Naspers, Tencent Holdings (media).
Forbes analysis: Koos Bekker, who recently changed seats from CEO to chairperson of Naspers “says he plans to use the time off to travel to San Francisco and Seoul to scout out new technologies that can benefit the company. Bekker transformed the storied publisher into a new media powerhouse, with investments in China, India, Russia and elsewhere.”

Number 1656:
Desmond Sacco
Value: $664m
Company/Sector/Investments: Assore Group (mining).
Forbes analysis: “Geologist Desmond Sacco owes his fortune to Assore Group, the mining company founded by his father Guido Sacco in 1928. He was appointed to the board in 1974 and, upon Guido's retirement in 1992, was appointed chairman and managing director.”

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