These are the richest businessmen in South Africa

12 December 2016

The Sunday Times has published its rich-list for 2016, showing that South Africa has 53 billionaires – led by Christo Wiese who is worth R81.3 billion.

Wiese holds on to his crown despite a poor year which has seen a drop in the market value of Steinhoff Holdings, of which he is chairman, and Brait SE, in which he has a 34.63% stake.

Overall, Wiese saw his wealth decline by R23.5-billion, from R104.8 billion a year ago, according to the paper.

The richlist was compiled by Who Owns Whom, which extracted the shareholdings of  company executives, using market prices reflected on November 30, 2016.

Ivan Glasenburg, the chief executive of Glencore, is ranked second – boosted by a recovery in the commodities sector. Glencore has seen its share price climb more than 200% in 2016.

Aspen Pharamacare’s Stephen Saad is third on the list, while controversial businessman, Atul Gupta, is seventh.

Top 10 wealthiest businessmen in SA:

1 Christo Wiese – R81.26 billion

2 Ivan Glasenberg – R59.98 billion

3 Stephen Saad – R16.04 billion

4 John Whittaker – R15.87 billion

5 Laurie Dippenaar – R12.86 billion

6 Bruno Steinhoff – R12.56 billion

7 Atul Gupta – R10.69 billion

8 Rupert Family – R10.61 billion

9 Jannie Mouton – R9.7 billion

10 Koos Bekker – R9.63 billion

- Business Tech SA