Johann Rupert the wealthiest person in SA according to two rich lists

Johann Rupert is still the richest man in South Africa according to two reports: Forbes’ 38^th Annual World’s Billionaires List and the Hurun Report’s global rich list for 2024.

Forbes listed the richest person in each country in the world this week from its list of billionaires that features a record 2 781 members from 78 countries or territories.

Elon Musk tops the list for the US with a net worth of $195 billion but is ranked second in the world after France’s Bernard Arnault, who kept his top spot with a net worth that increased to an estimated $233 billion.

It seems that luxury goods are the sweet spot for Rupert as well as Arnault, whose conglomerate LVMH owns Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Sephora and many other luxury brands, as well as Rupert, whose source of wealth is also luxury goods.

Rupert is chairman of Richemont, a Swiss-based luxury goods holding company that owns Cartier, Dunhill and Mont Blanc and he and his family have a net worth of $12.2 billion according to Forbes and he is ranked 162nd on the Forbes list.

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Rupert and four other billionaires from South Africa

The Hurun Report ranked 3 279 dollar billionaires across the world that includes five from South Africa, with Rupert also retaining his position in 2024, with a total net worth of $10 billion, despite his total wealth declining from $11 billion in 2023, which cost him 30 places on the global list.

Rupert is also the chairman of investment holding company Remgro with investments in healthcare, food, sports and media. Rupert held the title of richest man in South Africa according to the Hurun Report since 2022.

Nicky Oppenheimer is in the second place with $8.5 billion (~R160 billion), after his wealth increased by $200 million, although he lost four places. The diamond magnate held the title as the country’s richest man until 2021.

Patrice Motsepe regained his third position after his wealth increased by $800 million over the past year to $3.1 billion, boosting him by 522 places in the global ranking to 1 132. Michiel le Roux, founder of Capitec added $300 million to his net worth, which saw him move up 280 places in the global ranking.

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Not good news for all SA’s billionaires

However, it was not all good news for South Africa’s billionaires. Media tycoon Koos Bekker lost his third place on the list although his net worth increased by $100 million and he dropped 46 places on the ranking because he was not in line with the other billionaires.

Globally, the Hurun Report indicates an increase in the wealth of billionaires as the list increased to 3 279 individuals after decreasing to 3 112 last year. The number of billionaires increased by 5%, while their total wealth increased by 9% to more than $15 trillion.

According to the Hurun Report, Musk was in the first place with a total net worth of approximately $231 billion, followed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos with $185 billion. Arnault is ranked third with a net worth of $175 billion.

There were also two ‘new’ faces back on Hurun’s list: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg with $158 billion and Larry Page with $123 billion. They took the places of the late Bertrand Puech of Hermes and Francoise Bettencourt Meyers of L’Oreal.

In addition, the Hurun Report shows that the wealth of the Top 10 increased by $426 billion to $1.5 trillion. In the Top 10, eight billionaires are from the US one from France and one from India.

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Interesting facts about the world’s billionaires

Other key findings of the Hurun Report were:

• The billionaires’ wealth came from financial services (10%), followed by consumer goods (8%), food and beverages (7%) and real estate (7%).
• It was a good year for media and entertainment, which added $226 billion, outpacing software and services with $149 billion, financial services with $118 billion and retail with $104 billion.
• However, it was a bad year for healthcare, which lost $75 billion, followed by industrial products with $46 billion, food and beverages with $40 billion and real estate with $32 billion.
• 93 of the billionaires are younger than 40, of which 61 were self-made and 32 inherited their wealth.
• 8 are younger than 30, led by Clemente del Vecchio (19) of EssilorLuxottica, with $4.6 billion.
• The youngest self-made billionaire is Ryan Breslow (29) of Bolt, with $1.3 billion.
• 218 of the self-made billionaires are women.
• Oklahoma-based ‘Roofing Queen’ Diane Hendricks (77) from ABC Supply is the richest self-made woman billionaire with $22 billion.
• Francoise Bettencourt Meyers (70) from L’oreal is the richest woman in the world with $91bn.
• 15.4% are immigrant billionaires, up from 13.7% from last year and 10% from five years ago. The US led with 144 immigrant billionaires, followed by 67 in the UK and 60 in Switzerland.
• Top immigrants include Musk, Sergey Brin who was born in Russia and Jensen Huang who was born in Taiwan.