Johann Rupert is a well-known and successful businessman in South Africa, with stakes in several top South African and worldwide firms.
With an estimated net worth of roughly $11 billion, he ranks second on the Forbes African Billionaires List (R205 billion).
Johann Rupert and his family are also well-known for their charitable contributions.
Thousands of people have been hired by the Rupert firms, and Johann Rupert has been the highest individual taxpayer in South Africa for the past 20 years.
The Rupert family has a long history of sponsoring educational institutions, educational programmes, and environmental concerns in South Africa.
Johann’s father, Anton Rupert, was active in the National Parks Trust of South Africa and helped create the World Wide Fund for Nature’s South African activities.
Johann Rupert and his family have donated to the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, the South African College of Tourism, and Ikamva Labantu.
The Rupert Education Foundation sponsors a variety of educational development activities aimed at uplifting and supporting South African children and youth.
Giving impoverished people land and dwellings is one of the causes Johann Rupert and his wife Gaynor are most passionate about.
The family has sponsored 2,000 title deeds in Stellenbosch and Graaff-Reinet.
Johann Rupert’s wealth explained
Johann is Anton Rupert’s eldest son, and his initiatives in the 1940s constitute the foundation of the Rupert family’s riches.
In the 1940s, Anton Rupert founded Voorbrand, a tobacco firm. Rembrandt, which joined the South African cigarette and tobacco sector in 1948, was inspired by Voorbrand.
Rembrandt was a huge success in South Africa, listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange less than a decade after its inception.
In the 1970s, Rembrandt moved into new areas such as finance, mining, engineering, and food.
Johann Rupert studied economics at the University of Stellenbosch at this time, but dropped out to pursue a career in business.
In New York, he worked for Chase Manhattan and Lazard Freres before returning to South Africa in 1979 to establish Rand Merchant Bank (RMB).
He was the CEO of RMB until 1984, when it combined with Rand Consolidated Investments to establish RMB Holdings.
He exited the company to work for Rembrandt.
He split off Rembrandt’s overseas holdings soon after joining his father’s firm to launch Compagnie Financiere Richemont, a Swiss luxury goods holding company that includes names such as Cartier and Montblanc.
He was named chairman of Rembrandt in 1991.
In 1995, Rembrandt and Richemont merged their tobacco businesses in Rothmans International. It combined these holdings with those of British American Tobacco a few years later.
Rembrandt was split into two publicly listed holding companies, Remgro and Venfin, in 2000, which resulted in significant changes.
Remgro was in charge of Rembrandt’s conventional assets, while Venfin was in charge of the technology-oriented assets.
Remgro and VenFin combined less than a decade later to establish Remgro, of which Johann Rupert is now chairman.
Rupert was named chairman and CEO of Richemont in 2000, and the company’s non-luxury operations were split off into Reinet Investments in 2008.
Rupert is now the chairman of Remgro, Richemont, and Reinet.
With a market value of R1.51 trillion, Richemont is the largest of the three firms. Reinet comes in second with a market valuation of €3.76 billion (R73.63 billion), while Remgro is slightly smaller with a market cap of R72.98 billion.
The three corporations have stakes in a variety of domestic and foreign businesses across a wide range of industries.
All the companies Johann Rupert has a share in
Remgro
Remgro’s wide portfolio includes companies in healthcare, consumer products, media, and financial services. Local shares account for more than 70% of the company’s portfolio.
| Company | Effective interest | Subsidiaries/Brands/Investments |
| Mediclinic International | 44.6% | Mediclinic |
| Hirslanden | ||
| Curamed | ||
| ER24 | ||
| Intellimed | ||
| Intercare | ||
| Medical Human Resources | ||
| Distell | 31.7% | Nederburg |
| Drostdy-Hof | ||
| Paarl Perle | ||
| JC Le Roux | ||
| Sedgwicks Old Brown | ||
| Durbanville Hills | ||
| Two Oceans | ||
| Fleur De Cap | ||
| Pongracz | ||
| 4th Street | ||
| Allesverloren | ||
| Lauréat | ||
| Autumn Harvest | ||
| Overmeer | ||
| Ship | ||
| Klipdrift | ||
| Richelieu | ||
| Three Ships | ||
| Scottish Leader | ||
| Viceroy | ||
| Amarula | ||
| Van Ryn’s | ||
| Deanston | ||
| Bain’s | ||
| Count Pushkin | ||
| Hunters | ||
| Savanna | ||
| Extreme Energy | ||
| Esprit | ||
| Vawter | ||
| Bernini | ||
| Vitafit Aday | ||
| RCL Foods | 80.3% | 5 Star |
| Bobtail | ||
| Bonzo | ||
| Canine Cuisine | ||
| Catmor | ||
| Cobb | ||
| Dogmor | ||
| Driehoek Feeds | ||
| Epol | ||
| Equus | ||
| Farmer Brown | ||
| Feline Cuisine | ||
| RCL Foods | ||
| Mnandi Amahewu | ||
| Molatek | ||
| Monati | ||
| Nola | ||
| Number 1 Mageu | ||
| Optimizor | ||
| Ouma | ||
| Pieman’s | ||
| Rainbow | ||
| Safari | ||
| Selati | ||
| Sunbake | ||
| Supreme Flour | ||
| Tafelberg | ||
| Ultra Pet | ||
| Vector | ||
| Yapper | ||
| Yum Yum | ||
| Siqalo Foods | 100% | Rondo |
| Flora | ||
| Rama | ||
| Meadowland | ||
| Marvello | ||
| Stork | ||
| OUTsurance Group | 30.6% | OUTsurance International Holdings Pty Limited |
| Youi | ||
| OUTvest | ||
| OUTsurance Insurance | ||
| OUTsurance Life Insurance | ||
| Business Partners | 44.1% | Business Partners |
| Community Investment Ventures Holdings (CIVH) | 57% | DFA |
| Vumatel | ||
| Sigfox SA | ||
| SEACOM | 30% | SEACOM |
| Energy Exchange of Southern Africa | 79.7% | Energy Exchange of Southern Africa |
| Air Products | 50% | Air Products |
| TotalEnergies | 24.9% | National Petroleum Refiners of South Africa Proprietary Limited (Natref) |
| TotalEnergies Lubrifiants | ||
| ELF lubricants | ||
| Wispeco | 100% | Wispeco Aluminum |
| PGSI | 37.7% | PG Group Holdings |
| PGSI | ||
| Kagiso Tiso Holdings | 43.5% | Kagiso Media |
| Servest Group | ||
| Me Cure Healthcare | ||
| Momentum Metropolitan | ||
| Lupo Bakery | ||
| Jacaranda FM | ||
| East Coast Radio | ||
| Urban Brew Studios | ||
| Juta | ||
| Mediamark | ||
| Future Managers | ||
| Kaya FM | ||
| Gagasi FM | ||
| OFM | ||
| Heart FM | ||
| Nozala Investments | ||
| Inca | ||
| Futurewise | ||
| Prescient | 45% | Prescient China Equity Fund |
| Milestone Capital III | 28.1% | Milestone Capital III |
| Invenfin | 100% | Ad Dynamo |
| ArcAqua | ||
| Bolt | ||
| BOS Brands | ||
| De Villiers Chocolate | ||
| DC Foods | ||
| Fieldbar | ||
| Joya Brands | ||
| LifeQ | ||
| Money Fellows | ||
| National HealthCare Group | ||
| Rethink CBD | ||
| Root | ||
| Samarkand | ||
| Wyzetalk | ||
| Pembani Remgro Infrastructure Fund (PRIF) | 16.2% | ETG |
| Railco Africa | ||
| Lumos Global | ||
| Solar Saver | ||
| iColo | ||
| Gas Pipeline Platform | ||
| Zim Borders | ||
| GridX Africa | ||
| Medallion Data Centres | ||
| Asia Partners | 6.5% | Shopback |
| SCI Ecommerce | ||
| GudangAda | ||
| Doctor Anywhere | ||
| Carsome | ||
| Snapask | ||
| RedDoorz | ||
| eMedia Investments | 32.3% | eTV |
| Openview | ||
| eNCA | ||
| eVOD | ||
| YFM | ||
| Sasani Studios | ||
| Media Film Service | ||
| CPT Film Studios | ||
| FirstRand | 2.5% | FNB |
| RMB | ||
| WesBank | ||
| Aldermore | ||
| MotoNovo | ||
| Ashburton Investments | ||
| DirectAxis | ||
| MotoVantage | ||
| FirstRand Corporate Centre | ||
| Discovery | 7.7% | Discovery Health |
| Discovery Life | ||
| Discovery Insure | ||
| Discovery Invest | ||
| Discovery Bank | ||
| VitalityHealth | ||
| VitaliftLife | ||
| VitalityCar | ||
| Vitality Global | ||
| Momentum Metropolitan Holdings | 8.6% | Momentum |
| Metropolitan | ||
| Momentum Multiply | ||
| Guardrisk | ||
| Eris Property Group | ||
| Hello Doctor | ||
| British American Tobacco | 0.1% | Vuse |
| glo | ||
| VELO | ||
| Grizzly | ||
| Dunhill | ||
| Kent | ||
| Lucky Strike | ||
| Pall Mall | ||
| Rothmans | ||
| Camel | ||
| Natural American Spirit | ||
| Newport | ||
| Blue Bulls | 50% | Blue Bulls |
| Stelllenbosch Academy of Sports | 100% | Stelllenbosch Academy of Sports |
| Stellenbosch Football Club | 100% | Stellenbosch Football Club |
Richemont
Richemont’s portfolio is dominated by jewellers and luxury watchmakers, although some of its companies also manufacture leather products, pens, weapons, and luxury clothes.
| Company | Subsidiaries/Portfolio |
| Richemont | Buccellati |
| Cartier | |
| Van Cleef & Arpels | |
| A. Lange & Söhne | |
| Baume & Mercier | |
| IWC Schaffhausen | |
| Jaeger-LeCoultre | |
| Panerai | |
| Piaget | |
| Roger Dubuis | |
| Vacheron Constantin | |
| Watchfinder & Co. | |
| NET-A-PORTER | |
| Mr Porter | |
| The Outnet | |
| Yoox | |
| Online Flagship Stores | |
| Alaïa | |
| AZ Factory | |
| Chloé | |
| Delvaux | |
| Dunhill | |
| Montblanc | |
| Peter Millar | |
| Purdey | |
| Serapian | |
| TimeVallée |
Reinet
According to the 2022 annual report, Pension Insurance Company is Reinet’s largest investment, accounting for 47.5% of the company’s portfolio. British American Tobacco ranks in second, with 31% of the market.
Trilantic Capital Partners, TruArc Partners, and United States property development and mortgages are among the other assets highlighted in the 2022 report.
