The combined fortune of Africa's 55 billionaires is $143.88 billion.
The average net worth of the members of this exclusive club is $2.6
billion, while the median age of the richest people in Africa is 65
years. The oldest billionaires are Kenyan industrialist, Manu
Chandaria, and Egyptian property tycoon, Mohammed Al-Fayed, both aged
84. The youngest billionaires are Mohammed Dewji of Tanzania and Igho
Sanomi, a Nigerian oil trader. They are both 38 years old. Nigeria,
South Africa and Egypt lead the pack with the highest number of
billionaires at 20, nine and eight respectively. Algeria, Angola,
Zimbabwe and Swaziland only have one billionaire each. In all, there
are 10 African countries represented on the list. Three women made it
into the rankings. The richest of them is Folorunsho Alakija, a
Nigerian fashion designer and oil tycoon worth some $7.3 billion by
our estimates. Isabel Dos Santos, an Angolan investor and the daughter
of Angolan President, Eduardo Dos Santos, together with Mama Ngina
Kenyatta, the widow of Kenya's first President, also made the cut.
Africa's richest people derived their fortunes pursuing a variety of
business endeavours including financial services, mining,
construction, energy and retail.
1. Aliko Dangote $20.2 billion
Industry: Manufacturing
Country Of Citizenship: Nigeria
Age: 56 Marital
Status: Married
Africa's richest man started building his fortune three decades ago
after taking a business loan from his maternal uncle to begin trading
in commodities such as flour, sugar, rice and cement. In the early
2000s, he started producing these items himself. His Dangote Group is
now the largest manufacturing conglomerate in West Africa and owns
sugar refineries, salt processing facilities, a beverage manufacturer
and a string of cement plants across Africa. In October 2012, Dangote
sold a controlling stake in his flour milling company to Tiger Brands,
a South African manufacturer of consumer goods. He pocketed $190
million from the sale. Dangote's biggest asset is Dangote Cement, a
$20-billion (market cap) cement manufacturer with operations in 14
countries and an annual production capacity of 30 million metric
tonnes. In June this year, South Africa's Public Investment
Corporation acquired a 1.5-percent stake in the company for $290
million. Dangote is also Africa's most generous philanthropist. Within
the last 12 months, he has given away over $100 million to causes
ranging from youth empowerment to flood relief, religious causes and
education. His younger brother, Sani Dangote, is Vice Chairman of
Dangote Group.
2. Allan Gray $8.5 billion
Industry: Financial services
Country Of Citizenship: South Africa
Age: 75
Marital Status: Married
This media-shy South African moneyman controls two investment
companies that collectively manage over $50 billion in assets. After
Gray received an MBA from Harvard, he worked for eight years at
Fidelity Management and Research in Boston before returning to Cape
Town in 1973, when he founded Allan Gray Limited, now the largest
privately owned asset manager in South Africa. It is also the most
successful with assets under management at approximately $30 billion.
According to inside sources at the company, Allan Gray's global
mandate share portfolio has achieved an average annual return of 28
percent since 1974. Keys to success include rigorous research and the
consistent application of Allan Gray's ages-old and time-tested
investment approach of buying heavily into companies whose share price
is less than their intrinsic value. Gray is also the founder of Orbis,
an asset manager in Bermuda, which he founded in 1989. Orbis has over
$21 billion under management. Gray's son, William, is President of
Orbis and equally serves as portfolio manager of the Orbis Funds. Gray
and his family are the controlling shareholders of Allan Gray Limited
and Orbis. In 2007, Gray endowed his Allan Gray Orbis Foundation with
$130 million, the single largest charity gift in Southern Africa at
the time. The foundation funds scholarships for poor but promising
South African high school students.
3. Mike Adenuga $8 billion
Industry: Oil, telecoms
Country Of Citizenship: Nigeria
Age: 60
Marital Status: Married
Nigeria's second richest man made his first fortune in his
mid-twenties by distributing lace fabrics and Coca- Cola, and by
handling lucrative government contracts during the regime of former
Nigerian military President, Ibrahim Babangida. In the early nineties
he founded Conoil Producing, an indigenous oil exploration and
production outfit that was the first Nigerian company to strike oil in
commercial quantities. Today, Conoil Producing's assets produce more
than 100,000 barrels of crude a day. Adenuga's other holdings include
Globacom, a Nigerian mobile telecommunications network that boasts
more than 25 million customers in Nigeria and Republic of Benin. He
also owns a 74-percent stake in Conoil PLC, a petroleum marketing
outfit listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
4. Folorunsho Alakija $7.3 billion
Industry: Oil
Country Of Citizenship: Nigeria
Age: 62
Marital Status: Married
Africa's richest woman sits atop Famfa Oil, a Nigerian oil company
that owns a 60-percent stake in OML 127, one of Nigeria's most
prolific oil blocks located at Nigerian offshore Agbami deepwater
field. Daily production at OML 127 stands at over 200,000 barrels per
day. Alakija studied fashion design in England in the eighties,
returning to Nigeria to found Supreme Stitches, a Nigerian fashion
label which enjoyed patronage from the more successful women in
Nigerian high society. One of her clients was Maryam Babangida, the
wife to former Nigerian military President, Ibrahim Babangida. Alakija
is believed to have ridden on the crest of this relationship to
acquire an oil block in 1993 at a relatively inexpensive price. Famfa
immediately entered into a joint venture agreement with Star Deep
Water Petroleum (a subsidiary of Chevron and Brazil's Petrobas),
ceding a 40-percent stake to the two companies. Famfa owned a
60-percent interest in the block until 2000, when the incumbent
Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, forcefully acquired a
50-percent stake in the block, transferring it to the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation – a government-owned oil company. Famfa
Oil immediately went to court to challenge the acquisition in a case
that dragged on for 12 years. In May 2013, the Nigerian Supreme court
reinstated the 50-percent stake to Famfa Oil. Alakija also owns
$200-million of real estate in the United Kingdom.
5. Nicky Oppenheimer $6.5 billion
Industry: Mining, investments
Country Of Citizenship: South Africa
Age: 68
Marital Status: Married
Diamonds are not forever. In November 2011, Nicky Oppenheimer made the
momentous decision to sell off his family's stake in De Beers, the
world's largest diamond producer, to mining behemoth Anglo American.
The landmark $5.1-billion deal ended the Oppenheimer family's
eight-decade control of De Beers, which began when Nicky's
grandfather, Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, took over the firm in 1927 and
consolidated the company's global monopoly over the world's diamond
industry. In 2011, E Oppenheimer & Sons, the family-owned investment
firm which Nicky controls, partnered with Temasek, the investment firm
of the Government of Singapore, to form Tana Africa Capital, a
$300-million private equity fund that invests in the fast moving
consumer goods (FMCG) and agriculture sectors.
6. Johann Rupert $6.1 billion
Industry: Luxury goods and retail
Country Of Citizenship: South Africa
Age: 63
Marital Status: Married
Johann Rupert is the chairman of Swiss-based luxury goods company,
Compagnie Financière Richemont SA, which owns premium brands such as
Cartier, Dunhill, IWC Schaffhausen, Piaget and Vacheron Constantin,
among many others. It is the sixth largest company on the Swiss stock
exchange and the third largest luxury goods company in the world.
Johann's father, Anton Rupert, founded a small cigarette manufacturing
operation, Rembrandt, in his garage in 1941 with a £10-investment.
Rembrandt became incredibly popular among young South African smokers
and by the 1950s, was already one of the leading tobacco firms in the
continent. Anton, ever the visionary, diversified from tobacco into
the industrial and luxury branded goods sectors, splitting Rembrandt
into two divisions: Remgro (an investment company with financial,
mining and industrial interests) and Richemont (the Swiss-based luxury
goods group). Johann is chairman and the largest individual
shareholder in both companies. He also owns two of South Africa's
best-known vineyards, Rupert & Rothschild and L'Ormarins, and founded
the Franschhoek Motor Museum, which houses his personal collection of
over 200 antique motor vehicles.
7. Nassef Sawiris $5.2 billion
Industry: Construction
Country Of Citizenship: Egypt
Age: 53
Marital Status: Married
Nassef Sawiris is the youngest of the three sons of Egyptian
billionaire and founder of the Orascom conglomerate, Onsi Sawiris. He
heads Orascom Construction Industries (OCI), one of the largest
companies in the North Africa region. In January this year, Nassef
announced that OCI was exchanging all global depositary receipts of
the company for newly issued shares of OCI NV on the NYSE Euronext in
Amsterdam or in exchange for cash. A consortium of investors,
including Microsoft founder Bill Gates, provided the $1 billion in
fresh capital required to pay off investors. The overwhelming majority
of the shareholders accepted the buyout offer, which subsequently led
to the company's delisting on the EGX. Nassef also serves as a
director at Lafarge, the French cement giant, and the Dubai
international Financial Exchange.
8. Gilbert Chagoury & Family $4.2 billion
Industry: Construction
Country Of Citizenship: Nigeria
Age: 67
Marital Status: Married
The Nigerian-Lebanese industrialist and diplomat is a co-founder of
the Chagoury Group, a large, multi-faceted Nigerian conglomerate with
interests in manufacturing, construction, real estate, hospitality and
healthcare. Gilbert was born in 1946 in Lagos by Lebanese immigrant
parents. After studying at the College des Freres Chretiens in
Lebanon, he returned to Nigeria where he kick-started his business
career. In 1971 he started GrandsMoulins du Bénin Flour Mills, a
milling company in Cottonou, Republic of Benin, which formed the
foundation of the Chagoury Group. Today, the Chagoury Group owns five
flour-milling companies in Nigeria and Republic of Benin. Chagoury's
milling operations collectively produce over 3,700 metric tonnes of
wheat flour every day. The Chagoury Group also owns a glass bottle
manufacturing plant and a plastic bottle manufacturing operation.
Other assets include Eko Hotel, a five-star Hotel in Lagos, and Hotel
Presidential, a five-star hotel in Port Harcourt. One of the newer
companies within the group is South EnergyX, a real estate development
company that is developing Eko Atlantic, a new $6-billion metropolis
on land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean. When completed, Eko
Atlantic is expected to provide residential accommodation for up to
250,000 people. Chagoury's property portfolio also includes Ocean
Parade, a series of 14 tower blocks overlooking a lagoon in Banana
Island, Nigeria's priciest residential community. Gilbert Chagoury's
career has not been without controversy. In 2001, in a British court,
he admitted to helping the family of deceased Nigerian dictator, Sani
Abacha, transfer $300 million into foreign accounts. He returned the
money and was indemnified of charges.
9. Nathan Kirsh $3.6 billion
Industry: Real Estate, Distribution
Country Of Citizenship: Swaziland
Age: 82
Marital Status: Married
Nathan Kirsh made his first fortune after he founded a successful corn
milling business in Swaziland. He deftly reinvested his profits in
food distribution and real estate. The bulk of his fortune is held in
various property and distribution companies. His investment company,
Kirsh Holding Group, owns a 50-percent stake in Swazi Plaza Properties
– the company that owns the largest shopping mall in Swaziland. He
also owns a 29-percent stake in Minerva, a London-based property
developer, and a 63-percent stake in Jetro Holdings, which operates
Jetro Cash and Carry stores and Restaurant Depots in the New York City
area. Jetro enjoys a near monopoly in supplying wholesale goods to
small stores and restaurants in the New York City area and had
revenues of over $6 billion in 2013. Kirsh is also the largest
individual shareholder in Magal Security Systems, a developer and
supplier of control systems and intruder detection systems.
10. Christoffel Wiese $3.4 billion
Industry: Retail
Country Of Citizenship: South Africa
Age: 72
Marital Status: Married
The South African businessman is the chairman and greatest individual
shareholder of Shoprite, Africa's largest discount retailer. After
studying Law at the University of Stellenbosch, Wiese took up a job as
an executive director at Pep Stores, a discount clothing chain his
parents co-founded. In 1979, Pep Stores diversified into groceries
through its acquisition of Shoprite, a small South African retail
chain. When Wiese became chairman of the company in 1981, he changed
the company's name to Pepkor and made a series of acquisitions
including Ackermans, a prominent clothing chain. He went on to list
Shoprite on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. He owns a 15-percent
stake in the $7-billion (market cap) company. While his Shoprite stake
remains his biggest asset, he also owns significant stakes in other
Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed companies, including Invicta
Holdings, PSG Holdings, Tradehold, and private equity firm, Brait.
Other assets include a private game reserve in the Kalahari and
Lourensford Wine Estate.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Powered by Blogger.
