South Africa’s richest man: When we talk about tycoons magnates and wealthy barons we usually focus on their car collections lifestyles and net worth. But this time we are talking about Johann Rupert South Africa’s richest man and his speciality is having a share in a number of companies. To be precise Johann Rupert and his family have stakes in more than 180 companies and brands that are functioning in a wide range of industries from luxury goods and banking to liquor and telecoms. As of 19 February 2025 Rupert was the world’s 133rd richest person with a net worth of $16.6 billion (R307 billion) according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Talking about the formative years of the Rupert family its wealth was initially made on tobacco products after Johann’s father Anton Rupert established the Voorbrand Tobacco Company in 1939 manufacturing snuff which he soon renamed Rembrandt Ltd. Johann studied economics and corporate law at Stellenbosch University in Stellenbosch South Africa during 1970s. However he dropped out and moved to New York to work for Chase Manhattan Bank and Lazard Frères for five years. He returned to South Africa in 1979 and launched Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) which was later merged with Rand Consolidated Investments following which Rupert joined his father Anton’s Rembrandt business empire. Rupert became the chairman of the company in the 1980s. In 1988 the Rembrandt group founded the Swiss luxury goods company Richemont which in turn acquired Rembrandts shares in Rothmans. In 1999 Rothmans International merged with British American Tobacco (BAT) the worlds second largest cigarette producer. South African-based Remgro held 10% and Richemont held 18.6% of BAT before unbundling. Remgro was formed after a Rembrandt Group restructuring in 2000 with significant shareholdings in more than 30 companies including several operating in the banking healthcare consumer goods and media industries. Richemont also owns such luxury brands as Cartier (jewellery); Alfred Dunhill and Sulka (designer clothing); Seeger (leather bags); Piaget Baume & Mercier and Vacheron Constantin (Swiss watches) and Montblanc (writing instruments). Currently the Rupert family’s revenue is mainly generated from their stake in Richemont world’s biggest luxury watchmaker. The company made a profit of Euros 2.35 billion (R45 billion) in its last full financial year. As of 19 February 2025 the Rupert family’s stake in Richemont was valued at roughly $12.1 billion (R223 billion) followed by Reinet Investments valued at $1.26 billion (R23 billion). The company was formed to house the Rupert family’s tobacco investments and held a 4% stake in British American Tobacco (BAT) upon formation. Reinet acquired the Lehman Brothers’ private equity business Trilantic Capital Partners in 2009 which has become its primary business. In 2009 Reinet acquired the Lehman Brothers’ private equity business Trilantic Capital Partners which has become its primary business. The Rupert family has a 0.1% stake in BAT. Among the most noteworthy are the Distell Group FirstRand Mediclinic RCL Foods RMB Holdings Sabido Investments and Unilever. The Rupert family is also involved in telecom and technology sectors in South Africa with Remgro owning 57% of Community Investment Ventures Holdings (CIVH) the parent of home fibre network company Vumatel and backhaul fibre infrastructure firm Dark Fibre Africa 25% shareholding in Seacom which provides high-capacity international fibre-optic bandwidth in southern and eastern Africa. Apart from that Rupert also established Vodacom Group Limited the first mobile network which was a joint venture between Telkom Vodafone and VenFin. The Rupert family holds $2.73 billion (R50.4 billion) in cash according to Bloomberg assessment. Rupert has founded Laureus Sport for Good Foundation which uses sport-related community projects to help young people overcome poverty homelessness diseases and violence. An environment lover Rupert oversees the biodiversity protection venture Peace Parks Foundation which was co-founded by his father.