Billionaire Watch
Dangote, Rabiu, Adenuga make top 10 on Forbes’ Africa billionaires list
Nigerian billionaire entrepreneurs; Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga and Abdul Samad Rabiu appear in the top spots of Forbes’ Africa billionaires list.
Nigerians and South Africans dominate the top 10 spot on Forbes’ Africa billionaires list, which is an annual ranking of the richest Africans compiled and published by American business magazine, Forbes.
The 10 richest people in Africa according to Forbes have made their wealth sources including investments in diamonds, telecom, cement, sugar, media and mining amongst others. In total, they have a combined net of $59.8 billion.
The top 10 list doesn’t include a woman and is dominated by four South Africans and three Nigerians, with notable names like Aliko Dangote, Nicky Oppenheimer, Johann Rupert, Mike Adenuga, Abdul Samad Rabiu amongst the rest.
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10. Koos Bekker
- Net Worth: $2.8billion
- Age: 68
- Location: South Africa
- Origin of wealth: Media and Investments
- Company: Naspers
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According to Forbes, Koos Bekker is revered for transforming South African newspaper publisher, Naspers into an eCommerce investor and cable TV powerhouse. In 2019, Naspers put some assets into two publicly-traded companies, MultiChoice Group and Prosus which contain the Tencent stake.
9. Patrice Motsepe
- Net Worth: $3billion
- Age: 58
- Location: South Africa
- Origin of wealth: Mining
- Company: African Rainbow Materials
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Patrice Motsepe, the founder and chairman of African Rainbow Minerals, became a billionaire in 2008 – the first black African on the Forbes list. In 2016, he launched a new private equity firm, African Rainbow Capital, focused on investing in Africa.
8. Naguib Sawiris
- Net Worth: $3.2billion
- Age: 66
- Location: Egypt
- Origin of wealth: Telecom
- Company: Orascom Telecom Holding
Naguib Sawiris is a scion of Egypt’s wealthiest family. His brother Nassef is also a billionaire. He built a fortune in telecom, selling Orascom Telecom in 2011 to Russian telecom firm, VimpelCom (now Veon) in a multibillion-dollar transaction.
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7. Isaad Rebrab
- Net Worth: $3.2billion
- Age: 76
- Location: Algeria
- Origin of wealth: Food
- Company: Cevital Industrial Group
Issad Rebrab is the founder and CEO of Cevital, Algeria’s biggest privately-held company. Cevital owns one of the largest sugar refineries in the world, with the capacity to produce 2 million tons a year. Cevital owns European companies, including French home appliances maker Groupe Brandt, an Italian steel mill and a German water purification company.
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6. Abdul Samad Rabiu
- Net Worth: $5.5billion
- Age: 60
- Location: Nigeria
- Origin of wealth: Cement, Sugar
- Company: BUA Group
Abdulsamad Rabiu is the founder of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate active in cement production, sugar refining and real estate. In early January 2020, Rabiu merged his privately-owned Obu Cement company with listed firm Cement Co. of Northern Nigeria, which he controlled. The combined firm, called BUA Cement Plc, trades on the Nigerian stock exchange; Rabiu owns 98.5% of it. Rabiu, the son of a businessman, inherited land from his father. He set up his own business in 1988 importing iron, steel and chemicals.
5. Mike Adenuga
- Net worth: $6.3billion
- Age: 67
- Location: Nigeria
- Origin of wealth: Telecom, Oil
- Company: Globacom
Mike Adenuga, Nigeria’s second richest man, built his fortune in telecom and oil production. His mobile phone network, Globacom, is the third-largest operator in Nigeria, with 55 million subscribers. His oil exploration outfit, Conoil, operates 6 oil blocks in the Niger-Delta.
4. Johann Rupert
- Net Worth: $7.2billion
- Age: 70
- Location: South Africa
- Origin of wealth: Luxury goods
- Company: Compagnie Financiere Richemont
Johann Rupert is chairman of Swiss luxury goods firm, Compagnie Financiere Richemont. The company is best known for the brands Cartier and Montblanc. It was formed in 1998 through a spinoff of assets owned by Rembrandt Group Limited (now Remgro Limited), which his father formed in the 1940s. He owns a 7% stake in diversified investment firm Remgro, which he chairs, as well as 25% of Reinet, an investment holding co. based in Luxembourg.
3. Nicky Oppenheimer
- Net Worth: $8billion
- Age: 75
- Location: South Africa
- Origin of wealth: Diamonds
- Company: De Beers Group
Nicky Oppenheimer, the heir to his family’s fortune, sold his 40% stake in diamond firm, DeBeers to mining group, Anglo American for $5.1 billion in cash in 2012. He is the third generation of his family to run DeBeers, and took the company private in 2001. For 85 years until 2012, the Oppenheimer family occupied a controlling spot in the world’s diamond trade.
2. Nassef Sawiris
- Net Worth: $8.5billion
- Age: 60
- Location: Egypt
- Origin of wealth: Constructions, Investments
- Company: Orascom Construction
Nassef Sawiris is an investor and a scion of Egypt’s wealthiest family. His most valuable asset is a nearly 6% stake in sportswear maker Adidas. In December 2020, he acquired a 5% stake in New York-listed firm Madison Square Garden Sports, owner of the NBA Knicks and the NHL Rangers teams. He runs OCI, one of the world’s largest nitrogen fertilizer producers, with plants in Texas and Iowa; it trades on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange.
1. Aliko Dangote
- Net Worth: $12.1billion
- Age: 63
- Location: Nigeria
- Origin of wealth: Cement, Sugar
- Company: Dangote Group
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, founded and chairs Dangote Cement, the continent’s largest cement producer. He owns 85% of publicly-traded Dangote Cement through a holding company. Dangote Cement produces 45.6 million metric tons annually and has operations in 10 countries across Africa. Dangote also owns stakes in publicly-traded salt and sugar manufacturing companies. Dangote Refinery has been under construction since 2016 and is expected to be one of the world’s largest oil refineries once complete.
Billionaire Watch
Dangote’s net worth declines by $1.2 billion in February
Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote lost $1.2 billion of his estimated net worth.
Aliko Dangote, the founder of Africa’s most diversified manufacturing conglomerate, Dangote Industries, has seen his net worth decline by a whopping $1.20 billion in the month of February alone.
Africa’s richest man whose wealth peaked at $18.4 billion this year, saw his wealth declined by $1.20 billion, to $16.6 billion from $17.8 billion recorded on the 31st of January 2021, data retrieved from Bloomberg Billionaire Index reveals.
Source: Bloomberg Billionaire Index
The fall in Dangote’s net worth is partly attributable to the decline in the share price of his flagship company, Dangote Cement Plc (DCP), as well as the share price of his integrated sugar business, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc (DSR).
The decline in the share price of these companies which impacted their market capitalization was occasioned by profit-taking activities by investors in February, across the market spectrum.
Facts about Dangote’s networth valuation
The majority of Dangote’s fortune is derived from his 86% stake in the publicly-traded Dangote Cement, as the billionaire holds the shares of the company directly and through his conglomerate, Dangote Industries.
He holds stakes in Nascon Allied Industries and United Bank for Africa, directly and through Dangote Industries, a conglomerate that also owns closely held businesses operating in food manufacturing, fertilizer, oil and other industries.
Dangote’s most valuable closely held asset is his fertilizer plant with a capacity to produce up to 2.8MT of urea annually. The $2.5 billion fertilizer plant owned by Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, is expected to commence operation in the first quarter of 2021.
The billionaire also owns a $12 billion oil refinery which is expected to be completed this year. However, the plant is not included in his net worth valuation, for some reason.
What you should know
- The shares of Dangote Cement at the close trading activities for the month of February declined by 6.78%, extending the YTD loss on the shares of the cement behemoth to over 10%.
- On the flip side, shares of Dangote Sugar Refinery also declined by 15.29% to close the month lower at N18 per share, thus correcting the YTD gains of its shares to 2.27%.
Billionaire Watch
Battle of Titans: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos share world’s richest title
Stiff competition prevails as both Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk share the world’s richest title.
The battle for the worlds richest has suddenly become so intense that both Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos both share the world’s richest man title on the account they both have a net worth of $184 billion.
Bezos, the man behind the world’s most valuable retail company, Amazon, has steadily been seeing his wealth valuation appreciate amid high market volatility currently prevailing at global financial markets.
The 49-year-old self-made billionaire, Elon Musk is sharing, the world’s richest when recent data revealed Tesla recorded impressive gains of about $9.75 at the end of Monday’s trading session.
Investors are currently increasing their buying pressure on Tesla as they weigh reports that the electric vehicle industry is expected to grow into a $5 trillion market over the next decade, thereby giving the world’s most valuable car company room for more upside.
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It’s important to note that both mega billionaires have in recent times focused their considerable brainpower on space technology as Bezos recently accelerated his space-travel efforts through his firm popularly known as Blue Origin.
Recent reports suggest SpaceX founded by Musk raised another $850 million this month from a group of leading institutional investors led by Sequoia Capital.
Such investment now puts SpaceX’s valuation at $74 billion, a 60% jump from August, and helped boost Musk’s net worth by about $11 billion, according to the index.
Bezos who is now the Chairman of the $1.58 trillion valued company, Amazon has about $9.63 billion cash in the bank.
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The online retail giant returns have under his tenure as the chief executive officer of the e-commerce giant actually ranked second among all S&P stocks since the IPO in May 1997.
The 57-year-old billionaire is the founder of Amazon, the world’s biggest online retailer company on earth. The American-based company sells books, household goods, and other retail products through its flagship platform.
His company also controls the Whole Foods grocery chain and offers video streaming services and remains the biggest cloud computing provider worldwide.
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That being said, both Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos’s wealth valuation would currently buy 107 million troy ounces of gold or 2.91 billion barrels of crude oil.
Anonymous
January 23, 2021 at 10:04 pm
Father in heaven connect my husband with one them for good in JESUS name Amen
Abiodun John
January 24, 2021 at 10:13 pm
My heavenly father pls connect me today with one of these people in Jesus Christ name