Billionaire Watch
Aliko Dangote’s net worth falls by $1.4 billion in Q1 2021 amid stock market sell-off
Africa’s richest man saw his wealth decline from $17.8 billion at the beginning of the quarter, to $16.4 billion.
Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote saw his net worth fall by $1.4 billion to $16.4 billion in the first quarter of 2021.
Data tracked from the Bloomberg Billionaire Index revealed that the net worth of the Nigerian businessman declined from $17.8 billion at the beginning of the quarter, to $16.4 billion yesterday, the 31st of March 2021.
The billionaire who is the founder of Dangote Industries Limited, Africa’s most diversified manufacturing conglomerate, has seen his wealth decline by about 7.9% this year following the fall in the shares of his listed businesses.
The shares of Dangote Cement and Dangote Sugar Refinery opened the year at N244.9 and N17.60 respectively. However, the sell-off in the Nigerian equity space triggered by the rising yields in the fixed income space saw the shares of these companies slid to N215 and N17 per share respectively.
This move led to a fall in the market capitalization of the companies and culminated into the $1.4 billion loss in the net-worth of the billionaire in the first quarter of 2021.
The Billionaire had an eventful quarter
Aliko Dangote and his leading manufacturing conglomerate, Dangote Industries had a rather impressive and eventful first quarter, despite the decline in his net worth.
During the quarter, Dangote’s $2.5 billion granulated fertilizer plant located in Lekki Free Trade Zone (LFTZ), went through a production test run, as the plant looks set to commence operation.
Guiseppe Surrace, the Chief Operations Officer of Dangote Oil Refining Company in a video revealed the progress made at the Dangote Oil Refinery, noting that plans have been made to complete pipes installation in the facility in line with the schedule.
Dangote’s cement business, Dangote Cement Plc, became the second listed Nigerian entity to hit the N1 trillion revenue mark in 2020. The cement company also sustained a dividend payout of N16 per share for the third year, as the board proposed to pay shareholders a dividend of N272 billion.
The billionaire is expected to receive about 90% of this dividend.
Facts about Dangote’s net worth 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.
Around the World
Elon Musk loses an estimated $6bn after a Tesla car accident killed two people
Elon Musk’s net worth dipped by $6 billion following a tragic Tesla car accident that killed two people.
The second richest man in the world, Elon Musk, witnessed his wealth shed an estimated $6bn after a Tesla car was involved in an accident that led to the death of two people.
Tesla stocks dropped by 3.8% after the news of the crash went mainstream. The resultant effect on Elon Musk’s wealth was a $5.71bn loss in a single day.
READ: Google threatens to remove its search engine from Australia due to media code
The Accident
Two men lost their lives on Saturday night in Houston when their 2019 Tesla model car slammed into a tree. Police authorities on sight claimed the car might have been on autopilot due to the sitting position of the corpses.
They also struggled to put out the fire from the Tesla car and even called Tesla for help. The death of the two men has sparked a heated argument between Tesla and its critics. Autopilot or not?
Although police officers’ assertion that the car may have been on autopilot remains unconfirmed, it has raised serious uncertainty about the safety of Tesla’s autopilot feature and Tesla’s critics are not backing down on this.
READ: Dealers explain why ‘Tokunbo’ Cars are expensive
Elon Musk reacts
Elon Musk has reacted to the news, insisting that the autopilot feature in the crashed vehicle was not enabled. According to him, the Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the accident was not professional.
READ: Meet the 39 years old Chinese billionaire electric car maker
What you should know
Elon Musk is now worth $183bn following the recent drop. He closed the gap on Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to $4bn early last week. The gap has widened to $14bn today.
Billionaire Watch
TikTok’s 38 year-old founder is worth $35.5 billion – Here’s what we know
At 38 years old, Zhang Yiming is the 39th richest man in the world.
TikTok a video sharing app was named the most downloaded app of the first quarter of 2021 but not much is known about its founder. The app now has over 689 million active users worldwide according to statistics from oberlo.com. It has also been downloaded over 2 billion times on App Store and Google Playstore. It is arguably the most popular video-sharing app out there and the numbers keep growing.
TikTok was able to grow at a faster rate than Facebook and Instagram since its startup. The man behind this massive success is currently worth $35.5 billion and he is our person of interest today.
READ: TikTok to relocate headquarters to London following approval by UK ministers
Meet Zhang Yiming, the founder of Bytedance
38-year-old Zhang Yiming is the CEO and Founder of ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. Zhang Yiming majored in microelectronics and software engineering at Nankai University. He worked for various tech startups including Microsoft before settling to start his own company.
The billionaire leads a very secretive lifestyle. He founded ByteDance back in 2012 and steered it all the way to financial success. He is currently worth $35.5 billion but his net worth is well on its way to doubling based on recent valuations.
ByteDance has two main flagship products – Toutiao, an AI-backed news aggregator and TikTok which he founded later after the success of Toutiao.
READ: US government to ban WeChat and TikTok from app stores
Revisiting the success of TikTok
Last year Zhang Yiming’s ByteDance was regarded as the most valuable startup in the world. TikTok became the most downloaded iOS app worldwide in the first quarter of 2019, according to the US research app Sensor Tower.
TikTok is available in 155 countries and in 75 languages.
READ: Folorunsho Alakija’s net worth drops below $1bn. A few things to know about her
Impressive valuation
Bytedance’s first major valuation was in 2018 where it was valued at $75bn according to Forbes. This was followed by another valuation which put it at $140bn according to CB Insights.
The latest 2021 valuation places ByteDance at over $250bn according to the South China morning post.
Zhang Yiming owns a quarter of ByteDance and with this recent valuation, his net worth is set to grow to $60bn according to experts in the field.
READ: China will not accept any Microsoft-TikTok deal
Donald Trump scare
The former president of the United States was on the verge of banning TikTok in the country. He claimed the App has ties to the Chinese government. This would have been a setback giving that the application is quite popular among US millennials and Gen Z. Donald Trump lost his re-election bid and very little has been said by the Biden administration on the issue.
What you should know
- At 38 years old, Zhang Yiming is the 39th richest man in the world. His parents were civil servants.
- The popularity of TikTok in the United States has raised concerns from US regulators.
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