South African executive Alan Pullinger gains more than $1 million from stake in FirstRand

Omokolade Ajayi -

South African executive Alan Pullinger has seen his investment in FirstRand Limited grow by R16.3 million ($1.1 million) since the start of the year, as investors on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange maintained their purchasing interest in the major bank.

In terms of market capitalization, FirstRand Limited is Africa’s largest financial services firm. FNB, RMB, WesBank and Aldermore are among the companies in its integrated financial services portfolio.

Under the guidance of Pullinger, the company’s CEO, the bank operates as an African leader with extensive activities in South Africa, the United Kingdom, and other regional markets in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Pullinger holds a minority shareholding of about 0.1 percent in the leading financial services group, amounting to 5,634,679 ordinary shares.

The recent million-dollar increase in his stake can be attributed to a single-digit increase in the South Africa-based bank’s shares, as investors priced in a consensus estimate that its earnings growth would reach more than 30 percent for the first six months of the year ending Dec. 31, 2021, representing the first half of its current fiscal period.

As of press time on Feb. 14, shares in the leading lender were trading at R63.7 ($4.21), 2.1-percent lower than the local bourse’s opening price this morning.

In the past three months, FirstRand has been the sixth most-traded stock on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, with investors and dealers transacting a total volume of 644 million shares in 358,365 transactions valued at R38.5 billion ($2.5 billion).

The bank’s shares have climbed in value from R60.8 ($4.02) at the start of the year to R63.7 ($4.21) as of the time of the writing of this report, representing a 4.8-percent gain for shareholders.

Meanwhile, the market value of Pullinger’s stake has risen from R342.6 million ($22.6 million) at the beginning of 2022 to R358.9 million ($23.7 million) at the time of writing this report.

This equates to a R16.3-million ($1.1 million) profit for the multimillionaire CEO since the year began.