South African tycoon Johan Burger loses $5.8 million on investment in FirstRand

South African multimillionaire businessman Johan Petrus Burger has lost R92.6 million ($5.8 million) on the market value of his equity interest in FirstRand Limited after the lender’s share price fell by double digits on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

FirstRand Limited is Africa’s largest financial services group in terms of market capitalization, with operations in South Africa, the United Kingdom, and regional markets in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Shares in the South African financial services group were worth R66.24 ($4.85) per share as of press time on June 20, 50 basis points lower than their opening price on the local bourse this morning, with the group’s capitalization valued at R360 billion ($22.5 billion).

Burger, who retired as CEO of the banking group in March 2018, owns 0.12 percent of the leading financial services group, or 8,045,000 ordinary shares.

Since March 29, the market value of his stake in FirstRand has fallen from R625.5 million ($39.03 million) to R532.9 million ($33.25 million) at the time of writing, resulting in a total loss of R92.6 million ($5.8 million) for the multimillionaire in 83 days.

The drop in his stake can be attributed to a 14.8-percent drop in the bank’s shares, which fell from R77.75 ($4.9) on March 29 to R66.24 ($4.85) at the time of writing.

The recent decline in FirstRand shares comes after the South African lender announced that its headline earnings per share and normalized earnings per share are expected to increase by more than 20 percent for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022.

This comes on the heels of increased loan demand, higher net interest income as interest rates rise, and higher insurance premiums collected by its subsidiaries, all of which have put FirstRand on track to deliver a double-digit profit increase this year.