South African billionaire Nicky Oppenheimer has surpassed Peter Thiel, co-founder of the U.S. e-commerce company PayPal, and U.S. billionaire Reinhold Schmieding on the Bloomberg Billionaires List, with his net worth increasing by more than $600 million in 93 days.
At the start of the year, Thiel, the founding partner of San Francisco-based venture capital firm Founders Fund and Facebook’s first outside investor, had a net worth of $9.16 billion.
Meanwhile, Schmieding, founder and president of Arthrex, a closely held international medical device company and leader in new product development and medical education in orthopedics, had a net worth of $8.67 billion nearly 93 days ago.
Since the start of the year, Thiel’s and Schmieding’s net worth have dropped by more than $150 million to $8.45 billion and $8.52 billion, respectively, while Oppenheimer’s net worth is now valued at $8.55 billion.
Despite the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the accompanying economic sanctions on commodities, companies and financial assets in the global equity market, Oppenheimer’s fortune has increased by 7.5 percent or $600 million from $7.95 billion to $8.55 billion.
The $600-million wealth surge can be attributed to his well-diversified investment portfolio in private equity firms, as he maintains investments in Africa, Asia, the United States and Europe through London-based Stockdale Street and Johannesburg-based Tana Africa Capital.
Oppenheimer and his son Jonathan’s family office moved to open an outpost in Singapore in 2021 to increase its Asia exposure and partner with the region’s wealthy to capitalize on the growth phase of Asian companies and create impressive value.
According to the family, their presence on the continent will help drive investments between Asia and its home market of Africa, as synergies between Africa and Asia will be significant over the next 20 to 30 years.
