After amassing $130 million in wealth gains in August, South African billionaire Nicky Oppenheimer’s net worth has dropped by millions of dollars in the past 22 days due to a decrease in the valuation of his diverse private equity investment portfolio.
According to data tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Oppenheimer’s net worth has dropped by $380 million from $8.43 billion at the start of the month to $8.05 billion at the time of writing this report.
The decline in his net worth reduced his year-to-date wealth gains to $100 million, down from nearly half a billion dollars earlier this month when his net worth was estimated to be $8.43 billion.
Oppenheimer, South Africa’s second-richest man, trailing only Johann Rupert, chairman of Richemont, derives the majority of his wealth from private equity investments in Africa, Asia, the United States, and Europe through London-based Stockdale Street and Johannesburg-based Tana Africa Capital.
He has been involved in private equity for a long time, though many of his private equity investments were made after his family’s 40-percent stake in De Beers, the world’s largest diamond producer, was sold to mining giant Anglo-American in 2012.
Despite a recent drop in his net worth, Oppenheimer remains one of the continent’s wealthiest businessmen. According to Bloomberg, he is the 241st richest billionaire in the world.
Aside from his private equity investments, Oppenheimer, a supporter of wilderness conservation, owns South Africa’s largest private game reserve, Tswalu Kalahari, with his son Jonathan.
Since 1937, the Oppenheimer family has owned the 65,000-hectare Shangani Ranch, which employs 400 people and keeps at least 8,000 cattle for beef export to the United Kingdom. It is known as a wildlife sanctuary because it serves as a migration route for animals.
