South African multimillionaire businessman and leading executive Alan Pullinger has acquired an additional 478,679 ordinary shares in Africa’s largest financial services group, FirstRand Limited, in 2021 at a cost of R29.02 million ($1.84 million).
At the beginning of 2021, Pullinger, the current CEO of the South Africa-based financial services group, held a beneficial 0.0919-percent stake in FirstRand, amounting to 5,156,000 shares.
Information gathered by Billionaires.Africa revealed that the South African executive acquired 478,679 shares during the year in two separate deals executed for 248,679 shares on Sept. 28 and 230,000 shares on Dec. 15, at a price of R63.11 ($4.012) and R57.92 ($3.682) per share, respectively.
Cumulatively, Pullinger spent a total cash consideration of R29.02 million ($1.84 million) to increase his stake from 0.0919 percent at the start of the year to 0.1004 percent as of Dec. 31, 2021.
As a result, his shareholding increased from 5,156,000 to 5,634,679 shares.
As of press time, Jan. 6, shares in FirstRand were trading at R62.54 ($3.976), 13-basis points lower than its opening price on the bourse this morning.
At the current price, the market value of Pullinger’s stake is valued at R352.4 million ($22.4 million). This valuation places him among the wealthiest investors in South Africa.
FirstRand Limited is Africa’s largest financial services group in terms of market capitalization. Its integrated financial services portfolio comprises FNB, RMB, WesBank and Aldermore.
The company is an African market leader with vast operations in South Africa, the UK, and other regional markets in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In a recent disclosure, the leading financial services group revealed that it expected its earnings to rise by more than 30 percent for the first six months of the year ending Dec. 31, 2021, representing the final half of its current financial period.
The earnings guidance issued by the leading financial services provider can be linked to a sustained rebound in the retail and commercial banking segment in South Africa, as the country’s economy staged a strong recovery from the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bank stated that headline earnings per share, the primary profit measure in South Africa, will be at least R2.586 ($0.1604) for the period, up from R1.989 ($0.12325) a year earlier. This represents an increase of more than 30 percent when compared with prior years.
