Johann Rupert, South Africa’s richest man and one of Africa’s wealthiest men, has seen his net worth increase by $240 million in just four days as a result of a recent surge in the shares of his Swiss luxury goods holding, Richemont.
Rupert, the company’s chairman, derives the majority of his net worth from his stake in the Swiss luxury goods holding, which he established in 1979 after spinning off the international assets of Rembrandt Group Ltd. (now Remgro Limited), a South African-based company founded by his father Anton Rupert in the 1940s.
Rupert’s net worth has risen from $8.62 billion on July 15 to $8.86 billion at the time of writing this report, according to data retrieved from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This amounts to a total wealth gain of $240 million for the leading billionaire in the past four days.
The $2400million increase in his net worth follows a recent surge in Richemont shares from R170.76 ($10) on July 15 to R187.1 ($11) at the time of writing this report, as investors on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange renewed buying interest in the group after it reported a double-digit increase in sales in the first quarter of its 2023 fiscal period.
According to the sales report, Richemont’s total sales increased by 20 percent in the first quarter of its 2023 fiscal year, from €4.4 billion ($4.42 billion) in the corresponding quarter of 2022 to €5.26 billion ($5.28 billion). Despite the impact, sales rose in April and May due to a rebound in demand for watches and jewelry.
The double-digit increase in sales can be attributed to higher sales in the United States, Europe, and Japan in the three months leading up to June, which offset a 37-percent drop in total sales in Mainland China due to economic weakness and the impact of a new wave of lockdowns that resulted in store closures.
Unlike its British counterpart Burberry, Richemont, which operates a diverse portfolio of luxury brands such as Chloe, Dunhill, Alaa, Cartier, and Delvaux, was able to weather the storm in its markets, particularly in the Asia-Pacific.
