South African retail tycoon Christo Wiese has recorded a significant increase in his net worth since the start of the new year 2022, thanks to a sustained rise in the shares of Africa’s leading supermarket retail chain, Shoprite Holdings Limited.
Wiese, who was instrumental in propelling Shoprite to its current position as Africa’s largest retailer, owns 10.7 percent of the leading supermarket chain, which equates to 63,110,920 ordinary shares.
The recent multimillion-dollar increase in the value of his stake can be attributed to sustained investor interest in the retail behemoth, which resulted in a rise in its share price on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
As of press time, Shoprite shares were trading at R221 ($14.8), 1.6-percent higher than their opening on the local bourse, giving the South African retailer a valuation of R133 billion ($8.8 billion).
Since the beginning of the year, shares in the group have risen from a price of R208.9 ($13.8) on Dec. 31, 2021 to R222 ($14.8) as of the time of writing this report, resulting in a total gain of 5.6 percent for shareholders.
As a result of the price increase, Wiese’s stake has risen from R13.2 billion ($871.6 million) on Dec. 31, 2021 to R13.9 billion ($920.4 million) at the time of writing.
This amounts to a total gain of R738.4 million ($48.8 million) for the retail tycoon since the start of 2022.
The recent surge in Shoprite shares, which resulted in a multimillion-dollar increase in Wiese’s stake, can be attributed to investor reactions to the retailer’s double-digit increase in sales during the first six months of its fiscal year 2022.
According to the retail behemoth’s operational update, the R91.1-billion ($5.59 billion) revenue generated from its operations in the first half of its fiscal year 2022 is 10-percent higher than the figures reported in the same period in 2021.
This strong growth in Shoprite’s operations over the first half of the year was driven by a double-digit increase in merchandise sales across key South African stores.
