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Just a day after delivering quarterly earnings that outperformed Wall Street expectations, South African billionaire Zak Calisto’s Karooooo Limited saw its market cap slip below $1.5 billion. The Singapore-based mobility platform, which trades on the Nasdaq, experienced a 16 percent share decline on Wednesday as investors took profits following a brief rally the previous day.
Karooooo stock jumps, then retreats sharply
On Tuesday, the company’s stock surged more than 7 percent after Karooooo reported robust second-quarter results for its 2026 fiscal year. Subscription revenue jumped 20 percent year over year to R1.18 billion ($68 million), driven largely by the continued strength of its flagship Cartrack business and growing momentum in its delivery segment.
Total revenue climbed to R1.34 billion ($77 million), thus reinforcing the company’s strong operational performance and steady expansion across global markets. The upbeat results pushed Karooooo’s shares to $56.4 lifting its market cap to $1.75 billion and cementing Calisto’s position among South Africa’s wealthiest business leaders.
However, the optimism was short-lived. By Wednesday, a wave of profit-booking among investors reversed those gains, sending Karooooo shares down to $47.14 apiece and trimming its market cap to $1.46 billion. This came despite the company’s solid fundamentals and ongoing efforts to strengthen its operation and market position as a leading player in smart mobility and telematics.
Calisto’s stake falls below $850 million amid Karooooo slide
The market downturn also affected Calisto’s net worth. His 58 percent stake—amounting to 17,692,593 shares—dropped in value from more than $1 billion to $847 million, erasing the paper gains he briefly enjoyed during Tuesday’s surge, reflecting clearly that Calisto’s fortune remains closely tied to the company he founded in 2001 to help South Africans recover stolen vehicles—a business that has since evolved into a global enterprise serving millions of users.
Under Calisto, Karooooo has expanded well beyond its original vehicle recovery focus. With Cartrack, its wholly owned subsidiary, the group offers real-time mobility data analytics to support intelligent transportation and logistics solutions. It maintains active operation in 23 countries across five continents and serves more than 2.6 million users, reflecting the company’s broad footprint and its growing influence in the connected mobility ecosystem.
South African billionaire’s vision powers Karooooo’s global rise
In a statement accompanying the company’s second-quarter results, Calisto emphasized the strength of Karooooo’s subscription model. “Our subscription revenue growth increased from 15 percent in FY25 Q2 to 20 percent in this quarter,” he said. “We continue to demonstrate our ability to accelerate our subscription revenue growth at scale, deliver strong earnings, drive innovation, and increase our distribution capabilities while maintaining a strong, financially disciplined, agile, innovative and owner-oriented culture. We believe that our strong unit economics coupled with a clean balance sheet positions us favorably to continue to scale.”
