Nathan Kirsh spent 70 years building quietly. One deal just made him Africa's second-richest person

Most people building the kind of wealth that reshuffles continental rich lists do it loudly. Nathan Kirsh did it the other way.

For more than seven decades, the 94-year-old South African-born billionaire operated largely out of public view, accumulating a food distribution empire that quietly became the largest cash-and-carry wholesale business in the United States. Then, on March 30, Sysco Corporation agreed to buy it -- and everything changed.

The deal, valued at $29.1 billion including debt, is the largest acquisition in Sysco's history and one of the biggest food distribution transactions ever completed in the United States. Under its terms, Jetro Restaurant Depot shareholders received $21.6 billion in cash and 91.5 million Sysco shares, valued at approximately $7.5 billion at the time of announcement. Kirsh, who owns roughly three-quarters of Jetro through a holding company, walked away with at least $10 billion in new wealth, lifting his estimated net worth to approximately $17.1 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

That number moved him past Johann Rupert and Abdulsamad Rabiu in a single announcement. He now sits as Africa's second-richest individual, behind only Aliko Dangote.

Kirsh started with a single warehouse in Brooklyn in the 1970s. The concept was simple: sell food at low prices to independent restaurants and small food businesses, with no delivery, no minimums, no fuss. Customers came to the warehouse, loaded their own carts and paid cash. The model was unglamorous. It was also highly scalable. By the time Sysco came calling, Jetro Restaurant Depot operated 166 large-format warehouse stores across 35 states, serving more than 725,000 independent restaurants and food operators. The business reported $2.1 billion in operating income on $16 billion in revenue in 2025.

Sysco chief executive Kevin Hourican acknowledged that succession was a factor in the timing. Kirsh is in his 90s, and his children do not run the business. The family concluded that Sysco was the right home to take it into its next chapter. Stanley Fleishman, Jetro's executive chairman, said the founding vision never changed across five decades: support the independent operator who needs one-stop shopping at low prices, seven days a week.

The market's initial reaction to the deal was punishing for Sysco. Shares fell as much as 16% in the 24 hours after the announcement as investors processed the scale of the debt required to finance it. S&P Global Ratings revised its outlook on Sysco to negative and warned that a credit rating cut could follow if leverage stayed above 4.0 times earnings for an extended period. Sysco expects the deal to close by the third quarter of fiscal 2027, pending regulatory clearance.

Kirsh, who holds citizenship in Eswatini and has lived there for decades, built his business across two continents through apartheid-era sanctions, a transatlantic pivot and more than half a century of quiet compounding. He kept a low profile throughout. No splashy interviews, no public pronouncements, no Forbes covers.

One deal changed the math. At 94, Nathan Kirsh is now the second-richest person on a continent of 1.4 billion people, and most of them are only just hearing his name.