South African billionaire Johann Rupert keeps control of Remgro as Ninety One takes 5%

Ninety One has bought more than 5 percent of Remgro, the investment company Johann Rupert chairs, in a purchase that gives South Africa's largest private asset manager a substantial economic interest and very little say over how the business is run.

Remgro disclosed the transaction in a Stock Exchange News Service announcement on Monday, saying clients of Ninety One SA had acquired a beneficial interest in its ordinary shares.

"Following the acquisition, Ninety One now holds 5.0156% of the issued ordinary shares of the Company on behalf of its clients," Remgro said.

The company filed the required notices with the Takeover Regulation Panel and the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission under the Companies Act and JSE Listings Requirements.

Ninety One holds the shares for clients rather than on its own balance sheet, so the position does not represent direct corporate ownership by the asset manager.

Remgro carried 517,038,888 shares in issue at a price of R193.71 on July 3, giving it a market capitalisation of about R100 billion. On that basis Ninety One's clients hold roughly 25.9 million shares worth around R5.02 billion, or about $310 million at R16.21 to the dollar, according to Billionaires.Africa calculations.

Why 5 percent buys little influence

The Rupert family controls Remgro through a class of shares that does not trade.

Johann Rupert and his family hold all 39 million unlisted B-shares through Rupert Beleggings Proprietary Limited, each carrying 10 voting rights. Those shares, together with 7.5 million listed ordinary shares held by Rupert and his son Anton Rupert Jr, gave the family 43.2 percent of the votes as of 2022, according to published accounts of the structure.

Ninety One's clients therefore hold an economic stake several times larger than the family's ordinary shareholding, while the family retains multiples of their voting power.

The arrangement is common among South African family holding companies and is the mechanism that has kept Remgro under Rupert control since Anton Rupert founded the business as the Rembrandt Group in 1948, trading tobacco. It expanded into wine, spirits and foreign markets before listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1956.

Johann Rupert restructured the family's interests through the 1990s and early 2000s, splitting them into Richemont for international luxury goods, Reinet as a Luxembourg-based investment vehicle, and Remgro as the diversified South African arm. Jannie Durand runs Remgro as chief executive.

The portfolio now spans more than 30 investee companies, including Mediclinic, OUTsurance, Discovery, FirstRand, RCL Foods, Rainbow Chicken, eMedia, Vumatel, Seacom, Dark Fibre Africa, TotalEnergies and Heineken Beverages. It also holds the Blue Bulls rugby franchise, the Stellenbosch Academy of Sport and Stellenbosch Football Club.

Ninety One's recovery

The purchase follows a year in which Ninety One reversed several years of decline.

Assets under management reached £171.8 billion for the financial year to March 31, roughly R3.9 trillion at the time and an increase of 31 percent from £130.8 billion. The figure had fallen to £126 billion in 2024 from £143.9 billion in 2022.

A 15-year strategic agreement with Sanlam drove much of the rebound. The transaction included the acquisition of Sanlam Investment Management and added £18.3 billion, about R401 billion, to assets under management. Ninety One became Sanlam's primary active investment manager for single-managed local and global products and gained preferred access to its distribution network, while Sanlam agreed to anchor Ninety One's international private and specialist credit strategies.

Client flows turned positive, with net inflows of £2.8 billion against outflows of £4.9 billion the previous year. Revenue rose 9 percent to £763.3 million, net revenue 9.35 percent to £650.2 million, and profit after tax 2.27 percent to £153.5 million.

Hendrik du Toit, the chief executive, said demand for emerging markets exposure was recovering and the firm was investing through the cycle.

"Ninety One is a resilient and robust business with positive momentum," he said. "We are in a stronger position than a year ago."

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index tracked Rupert's fortune at $19.9 billion on June 15, its highest recorded level. Remgro is the smallest of his three main holdings by value, behind Richemont and ahead of Reinet, which reported net asset value of about R127.8 billion at the end of March.