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South African pharmaceutical tycoon Stephen Saad's stake in Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd. has risen to R9.94 billion ($598.8 million) after analysts raised their price targets on the Johannesburg-listed drugmaker and its shares extended a yearlong rally.
Aspen closed at R168.86 in Johannesburg on Nov. 9, up 74% from a year earlier. Analysts covering the stock lifted their average 12-month price target by 7.7% to R175, about 3.6% above the latest close.
Saad, Aspen's co-founder and group chief executive, holds 58,862,648 Aspen shares, or about 13% of the company. That includes 64,797 deferred incentive shares he accepted on Nov. 5 under the Aspen Management Deferred Incentive Scheme, disclosed to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Nov. 9. The award, granted at R161.73 a share, had a deemed value of R10.5 million ($631,000) and vests in tranches after three, four and five years.
His stake is now worth about R730 million more than the R9.21 billion his holding was worth on Oct. 16, when Aspen closed at R156.70.
A year of recovery
The rally has lifted Aspen well clear of the lows it hit in late 2025, when the stock slumped below R100 a share. The rebound began on Dec. 29, when Aspen agreed to sell its Asia Pacific business, excluding China, to BGH Capital for A$2.37 billion. That deal closed in May.
Aspen ended 2025 at R116.79. The stock has gained 45% since then.
Aspen bought back about 3% of its issued shares for R1.98 billion ($119.3 million) between May 29 and Aug. 31. In September it reported higher annual earnings for the year through June and launched a buyback program covering up to 20% of its issued share capital.
Aspen distributes Eli Lilly & Co.'s Mounjaro weight-loss and diabetes drug across sub-Saharan Africa and expects sales of the medicine on the continent to exceed $124 million in 2027.
Still below the peak
Even after the rally, Aspen trades far below its record of R448.68, set on Jan. 27, 2015. At that price, Saad's current holding would be worth about R26.4 billion ($1.59 billion).
Saad, 62, was born in Durban in 1964. He co-founded Aspen in 1997 with Gus Attridge, who now serves as the group's chief adviser, and built it into Africa's largest pharmaceutical company and a global supplier of anesthetics, injectables and generic medicines.
The Government Employees Pension Fund, through the Public Investment Corporation, is Aspen's largest shareholder, with about 20%. Coronation Asset Management holds about 15%.
Figures were converted at R16.6 to the dollar.
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