Aliko Dangote outperforms African peers on Bloomberg Billionaire Index

Aliko Dangote has overperformed his five African billionaire peers as his wealth grew in the first week of this year while that of others declined, according to the Bloomberg Top 500 Billionaires Index.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world’s richest people. Details about the calculations are provided in the net worth analysis on each billionaire’s profile page. The figures are updated at the close of every trading day in New York.

Analysis of the index shows that from January 2 to 5, Dangote’s net worth rose by $239 million to $15.3 billion, while other African billionaires lost a combined $1.25 billion.

A breakdown of the index shows that Egypt’s billionaires, Nassef Sawiris and Naguib Sawiris, recorded a cumulative loss of $493 million, while South Africa’s Johann Rupert & family, Nicky Oppenheimer and Natie Kirsh collectively lost $753 million.

While the index shows that Dangote is the richest person in Africa, the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires ranking put him in the second position.

The ranking, which provides ongoing updates on the net worth and ranking of each individual confirmed to be a billionaire, showed that Dangote’s net worth declined to $9.8 billion as of January 5, 2024 from $13.5 billion as of January 30, 2023.

South Africa’s Johann Rupert & family was worth $9.9 billion, down from $10.7 billion, unseating Dangote as the wealthiest person after a 12-year rule.

Further details on the billionaires

Aliko Dangote

Dangote, who is the CEO of Dangote Group, is ranked 123rd on Bloomberg’s list. He is also the only Nigerian on the list.

According to Bloomberg, the majority of his fortune is derived from his 86 percent stake in publicly traded Dangote Cement. He holds the shares in the company directly and through his conglomerate, Dangote Industries.

It said: “Dangote’s other publicly traded assets include stakes in Dangote Sugar, NASCON Allied Industries, and United Bank for Africa. His stakes in the publicly traded companies are held directly and through Dangote Industries, which also owns closely held businesses operating in food manufacturing, fertiliser, oil, and other industries.

“His most valuable closely held asset is a fertiliser plant with a capacity to produce up to 2.8 million tonnes of urea annually. Its net value is based on a discounted cash flow analysis by KPMG. The valuation was confirmed by outside analysts.”

His cash holdings are based on an analysis of dividends, taxes, insider transactions, and other expenditures.

Johann Rupert and family

Rupert and family, worth $12 billion, recorded a $420 million year-to-date loss.

Ranked 165th, the majority of his fortune is derived from Cie Financiere Richemont, a publicly traded luxury goods manufacturer and retailer, and the world’s largest luxury watchmaker.

Parties associated with Rupert and his family investment vehicle, Compagnie Financiere Rupert, own 0.5 percent of the luxury company’s Class A shares, which are publicly traded, according to its March 2023 annual report.

The billionaire serves as chairman of the family’s investment vehicle. Individual ownership stakes aren’t disclosed and are attributed to Rupert in this analysis.

The value of the family’s cash holdings is calculated based on dividend proceeds as well as taxes, insider transactions, and market performance.

Nicky Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer with a $9.65 billion net worth recorded a $200 million loss. He is ranked 234th on the list.

The majority of Oppenheimer’s fortune is derived from the proceeds he collected selling his family’s 40 percent stake in De Beers, the world’s largest rough diamond producer, to Anglo American for $5.2 billion in August 2012.

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The billionaire told Bloomberg News in a November 2011 interview that he planned to deploy most of the proceeds into private equity investments focused on Africa, with some of the money going to increase his stake in Tana Africa Capital, a private equity joint venture he has with Temasek Holdings, a Singapore-based investment fund.

He invested an undisclosed amount in 4Di Capital, a South Africa-focused venture capital firm, in November 2012, according to an article on the news website, Ventureburn, citing a company statement.

He formerly held a less than one percent stake in Anglo American, which was removed from the analysis in December 2017 following the completion of a sell-down.

Nassef Sawiris

Ranked 292nd, his net worth dropped by $235 million last week to $8.17 billion. His most valuable asset is a 39 percent stake in publicly traded fertilizer group OCI, according to the company’s 2021 annual report.

He owns the shares directly and through the Netherlands-based holding company, Capricorn Capital BV.

The billionaire’s father, Onsi Sawiris, founded OCI’s predecessor, Orascom Construction, in 1950. His older brother, Samih, also owns shares in the company.

His cash holdings are calculated based on an analysis of dividends, taxes, market performance and insider transactions including a $3.8 billion payment he made in January 2008 to acquire shares in Lafarge.

Natie Kirsh

Ranked 320th, Kirsh lost $133 million last week and his net worth declined to $7.48 billion net worth.

The majority of Kirsh’s fortune is derived from a 75 percent stake in Jetro Holdings, a New York-based company that manages two U.S. wholesale grocery businesses: Jetro Cash & Carry and Restaurant Depot.

The business has annual revenue of more than $10 billion based on a December 2019 Fitch credit report and subsequent performance by peers.

Jetro and Restaurant Depot operate as sister businesses and their combined value is calculated using the average enterprise value-to-sales multiple of four publicly traded peer companies: Costco Wholesale, Kroger, Metro, and Loblaw Companies.

Through Kirsh Group he controls 52 percent of Sydney-based Abacus Property Group, a publicly traded real estate investment trust, according to its Sept. 16, 2022 stock exchange filing.

The billionaire has real estate on four continents, including London’s first office skyscraper, Tower 42, and Birkenhead Point in Sydney, Australia. These properties are valued using either the average dollar-per-square foot rate of recent similar transactions or the income capitalization method, using data from sources including the National Australia Bank, Savills, and Knight Frank.

Naguib Sawiris

He was ranked 414th with a net worth of $6.22 billion as of Friday after losing $258 million.

The majority of his fortune is held in cash and closely held assets, most of which come from the sale of his stake in Russian telecommunications company, Vimpelcom, for almost $4.1 billion in 2011 and 2012.

He acquired 20 percent of Vimpelcom in 2010 as part of a deal to sell most of his telecommunications assets, including Italy’s Wind Telecomunicazioni and 51 percent of Cairo-based Orascom Telecom Holding, for $1.5 billion-plus the Vimplecom shares.

He controls most of his investments through Luxembourg-based holding vehicles which he’s estimated to control with his father, Onsi. Their stakes in the holding companies aren’t disclosed.

His share is calculated at 70 percent, based in part on the ownership structure of another asset owned by the Sawiris family: publicly traded fertilizer company, OCI, which is controlled by Onsi and Naguib’s brother, Nassef.