Wheel of fortune turns for wealthiest

Commodity rally boosts Glencore's Glasenberg but Atul Gupta drops out of dollar billionaire club

The past 12 months have been terrible for three out of four dollar billionaires on the Rich List, although Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg is probably thanking the commodity gods for their generosity.

Atul Gupta of Oakbay Investments, Bruno Steinhoff of Steinhoff and PSG founder Jannie Mouton dropped out of the dollar billionaire club.

But if ranked according to rands, the number of billionaires in South Africa has risen to 52 from 50 last year. One of the newest additions to the list - debuting at No13 - is Dis-Chem founder and CEO Ivan Saltzman, who owns 53.55% of the pharmacy chain.

While retail magnate Christo Wiese's portfolio slumped by 22% to $5.7-billion (about R81-billion), the wheel of fortune seems to have turned in Glasenberg's favour - his wealth grew to $4.2-billion, up from last year's $1.6-billion at an exchange rate of R13.69 to the dollar.

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During 2014 and 2015, Glencore was hurt by a crashing commodities market, costing Glasenberg about two-thirds of his wealth.

Glencore's share price has since shot up by just over 138%, narrowing the gap between Glasenberg and Wiese.

Sitting on $5.7-billion, Wiese is still king when it comes to dollar billionaires on the Business Times Rich List, compiled by Who Owns Whom.

This year Stephen Bradley, founding CEO of Aspen Pharmacare, is the South African in third position in dollar billionaire status with $1.4-billion, based on his 12.13% stake in the pharmaceutical company.

Glasenberg is the only person in the top 10 whose wealth has appreciated compared to the previous year.

Glencore's winning streak was extended to the company's chief financial officer, Steve Kalmin, and independent non-executive director William Macaulay, who came in at No20 and 21 respectively on the list. Their respective holdings have appreciated by 140% in the 12-month reporting period.

John Whittaker of Intu Properties is the fourth dollar billionaire this year, with his investment in the company valued at $1.13-billion.

According to Forbes' ranking of wealthiest Africans, Johann Rupert, who won this year's Sunday Times lifetime achievement award, is Africa's fourth-ranked dollar billionaire, with a net worth of $6.3-billion. His directors' holdings in Richemont, Remgro and Reinet Investments, according to the Rich List, amount to R3.18-billion.

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According to Forbes the average net worth of global dollar billionaires is $3.6-billion. The US still leads with 540 billionaires. China, including Hong Kong, has 320 billionaires and Germany is third with 120.

Forbes measures all assets, including stakes in public and private companies, real estate, art, yachts and planes.

According to the Business Times Rich List, Rupert is ranked at 22, but considered with Rupert Beleggings - the family investment vehicle - he is in the dollar billionaire ranks, with a wealth of $1.13-billion. The Rich List measures investments in listed companies.

Even though he failed to make the dollar billionaires cut, the commodities shine put Patrice Motsepe in the big gains league. The value of his holdings in African Rainbow Minerals was up 151% to R9.5-billion.

ARM, like Glencore, had previously felt the effect of the commodity slump. Its share price, which was R42.84 on December 1 2015, soared 150.7% to R107.40 on November 30 this year.

Apart from a few outliers, including Glasenberg, the value of the world's billionaires has also dropped in the past year. Forbes' 2016 Billionaires List shows that the global number of dollar billionaires has fallen to 1810 from 1826.

Their collective net worth is $6.48-trillion, almost three times the size of Africa's GDP in 2015. South Africa's GDP was $312-billion, or R4.27-trillion at the current exchange rate.

• Read here to find out how the Rich List research was compiled