VENTURES AFRICA – The next time you find yourself walking or driving through the Central Business District of Kampala, Uganda’s bustling, cosmopolitan capital, take a moment to gaze up at the city’s impressive glistering skyline.

And if you bother to count the buildings one by one, chances are that you’ll count a decent number belonging to Sudhir Ruparelia, a Ugandan property developer, hotelier, banker and Africa’s newest billionaire.

Born in Uganda 56 years ago, Ruparelia was compelled to relocate to the United Kingdom with his parents when he was 16. The year was 1972 and Uganda’s Indophobic leader at the time, Idi Amin had expelled all African-Asians from the East African country in an ethnic cleansing move. Idi Amin’s government claimed that indigenous Indians were hoarding wealth and goods to the detriment of indigenous African and were ‘sabotaging’ the economy. While in the United Kingdom, Ruparelia survived by doing menial jobs and diligently saving his earnings. By 1985, when he was 29, he returned to Uganda armed with $25,000 in savings with which he started building the eponymous Ruparelia group now valued at about $1.5 billion with interests in everything from hotels, residential real estate, insurance and floriculture to banks and educational institutions. His controlling stake in the Ruparelia group makes him Uganda’s richest man, with a net-worth of at least $1.1 billion, according to data available to VENTURES AFRICA.

Legend has it that Sudhir Ruparelia, a 56 year-old ebullient, yet controversial Indian-Ugandan tycoon, owns half of the buildings in Kampala. Of course, this is a hyperbole of monumental proportions, but judging by the cheeky grin on his face, Ruparelia apparently relishes the exaggeration.

“If I owned half of the buildings in Kampala, I’d probably be god,” he says cheekily. “Reports of my property holdings are quite frankly, grossly exaggerated. I don’t own half of Kampala as people suggest, but I own quite a lot. And I’ve worked very hard for it,” he says the last sentence emphatically.

Speke Hotel Group

Ruparelia owns a significant chunk of Kampala’s most prestigious pieces of commercial and residential real estate and in some of the swankiest neighbourhoods in the country. Through one of his holding companies, Speke Hotel Group, he owns in his kitty, the Speke resort, a 5-star Hotel and resort which sits on 76 acres on an idyllic setting at Munyoyo on the shores of Lake Victoria. This is easily the most valuable asset in his extensive property portfolio. The resort has 59 Presidential suites, mainly because in 2007, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting took place there and 59 Heads of state were present. Sudhir says he built the resort specifically for the meeting. Other facilities include 10 state-of-the-art conference rooms, including a 1,000-seat ballroom and 9 multi-function meeting rooms accommodating groups of 10 to 300. The resort also has Uganda’s only Olympic size swimming pool, an equestrian centre and a choice of bars and restaurants. The property has a current value of at least $160 million according to Ruparelia, a figure corroborated by a couple of estate surveyors in Uganda. In 2010, the Libyan Government had attempted to acquire the resort for $120 million. Sudhir declined.

“The price was simply not good enough,” he recollects. “In any case, it would be hard for me to contemplate selling Speke resort. The place holds sentimental value for me. 59 Heads of Government were in this place. I think it’s hard to place a value on that,” Sudhir says during a recent lunch meeting with VENTURES AFRICA’s Managing Editor.

While Speke Resort remains his most important property till date, Sudhir also owns an impressive collection of other valuable hotel assets. He owns the prestigious Kabira Country club which has 95 luxurious guest rooms. Kabira Country club is the preferred leisure spot of many of Uganda’s wealthiest people and young highflying professionals. Sudhir’s portfolio also includes Speke Hotel which is located in Kampala’s CBD and Tourist Hotel, a budget hotel also located in the CBD. He also owns Speke Apartments, which provide 27 modern serviced apartments in one of the best residential areas of Kampala. Rent at the apartments are not cheap – at least by Ugandan standards. The cheapest you’d pay for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,800 a month. And if you think the price is outrageous, the apartments are fully booked all the time, mostly by corporate executives, expatriates and government officials.

But these are just five of his properties. Through his real estate holding company, Meera Investments (which is named after his first daughter), Sudhir owns at least 300 residential and commercial properties in Uganda, from the landmark Crane Chambers located on Kampala road in the CBD, which serves as the Headquarter for his many businesses to scores of other apartment blocks, shopping centers, office buildings and chunks of extremely valuable land in the city. He owns Baumann House, another landmark building in Kampala, located on Parliamentary Avenue, Kampala. The building houses the Headquarters of the Ugandan Police force and previously served as the office for over 200 Members of Parliament in Kampala. Sudhir also owns 2 private Islands. In 2011, Uganda’s President, Yoweri Museveni revealed that Sudhir earns $400m per annum from his businesses, mostly from his real estate concerns.

Crane Bank

Sudhir Ruparelia is the founder and dominant shareholder in Crane Bank, Uganda’s second largest commercial bank.

The beginnings of Crane Bank were modest. When Sudhir Ruparelia returned to Uganda from the United Kingdom, he began importing popular brands of Kenyan alcohol with the $25,000 he had saved through his years of working menial jobs in the United Kingdom. Uganda had no breweries at the time and so the country depended largely on imports. Sudhir struck a coup when he acquired the sole rights to distribute Kenya’s most premium beer brands in Uganda. Along with importing alcoholic beverages, Ruparelia also ventured into importing commodities like salt, sugar and cigarettes from traders at the Mombasa ports.

At the time, the vast majority of Sudhir’s customers were foreign nationals who paid for their stock in foreign currency. Sudhir spotted opportunity. He quickly formed an informal foreign exchange business. It became an immediate success, and Sudhir was making daily profits of about $10,000.

“I knew I had hit something big,” he says.

By 1989, President Yoweri Museveni banned the importation of beer in an effort to encourage indigenous manufacturing of alcohol. Sudhir decided he was not interested in producing beer. He opted to focus on his informal Forex business instead.

In 1990, Sudhir formalized this currency trading business when he opened Crane Forex Bureau. It was the first of its kind in Uganda and it is still the biggest chain of Forex Bureaus in the country.

With the daily profits Sudhir was realizing from Crane Forex bureaus, he started buying up huge chunks of land and dilapidated commercial and residential structures in Kampala’s CBD and other suburbs at ridiculously low prices.

“Some of the properties I bought at the time were valued at about 30, 40, 50 thousand dollars. That was way back in the early 90s. Properties were cheap back then and we were making a lot of money on a daily basis, so I kept acquiring. Today, many of those properties are worth millions of dollars,” Sudhir explains.

It was during this period (1990 – 1994) that Ruparelia acquired a huge chunk of land and property in Kampala’s CBD, as well as several other choice properties which house his numerous hotel, tourism and residential interests. Sudhir says he acquired some properties for as little as $50,000 in 1991 and they are worth $12 million today. Many of the properties he owns made their value within 4 years. It’s with the rental income earned from these properties and his thriving forex business that Ruparelia continually acquired more properties at dirt cheap prices.

As Sudhir’s forex business became so large, he decided it was time to build an even bigger financial services corporation. He applied for a commercial banking license which was granted. By 1995, Sudhir opened the doors of his new bank, Crane Bank to the general public. Sudhir used customer deposits to fund large-scale forex deals as well as acquisitions, developments and other activities in the Ruparelia Group while leveraging on impeccable customer service, attractive interest rates for deposits and the largest ATM network in Uganda to lure customers. Today, Crane Bank is the second largest commercial bank in Ugandan- second only to Stanbic Bank. In 2011, the Bank’s Profit before tax (PBT) was UGX90.23 billion ($40m) representing about 61 percent of Stanbic’s pre-tax profit of $65.4 million. Sudhir is the controlling shareholder of Crane Bank.

Other Assets

Other companies in the Ruparelia group include Goldstar Insurance, an Ugandan non-life Insurance firm. The Ruparelia Group also owns Kampala International School (KISU), an international high school in Kampala located in the high-brow Bukoto district. KIS’ students are children of Uganda’s elite and the school fees per annum are as high $13000. The property sits on 12 acres of prime land at the center of Kampala. The property the school sits on is valued at over $15 million alone. He also owns Kampala Parents School, a secondary school in Kampala for middle-class Ugandans and Rosebud, Uganda’s largest exporter of roses. Rosebud commands around 35% of Uganda’s rose export, exporting over 9 million stems per month.

Controversy

In 2010, a Canadian businessman Sadrudin Gulamhussein claimed Sudhir attempted to fraudulently acquire Gulanhussein’s $1.2 million property by forging a land title for the property located in Nasakero, a highbrow residential area in Kampala. The case lingered in court and the Judge ruled in favour of the Canadian businessman. Read more about the case here.

Philanthropy

As Uganda’s richest man, Sudhir is also one of the country’s most notable philanthropists. Sudhir has given away millions to building churches, mosques, rehabilitating schools and funding hospitals.

*Breakdown Of Sudhir Ruparelia’s Key Assets*

Meera Investments – $600 million

Crane Bank – $250 million

Speak Hotel Group – $240 million

Rosebud – $10 million

Other Investments (Schools, Personal Homes) – $30 million

Total: $1.12 Billion

The post Africa’s Newest Billionaire: Ugandan Builds $1.1 Billion Fortune From The Ground Up appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Net Worth: R634 million ($71 million)

Age: 55 (D.O.B 12 May 1957)

Residence: Johannesburg

Country of Citizenship: South Africa

Marital Status: Married, 3 Children

Source: Mining, Banking, Insurance

Saki Macozoma is a prominent South African businessman with interests in public companies like Standard Bank, Liberty and Safika Investment Holdings. He is one of the country’s richest men with a net worth of more than $71 million as at October this year.

This net worth is based on his shareholdings in Standard Bank, Liberty and Safika. Safika, where he is a controlling shareholder, holds 25 percent stake in Standard Bank and in turn Standard Bank holds 20 percent in Safika. Standard Bank is Liberty’s parent company.

But Macozoma’s net worth could be far bigger than the amount reflected by his shareholdings in listed companies because he holds significant stakes in private mining companies like Tshipi Entle Manganese and its sister open-pit miner Tshipi Borwa Manganese. He is also the chairman of Andisa Capital, an empowerment financial services company. He leads a consortium which owns 51 percent of Andisa Capital.

He is also a director of Tutuwa Strategic Holdings 2, which is a subsidiary of Safika, which means Safika owns more than 50 percent in Tutuwa. He is also a chairman of Lliso Consulting and a director of VW South Africa.

Because these companies are not listed, shareholder information in these companies is not readily available to the public, making it almost impossible for anyone to see how much money the shareholders make. Unlike in the US, South Africa does not have a share register, making it hard to get Macozoma’s actual shareholding in other little companies. Attempts to get comment from him drew a blank as he was said to be travelling.

Bio

Sakumzi “Saki” Macozoma was born on 12 May 1957 in South Africa’s eastern coastal town of Port Elizabeth. He is a former South African political prisoner. He studied Political Science and Economics at the University of South Africa and journalism in Boston. He holds a BA degree from Unisa.

After spending five years imprisoned on Robben Island for anti-apartheid activities, he joined the South African Council of Churches (SACC). He also worked for the ANC while at the SACC.

Macozoma’s rise in business has been nothing short of meteoric. After the ANC’s about-turn on economic policy, which saw the ruling party ditch nationalisation policies in favour of conservative economics, he emerged as one of the most committed defenders of the new path.

While government was often hesitant to offer ideological justifications for its economics, Macozoma was one of a few who were unapologetic about SA’s capitalist path. He has often stated that creating a black bourgeoisie necessarily creates economic inequality and that this is a “normal” consequence of capitalism.

Macozoma the businessman

After South Africa’s first all-race elections in 1994, the ANC, under the leadership of the iconic Nelson Mandela, identified a few of its foot soldiers (comrades) that needed to go into business with a mission of transforming it.

Macozoma had become a Member of Parliament in 1994 and he left the Legislature in 1996 to take up a position as managing director of Transnet, South Africa’s transport utility. This is a job he held for five years.

He never looked back as a businessman from there onwards. He is now chairman of Liberty Group, the fourth biggest JSE-listed life insurer in South Africa. He is also chairman of Stanlib, a fund manager that is a joint venture between Standard Bank and Liberty. He is also chairman of Safika Holdings and deputy chairman of the Standard Bank Group. Macozoma is ranked 39th richest man in South Africa with investments worth R634 million ($71 million).

 
Breakdown Of Saki Macozoma’s Key Assets

Standard Bank

Standard Bank has a 150-year history in South Africa and started building a franchise in the rest of Africa in the early 1990s. It currently operates in 18 countries on the African continent, including South Africa, as well as in other selected emerging markets.

Its strategy is to build the leading African financial services organisation using all its competitive advantages to the full. It will focus on delivering superior sustainable shareholder value by serving the needs of its customers through first-class, on-the-ground operations in chosen countries in Africa. It also connects other selected emerging markets to Africa and to each other, applying its sector expertise, particularly in natural resources, globally. Its key differentiator is people who are passionate about its strategy, wherever in the world they are based.

Standard Bank Group is listed on the JSE and the Namibian Stock Exchange. Normalised headline earnings for 2011 were R13.6 billion ($1.9 billion), total assets are over R1 497 billion (approximately $185 billion) and it employs approximately 52 000 people (including Liberty) across all geographies. Standard Bank’s current market capitalisation is more than R177 billion ($13.4 billion). It opened its 500th branch in the rest of Africa during this year and in total Standard Bank has 1 222 branches, including loan centres, and 7 945 ATMs on the African continent. Macozoma owns 1.591.64 million ordinary Standard Bank shares and 52.9 thousands preference shares. Standard Bank’s share price is at 111.00 rands.

Liberty

Liberty is an African wealth management group which, for more than fifty years, has delivered innovative long-term solutions that assist customers to achieve financial stability in their chosen lifestyles and throughout their life cycles.

As a group of companies, Liberty offers an extensive, market-leading range of products and services to help customers build and protect long-term wealth. These include life and health-related insurance, investment management and retirement income facilitation. Customers have flexible choices and the input provided by Liberty’s advisers equips them with the knowledge and expert advice they need to make the right decisions with confidence, no matter what their stage of life.

Safika

Safika Holdings is a South African investment holding company with a broad range of interests in the industrial, mining, gaming, financial services, human resources, TMT telecommunications, media and technology sectors of the economy

The company is well positioned in the market place and is in a period of expansion aimed at broadening and intensifying positions in carefully selected investment areas. Safika is also expanding beyond the borders of South Africa.

Safika’s business philosophy is to take active roles in the companies in which it invests and to vigorously add value to the enterprises. Its management style is designed to foster talent and encourage initiative at all levels.

Tshipi é Ntle Manganese Mining

Tshipi, as the company is affectionately known, is a mining company which also has a new open pit manganese mine in the Kalahari Manganese Field (KMF) in the Northern Cape.

The new Borwa mine is a modern low cost manganese producer that has set the benchmark for how mines should be constructed, managed and operated in the New South Africa.

The Tshipi Borwa open pit mine has been designed to produce 2.5mtpa of manganese ore grading 37 percent, and the 163mt of open pit resources should ensure that the mine will continue to deliver economic benefits to the surrounding communities for many decades to come. The manganese ore is railed to the ports of Durban or Port Elizabeth before being exported to clients predominantly located in the Far East.

Ntsimbintle SPV presently holds 50.1 percent of Tshipi’s equity and Jupiter Mines owns 49.9 percent. Ntsimbintle SPV is 74 percent owned by various BEE groupings including Safika Resources and Nkojane while OMH holds 26 percent of Ntsimbintle SPV.

Andisa Capital

A consortium led by Saki Macozoma and Moss Ngoasheng of Safika Holdings and Ronnie Ntuli of Nduna Trust owns 51 percent of Andisa Capital and the Standard Bank Group owns 49 percent. In line with Andisa Capital’s skills development strategies and affirmative action plans, the company continues to be black controlled in terms of ownership and operations.

Andisa Capital acquired from Standard Bank the agency business of SCMB Securities, the bank’s stockbroking arm, as well as the bank’s treasury outsourcing business, Standard Risk and Treasury Management Services (SRTMS), including its wholly owned subsidiary that recently started operations in Botswana. Andisa will also be establishing private equity and corporate finance divisions.

Editor’s note:

The Ventures Africa wealth team will uncover, identify and profile African multi-millionaires with net worth of over $50 million through Africa’s Secret Millionaires- an illuminating new weekly feature on Ventures Africa.

The idea behind Africa’s Secret Millionaires is quite simple. We will traverse across the continent seeking out immensely successful, yet low-key tycoons and business leaders who have been largely under-reported, and then tell their stories. We will look through financial reports, track equity holdings around stock markets, identify specific shareholding structures in privately-held companies and consult with everyone from fund managers to investment bankers, realtors and financial analysts to find information that was has not been made public, and then we will place accurate values on the assets of these ultra-high net worth individuals.

The post Africa’s Secret Millionaires: Sakumzi “Saki” Macozoma appeared first on Ventures Africa | .