South African billionaire Michiel Le Roux co-founded Capitec Bank with prominent businessmen Jannie Mouton and Riaan Stassen. Established two decades ago, Capitec Bank has become one of the world’s most reputable retail banking brands.

With a large customer base, Capitec Bank presently operates over 850 branches and more than 7,400 ATMs across South Africa. It also provides a wide range of transactional banking and loan products.

However, Le Roux has suffered a significant decline in the market value of his stake in the retail bank. According to reports, the market value of Le Roux’s 11.41-per cent stake has plummeted by a staggering $251 million since the start of the year. The significant loss has been attributed to sustained selling pressures in the bank’s shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

The development made Le Roux’s holdings in Capitec Bank, which consist of 13,190,043 ordinary shares, fall from $1.31 billion to $1.06 billion as of the time of drafting this report. Also, this decline can be attributed to a 19.2-per cent plunge in the bank’s shares since the start of the year. The plunge pushed its market capitalization below $9.3 billion.

Despite the decline in the market value of his stake in the bank, Le Roux remains one of the wealthiest businessmen in South Africa.

Capitec Bank’s financial results

Despite challenging circumstances like the military aggression in Ukraine, leading to a surge in energy and food prices, Capitec Bank, in its recently released financial results demonstrated remarkable resilience.

The bank also navigated the continuing uncertainty caused by load shedding, significantly affecting business confidence in South Africa. This comes as the bank reported an impressive 14-per cent rise in profits. The bank’s earnings soared from $466.4 million in 2022 to $531 million by the conclusion of the 2023 fiscal year.

The substantial increase in earnings can be traced to the bank’s exceptional performance in lending, investment, and insurance income.