South Africa has emerged as the largest wealth market in Africa and the 32nd largest worldwide (in terms of total wealth held) according to The South Africa Wealth Report 2020 by New World Wealth (HNWI). According to the report, $267 billion (R5,02 trillion) of the total $636 billion wealth held in South Africa is held by millionaires (HNWIs). The average South Africa individual has net assets of approximately US$11000 (wealth per capita). This is a relatively healthy level when compared to most other emerging markets.
According to the report, there are approximately 38400 millionaires (HNWIs) living in South Africa, each with net assets of $1 million or more. There are 2030 multi-millionaires living in SA, each with net assets of $10 million or more. There are 92 centi-millionaires living in SA, each with net assets of $100 million or more. There are 5 billionaires living in SA, each with net assets of $1 billion or more.
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The performance over the past decade has been poor, with total private wealth held in the country declining by 6 percent from $677 billion in 2009 to $636 billion in 2019. It was up and down during the 10 year period – it reached a high of $802 billion in 2010. This performance according to the report was negatively impacted by a declining currency – the rand depreciated from R7.40/$ at the end of 2009 to R14.00/$ at the end of 2019. A sluggish local property market – prime residential indices are down significantly when measured in dollar terms, the ongoing migration of wealthy people out of the country and a large number of local businesses closed down during the period, especially in the SME space.
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Performance over the past year was also poor, with wealth held in the country declining by 2 percent in 2019. This drop was caused by a weakening residential property market locally and a lack of new business formation. A number of HNWIs also left the country during the year. Wealth forecasts are relatively poor for 2020/2021 due to the expected impact of the coronavirus on stock markets, the rand, salaries and general business opportunities in SA. All major sectors are expected to be negatively impacted.
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South Africa’s main securities market is the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), which is the 19th largest exchange in the world with a market cap of approximately $900 billion (in Dec 2019). As The valuations of the JSE all share index were up by a moderate 3 percent during the review period (in dollar terms), which was far below the 113 percent growth of the MSCI World Index. JSE performance was negatively impacted by the poor performance of several key sectors including: real estate, construction, retail, mining, telecoms and healthcare.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry