Patrice Motsepe, Africa’s first black billionaire to be listed in the Forbes’ rankings made his fortunes in the mining industry at the dawn of South Africa’s new democratic dispensation that ended the oppressive apartheid regime.

Through several holding companies, he has diversified his portfolio into different sectors of the global economy with his most notable investment vehicles being African Rainbow Minerals and Ubuntu-Botho Investments Pty Ltd designed in complex web of interrelated interests as unraveled here;

African Rainbow Minerals (ARM)

African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) is a leading South African diversified mining and minerals company with operations in South Africa, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, and Australia.

Patrice Motsepe holds about 40% interest in ARM, a mining juggernaut that has interests in 15 mining and mineral processing operations as follows;

  1. Harmony Gold Mines – 12.1% owned by ARM and operating mines in South Africa and Papua New Guinea, Harmony Gold is the largest gold mining company in South Africa. In December 2022, Harmony also acquired 100% of the Eva Copper Mine Project and 2,100km² of regional exploration tenements in the world-class North West Minerals Province in Queensland, Australia.
  2. Modikwa Mines – ARM owns 41.5% of these mines in a joint venture with Anglo Platinum. They are involved in the mining of Platinum Group of Metals.
  3. Two Rivers Mines – Commissioned in 2006, ARM owns 54% of these mines. They are involved in the mining of Platinum Group Metals.
  4. Bokoni Mines – Acquired in September 2022, these mines are 100% owned by ARM and are also involved in the mining of Platinum Group Metals.
  5. Nkomati Mines – Commissioned in August 2007, ARM owns 50% of the mines in a joint venture with Norilsk Nickel. Nkomati extracts and processes Nickel, Chrome, and Platinum Group Metals.
  6. Khumani Mines – Dealing in Iron ore mining, it is 50% owned by ARM in a joint venture with ASSORE, a mining holding company principally engaged in ventures involving base minerals and metals.
  7. Beeshoek Mines – Dealing in Iron ore mining, it is 50% owned by ARM in a joint venture with ASSORE. Both Khumani and Beeshoek are located in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, some 200km west of the town of Kimberley.
  8. Nchwaning Mines – Commissioned in 2006 in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa and 50% owned by ARM, N’chwaning has one of the largest manganese reserves in South Africa having estimated reserves of 323.2 million tons of manganese ore grading 42.5% manganese. The other 50% is owned by ASSORE.
  9. Gloria Mines – Dealing in Manganese ore mining, it is 50% owned by ARM in a joint venture with ASSORE. Manganese ore mines of Nchwaning and Gloria are based in the Black Rock area of the Kalahari, in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. They export a majority of the manganese ore with a small portion supplied to the subsidiary, Cato Ridge Works in KwaZulu-Natal.
  10. Cato Ridge Works – Located in Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa, and dealing in Manganese alloy processing, it is 50% owned by ARM in a joint venture with ASSORE. This joint venture is among the top ten producers of ferromanganese globally.
  11. Cato Ridge Alloys Works – Located in Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa, and dealing in Manganese alloy processing, it is 25% owned by ARM in a joint venture with ASSORE at 25%, Mizushima Ferroalloy at 40% and Sumitomo Corporation at 10%.
  12. Sakura Mines – Located in Malaysia, Sakura Ferroalloys Sdn Bhd is the country’s largest seaborne exporter of High Carbon Manganese, supplying mainly to the USA, and Europe. It is 27% owned by ARM in a joint venture with ASSORE at 27%, Sumitomo Corporation at 27% and China Steel Corporation at 19%.
  13. Machadodorp Works – A smelting plant that ARM is operated in a joint venture with ASSORE.
  14. Participative Coal Business (PCB) Mines – A coal mining plant that is 20.2% owned by ARM in a joint venture with Glencore.
  15. Goedgevonden (GGV) mines – An open-cut mine complex that is 26% owned by ARM in a joint venture with Glencore.
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Ubuntu-Botho Investments Pty Ltd (UBI)

With varying ownership levels across many listed and unlisted companies in and beyond South Africa, UBI is a Black-owned and controlled company that was created in 2004 to build black-controlled capital.

Its biggest shareholder, controlling a 53.25% stake is Sizanani-Thusanang-Helpmekaar Investments (Pty) Ltd (“Sizanani”), a company owned by various trusts on behalf of billionaire Patrice Motsepe and his family.

The remaining 46.75% is owned by Sanlam Ubuntu-Botho Community Development Trust (19.36%), B-BBEE Groups (22.68%), Non- B-BBEE Groups (3.33%), Treasury Shares (1.38%) that comprise many black owners drawn from youths, women, churches, and the general public.

Directly or through investment vehicles; African Rainbow Capital, ARC Investments based out of Mauritius, ARC Financials and ARC Fund, Ubuntu-Botho has interests in the following entities;

  1. Sanlam – As per its 2023 interim financials, UBI has a 13.13% stake in Sanlam, which is the largest insurance company in Africa providing services in insurance (life and general), financial planning, retirement, investments, and wealth management. Listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Namibian Stock Exchange, and the A2X Markets, Sanlam Group has business presence in 33 countries across Africa, as well as in the USA, Malaysia, the UK, India and Australia. The group had a market capitation of US$8.3 billion as of February 2024.
  2. Rain – ARC (UBI’s subsidiary) holds a 20.25% stake in Rain. It is the second-largest shareholder behind Paul Harris’ Quarme Private Equity Investments, which has around 41%. Rain, initially a data-only service provider, became a full mobile network operator that provides voice, SMS, and data across South Africa, competing with telco giants Vodacom, MTN, and Telkom.
  3. Kropz Group – ARC (UBI’s subsidiary) holds a 25% stake in Kropz Elandsfontein (Pty) Ltd, a phosphate mining/producer that hosts South Africa’s largest known sedimentary phosphate deposit in Elandsfontein, South African west coast. Kropz Group is running two African rock phosphate projects with the second being in Hinda in the Republic of Congo
  4. TymeBank and Tyme Global – TymeBank is South Africa’s first digital bank with its anchor shareholder being ARC (a wholly owned subsidiary of UBI). It also runs Retail Capital, a leading fintech funder of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Other investors include Apis, Tencent, British International Investment (BII), the Gokongwei Group, the Tyme Management Investment Vehicle, Norrsken22, and the Ethos AI Fund.
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A highly diversified portfolio

UBI subsidiaries African Rainbow Capital (ARC) and ARC Financials also have interests in the following sectors and companies:

  1. Asset Management Services – Alexforbes, Colourfield, InFund Solutions, Khumo Capital, Lima Mbeu, Portfolium, and Sanlam 3rd Party Asset Management
  2. Insurance Services – Capital Legacy, LifeCheq, Afrocentric, National Health Services, Smart Health Investments
  3. Specialist Services – A2X, Alternative Prosperity, Bravura, Cronos Capital, Constellation Capital, EdgeGrowth, Sinayo Securities, QED and GoSolr.
  4. Banking and Digital – ARC Impex Solutions, AI Fund, Crossfin, Ooba, Tyme SA Holdings, TymeBank, TymeGroup Africa Pte, Tyme Global and GOtyme.
  5. Diversified Financials – Fledge Capital, ARCH Emerging Markets Fund and ARC Investments.
  6. Property – ARC Real Estate, Majik and Val de Vie.
  7. Agriculture – Acorn Agri & Food, RSA and Subtropico.
  8. Business Process Outsourcing – Autoboys, Bluespec, ARC Cloud Services, Upstream Group, CSG Holdings, InfoSlips, Linebooker and Moonstone.

African Rainbow Energy and Power (AREP) and SOLA Group

Outside ARC associated entities, Patrice Motsepe also owns AREP, which in turn owns 40% of SOLA Group making him its largest individual shareholder.

The two companies are emerging renewable energy companies in South Africa and are involved in most of South Africa’s green power projects.

Sports Franchises

Patrice Motsepe owns Pretoria-based Mamelodi Sundowns, who play in South Africa’s Premier Soccer League and won the CAF Champions League in 2016.

He also owns a 37% stake in the Blue Bulls rugby franchise, thereby making him a major player in Pretoria’s two biggest sporting teams. Blue Bulls other shareholders are the Blue Bulls Rugby Union and Johann Rupert’s Remgro.

Given his interests in all these entities, Forbes places Patrice Motsepe’s net worth at US$ 2.7 billion in quarter 1 of 2024.

Here is more on how Patrice Motsepe built his multibillion dollar business empire.

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