South African millionaire Nathan Kirsh’s net worth has increased by $310 million in just 30 days.
According to Bloomberg estimates, Kirsh’s net worth was $7.30 billion as of June 25, 2023, but as of today, June 26, 2023, it has risen to $7.61 billion.
The 91-year-old billionaire owns a sizable conglomerate of businesses that serve the food and beverage industries.
One of his primary sources of wealth is a 75% ownership position in Jetro Holdings, a New York-based organization that oversees Jetro Cash & Carry and Restaurant Depot, two U.S. wholesale supermarket chains.
The aggregate annual revenue of these companies surpasses $10bn, according to a credit report from Fitch published in December 2019 and subsequent peer performance.
Despite not being a publicly traded firm, the company has experienced substantial growth.
Jetro and Restaurant Depot are sister firms, according to Bloomberg, and their combined value is determined by averaging the enterprise value-to-sales multiples of four other publicly traded companies in the same industry: Costco Wholesale, Kroger, Metro, and Loblaw firms.
In addition to his engagement with Jetro Holdings, Kirsh Group also holds a 52% stake in the publicly traded real estate investment trust Abacus Property Group in Sydney.
His real estate assets include four continents and include well-known buildings including Birkenhead Point in Sydney, Australia, and Tower 42, London’s first office tower.
Nathan Kirsh has a history of perseverance and entrepreneurship. He was born in 1932 and raised in Potchefstroom, South Africa, and after earning his degree from the University of Witwatersrand in 1952, he took over his family’s sorghum-malt manufacturing company.
He launched his own company in Swaziland at the age of 26 with a 1,200-pound inheritance from his father and additional cash from contacts. As Kirsh’s business grew into a conglomerate, it significantly lessened the nation’s dependency on South Africa for basic foods.
Kirsh’s commercial endeavours prospered over time as he had a special arrangement with the government that required his business to be the only importer of all the maize produced in Swaziland.
The king and Kirsh remained close, and during his 23 years as head of Swaziland’s energy board, Kirsh helped the country’s power grid improve and end racial segregation at sporting venues.
Kirsh moved his attention to South Africa in 1970, buying a wholesale food company and turning it into a cash-and-carry enterprise that catered to the nation’s locally owned grocery stores run by people of colour.
Later, he entered the real estate market and, in 1984, sold 49% of his conglomerate to the insurance firm Sanlam.
He had difficulties during South Africa’s economic crisis in the 1980s and lost the majority of his wealth, but he kept Jetro, a cash-and-carry location he had started in Brooklyn, New York, in 1975.
Despite the obstacles, Kirsh’s perseverance and wise choices paid off.
The sustained success of Jetro Holdings and his increasing fortune was largely due to his emphasis on offering high-quality, fresh products at reasonable rates and catering to local retailers when larger distributors were unable to.
Nathan Kirsh’s remarkable rise from impoverished beginnings to billionaire status displays tenacity and entrepreneurial genius, establishing him as a significant figure in the African billionaire business community.
