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Capitec founder Michiel le Roux, one of South Africa’s wealthiest business people, has embarked on a huge capital raise using a portion of his shares in the R550bn-plus lender as collateral.Worth R556bn on the JSE, the group said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that Le Roux has put up about R6.5bn worth of the company’s shares as collateral in a transaction that involves his investment vehicle, Kalander Sekuriteit.The company said Kalander has cash-settled and refinanced a prior transaction by implementing a new hedging and refinancing transaction.The transaction involves 1,374,356 shares worth R6.56bn.The deal effectively allows Le Roux to borrow money against the stake.“The hedging counterparty shall provide Kalander with loan financing for the duration of the refinancing transaction,” Capitec said. (Dorothy Kgosi) “The maximum financial obligation under that financing arrangement, including all interest thereon, will never exceed the total number of shares hedged multiplied by the put strike price. Kalander will therefore always be in a position to fully cover the liability under the financing arrangement with the hedged shares.”Le Roux co-founded Capitec Bank in 2001 alongside Jannie Mouton and Riaan Stassen. He served as the bank’s inaugural CEO in 2001-04 and as its chair in 2007-16 and remains one of the bank’s largest shareholders, with a stake of more than 10%.BIG READ | SA banking’s executive age dilemmaThe surge in Capitec’s share price and profits in the past decade has seen its founders grow incredibly wealthy.The group’s shares have rocketed 191% over the past five years, with the group reporting a record R16.9bn profit in the 2026 financial year, having amassed an unprecedented 26-million clients since bursting onto the banking scene in the early 2000s.Capitec’s market capitalisation of R566bn makes it the country’s largest bank by market value — more than FirstRand’s R547bn and Standard Bank’s R53bn.Forbes estimates Le Roux’s wealth at $3.8bn (R62bn) by Tuesday.Mouton last year announced South Africa’s largest-yet philanthropic project when his family’s foundation bought private school outfit Curro and delisted it from the JSE, converting the company into a not-for-profit entity that will give children from poor backgrounds a seat at the table.Over the years, Mouton has donated a portion of his accumulated wealth to his trust. The objectives of the trust are focused primarily on the provision of bursaries and grants for study to learners and students in South Africa, community development and outreach, and the alleviation of poverty in the country.At the end of the 2025 financial year Curro had about 72,638 learners, and its facilities can accommodate as many as 30,000 more learners.
