Elon Musk now world’s 4th wealthiest; Apple makes Wall Street history; MTN; SA banks

By Jackie Cameron

• South Africa-born Elon Musk, co-founder of the electric carmaker Tesla, is now the world’s fourth richest person, behind Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. Bloomberg reports that a surge in Tesla shares boosted Musk’s net worth by $7.8bn, making his fortune worth $84.8 billion. Bloomberg reports that a surge in Tesla shares boosted Musk’s net worth by $7.8bn, making his fortune worth $84.8bn. To put that in perspective, South Africa’s GDP (all the money spent in this country in a year) is $350bn, meaning that Musk is now worth about a quarter of the wealth of his former home country.
• Apple Inc. made Wall Street history on Wednesday when its 2020 stock surge pushed the market value past $2trn, the first time a U.S. company has surpassed that level. This monumental milestone comes less than three weeks after Apple’s share price jumped up by 10% in a single day on 31 July. Apple – along with other tech companies like Amazon – is in the BizNews Share Portfolio.
• The MTN Group has announced that the CFO, Ralph Mupita, has been selected to fill the roles of Group President and Chief Financial Officer. He replaces Rob Shuter, who has acted as the company’s CEO for nearly three-and-a-half years. Mupita says he is looking forward to heading up the company, calling it a “privilege and a honour”. Shuter will support Mupita when needed, until his fixed-term contract comes to an end. The current GCEO, Rob Shuter, will step down at the end of August.
• Standard Bank is expected to release a detailed first-half earnings report today, with Bloomberg reporting that some banks (such as Absa) are reporting expected profit declines as severe as 85%. “I don’t think that you should be worrying about the South African banking system. The banking system is well capitalised – it has got ample liquidity – and if there is a shortage of liquidity, as you have seen, the South African Reserve Bank stands ready to pump in the liquidity,” Lesetja Kganyago, Governor at the SA Reserve Bank, told the Cape Town Press Club.