Despite being a convert, SA’s best performing share got away from me

My journey as a Capitec fan began almost six years ago after spending a day at the bank’s modest Stellenbosch headquarters. The visit co-incided with founding CEO Riaan Stassen’s last day in office with my subsequent report headlined “Capitec gains another convert” saying it all. My money should have been put where my mouth was: the shares then traded at R200. Today they’re R1,450.

Having spent a couple years knocking around corridors of Big Four banking power, I could see from experience this upstart was cut from very different cloth. For instance, Stassen’s office occupied half the space of my (size-regulated) former corporate cave. Mostly, though, unlike at other banks, Capitec’s team ran it like they owned the place.

It was on that memorable visit that I met Gerrie Fourie, the man who succeeded Stassen as CEO. In the years since we’ve gotten to know each other well. So it felt like supporting an old friend on Thursday when seeing Fourie honoured as 2019’s Business Leader of the Year at the annual Sunday Times Top 100 Companies awards.

There was a double award for Fourie’s team as Capitec was also named the JSE’s best performing stock for the past five years. A R10,000 investment in September 2014 was worth R55,491, compound growth of 41%. The secret? Fourie shared: simplicity, obsessive customer focus, teamwork, humility and understanding the detail. Quite.

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