Nicky Oppenheimer (Net Worth $6.5B)
South African diamond magnate Nicky Oppenheimer made a pivotal decision in November 2011 to sell his family’s 40 percent stake in De Beers, the world’s largest diamond producer. He sold the stake to mining behemoth, Anglo American, for $5.1 billion. Anglo already owned 45 percent of DeBeers. The deal was slowed by the government of Botswana, which owns the remaining 15 percent of the company, and had preemptive rights to a fourth of Oppenheimer’s stake. Botswana passed on the opportunity to buy that stake in July of 2012, and the deal got final regulatory approval that month.
Nassef Sawiris (Net Worth $6.5B)
Egyptian Nassef Sawiris runs Orascom Construction Industries, Egypt’s most valuable publicly-traded company. He announced in January 2013 that the company was exchanging all global depository receipts of the company for newly issued shares of OCI NV on NYSE Euronext in Amsterdam. The transaction was backed by $1 billion from U.S. investors, including Bill Gates, and will help cover payments to shareholders who opt instead to tender their OCI shares for cash. With Egypt still in turmoil, it is the largest foreign investment in the country since the revolution, but a primary listing on an international exchange gives it more credibility with investors.
