Johann Rupert’s investment company Reinet is to restart its share buyback programme and intends to repurchase its ordinary shares for up to €500m.
The group said last week that the past few months were spent investigating a potentially significant investment opportunity, which resulted in Reinet considering itself being in a “closed period”.
As a result, the JSE heavyweight has not communicated with individual shareholders or restarted its share buyback programme.
“It has, however, now become clear that the investment opportunity will not be pursued in the immediate future, resulting in the ‘closed period’ being lifted. This enables the company to restart the share buyback programme,” it said.
Reinet intends to buy back as many as 16.5-million ordinary shares before the 2027 AGM through successive separate programmes.
The purpose is to return value to shareholders and the repurchased shares may be used for any legitimate purpose, including acquisitions, it said.
The Rupert family has declared its intention not to sell any shares during the buyback programme.
In May the group reported that its net asset value declined by €314m, or 4.5%, to €6.6bn at end-March, or €36.31 per share. Despite this, the dividend of 43.5 euro cents per share was 17.6% higher than the previous year.
During the year the group sold 100% of its holding in Pension Insurance Corporation Group to Athora Holding for €3.3bn.
In 2025 the group disposed of its stake in British American Tobacco, with the £1.22bn transaction ending the Rupert family’s nearly 80-year relationship with the tobacco industry.
The disposal left the group with “significant” liquid funds, though Rupert said at the time that despite the group’s favourable cash position, it would not blindly pursue acquisitions but rather grow its present investments.
He said the liquid funds are held in several currencies and placed with highly rated banks and short-term money market funds.
The Rupert dynasty’s association with the tobacco industry dates back to the 1940s when Anton Rupert founded the Voorbrand Tobacco Company, later known as Rembrandt.
By the mid-20th century, Rembrandt had cemented its place as a top player in the industry, listing on the JSE in 1956 and branching out into banking, mining and financial services.
By 1999 the family merged this tobacco giant, then the world’s fourth-largest tobacco maker, known as Rothmans International, with BAT, the world’s second-largest cigarette producer.
Rupert said at the time the company had over the years received dividends of more than €2bn from BAT. - With Kabelo Khumalo