Capitec co-founder Michiel le Roux has raised roughly R6.5bn by refinancing a loan secured against his shareholding in the bank, according to a regulatory filing released on Tuesday. The transaction runs through Le Roux’s investment vehicle, Kalander Sekuriteit, and involves 1,374,356 Capitec shares worth R6.56bn, pledged as collateral rather than sold on the open market.
Capitec said Kalander had cash-settled an earlier transaction and simultaneously entered into a new hedging and refinancing arrangement. Under the structure, a hedging counterparty provides loan financing to Kalander for the duration of the deal, with Capitec noting that Kalander’s maximum financial obligation, including interest, can never exceed the total number of hedged shares multiplied by the agreed put strike price, meaning the shares pledged will always be sufficient to cover the liability.
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Le Roux co-founded Capitec in 2001 alongside Jannie Mouton and Riaan Stassen, serving as the bank’s first chief executive from 2001 to 2004 and later as chairman between 2007 and 2016. He remains one of the bank’s largest shareholders, holding a stake of more than 10%.
| Detail | Figure |
|---|---|
| Shares pledged | 1,374,356 |
| Value of shares pledged | R6.56bn |
| Capitec market capitalisation | R566bn |
| Capitec 5-year share price growth | 191% |
| Capitec FY2026 profit | R16.9bn (record) |
| Capitec active clients | 26 million |
| Le Roux’s estimated net worth (Forbes) | $3.8bn (≈R62bn) |
| Le Roux’s shareholding | More than 10% |
The transaction lands against a backdrop of extraordinary wealth creation at Capitec. The lender’s market capitalisation of R566bn now makes it South Africa’s largest bank by that measure, ahead of FirstRand’s R547bn and Standard Bank’s R530bn. Its share price has risen 191% over five years, and the bank posted a record R16.9bn profit for its 2026 financial year, having grown to 26 million clients since launching in the early 2000s.
Borrowing against a concentrated shareholding rather than selling it outright is a well-established practice among wealthy founders globally, allowing them to access liquidity while retaining ownership, voting control and exposure to further share price gains.
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Tesla chief executive Elon Musk borrowed more than $12.5bn against his Tesla stock in 2022 to help fund his acquisition of Twitter, though he was later forced to sell shares when Tesla’s price fell sharply, illustrating the downside risk inherent in such arrangements. The collar structure used in Le Roux’s transaction, which fixes a strike price on the pledged shares, is designed specifically to contain that risk for the lender by capping the exposure regardless of how Capitec’s share price moves during the term.
Under the JSE Listings Requirements, any dealing in securities by a director, prescribed officer or their associates must be announced on the exchange within 48 hours of the company receiving notice, which explains why the refinancing became public days after being concluded. The rule is intended to give shareholders and the market visibility into changes in beneficial ownership or financing arrangements involving company insiders, even where, as in this case, no shares are permanently sold.
The deal also sits within a wider pattern of Capitec’s founding generation deploying their wealth in different ways. Mouton, Le Roux’s co-founder, last year completed South Africa’s largest philanthropic transaction to date, when his family foundation acquired listed education group Curro and delisted it from the JSE, converting the company into a not-for-profit vehicle aimed at expanding access for children from poorer backgrounds. Capitec has not disclosed what Le Roux intends to do with the proceeds of this latest transaction.