Magda Wierzycka, one of South Africa’s richest women, has donated a quarter of her shares at Sygnia to her husband Simon Peile.
According to Business Day, the donated shares are worth a whopping R216 million.
Wierzycka is the co-founder and CEO of Sygnia, a Cape Town-based asset management, stockbroking and administration services company.
She founded the company in 2006 with Peile and now owns 45.7%, the equivalent of 71 million shares. Peile now owns 22 million shares.
A statement from the company said the share transfer is part of “a restructuring of their personal interests in Sygnia.”
Sygnia boasts more than 900 institutional and 14,000 individual clients worldwide. It manages assets worth over R228 billion.
Magda Wierzycka net worth
According to a City Press report, Magda Wierzycka’s net worth was around R1.108 billion in 2018.
While her individual net worth should decrease after this donation, it all stays in the family.
The 48-year-old Wierzycka was just 13 when she moved to South Africa as a refugee from Poland.
In a recent interview with Talk 702, she said she arrived in the country with no money and could not speak a local language.
She worked at a supermarket to make ends meet before making her big break with a bursary to study actuarial science.
She eventually co-founded Sygnia and, as they say, the rest is history.
Anti-corruption activism
Wierzycka is outspoken in her opposition to corruption.
She made headlines in April 2017 by saying she was willing to “pay” former President Jacob Zuma to resign from office.
She is also a known supporter of President Cyril Ramaphosa and recently defended donors of the CR17 campaign.
Wierzycka said those who donated did so “to stop corruption, reduce poverty and save South Africa from Zuma.”