Michiel Le Roux is a South African banker and billionaire. He founded the Capitec Bank in 2001 and worked as the CEO until 2004.
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Thereafter, he became the Chairman of the Board from 2007 to 2016. And since then, has remained a board member owning about 11% of the bank’s stake.
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Prior to that, he led Boland Bank, a small regional bank in Cape Town’s hinterland for 4 years. Altogether, Michiel is a successful banker widely known to have revived the South African banking industry with his Capitec Bank.
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Michiel Le Roux Early Life
Michiel Scholtz du Pre Le Roux was born on May 20, 1949. He obtained an LLB degree in Stellenbosch. Although, he studied Law, Roux never practiced, owing to his perception that Law was boring.
He worked with Distillers Corp and in the mid 1990s, he left to start a banking venture with the support of Christio Wiese, entrepreneur and director of Pep Stores.
Thereafter, he ran Boland Bank, a small regional bank for 4 years before leaving. Boland bank merged with NBS in 1998; BoE Holdings Limited in 1999; Nedcor in 2002; and subsequently, Ned Bank in 2004
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Capitec Bank
Michiel Le Roux founded the Capitec Bank in March 1, 2001 and owns about 11% stake. The bank was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) on February 18, 2002, as a retail bank that targets South Africa’s emerging middle class.
Capitec Bank activities centers on making customers life easier and empowering them to take control of their money. It offers clients the Global One account, a transacting/savings account and credit facility rolled into one.
Also, its business model focuses on providing value to its customer(s) by providing low costs transactions, giving customers the freedom to pay as they transact, and offering the highest interest rate on deposits.
According to the financial result of the bank in the year 2018, the bank has over 10 million active clients, over 800 branches, more than 13,000 employees and holds R19billion shareholders’ funds.
According to the international banking Advisory Group Lafferty inaugural 2016 Bank Quality Rankings, Capitec bank is the best bank in the world. Also, the 2015 Solidarity Research Institute (SRI) Bank Charges Report named it the cheapest bank in South Africa.
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Membership
- Managing Director, Distillers Corp (Societe Anomina) Ltd 1979 – 1993
- Managing Director, Boland Bank, 1995 – 1997
- CEO, BoE (Pty) Ltd, 1997 – 1998
- CEO, NBS Boland Group Ltd, 1997 – 1998
- Chairman, Keynes Rational Ltd, 1999 – 2001
- Founder & CEO, Capital Alliance Holdings Limited, 2001 – 2004
- Non- Executive Director, Capital Alliance Holdings Limited, 2001
- Non-Executive Chair, Capital Alliance Holdings Limited, 2007
- Member, Board Of Director, Stellenbosch University’s university- industry interaction platform, Innovus
- Director of Zeder Investments.
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Award And Recognition
In 2015, Michiel le Roux received an honorary doctorate degree of Commerce (DComm) from the University of Stellenbosch. This was a result of his revolutionary renewal of South Africa’s banking industry by developing a unique banking system that addresses the needs of the lower-income part of the population.
Also, he has been recognised as one of the richest in South Africa and Africa. Some of the recognition include:
- One of the Billionaires in Africa, Forbes 2011
- One of the Richest Men in Africa, Forbes 2016
- Nominee, Person of the Year, Forbes Africa 2016
- Number 1818 Billionaire in the World, Forbes 2019
- Number 19 Richest Billionaire in Africa, Forbes 2019
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Michiel Le Roux Quotes
“Starting a business in good times is always very dangerous because you will think business is easy when the wind is blowing from behind and the sailing is smooth. When you start with the wind blowing from ahead, then you know business is tough and you grow,”
“I told our shareholders we’ll either be a big success or a small failure. Not in my wildest dreams could I foresee the success we’ve had.”
“When you have a branch network, it is easy to get seduced by other opportunities and start diluting your focus. That hasn’t happened. We prefer to offer fewer things and do them well.”
“Money is a valid problem but the bigger problem is management and getting the right people to do the job.”
“We must be extremely conservative in exposing ourselves to credit risk, as well as in planning positive cash flows and investment.”
“…One must expect the market to be volatile and then be flexible by adapting to the changing conditions.”
“It is one thing to know a person and a completely different thing to work with the person.”
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Entrepreneurial Lessons From Michiel Le Roux
Minimise Hierarchies
In an interview with Forbes, Michiel explained some of his life philosophies and how it has helped him succeed. For instance, he stated how everyone worked in love without a clear distinction between the boss and the employer. “At Capitec, they take simple seriously. No suits, the CEO’s office is the same size as everyone else’s; the CEO shares a personal assistant, no personalised parking spots, even the guard at the gate calls him Michiel, while the receptionist jokes freely about his sense of style – or lack thereof.”
According to a successful American businessman, Herb Kelleher, “Fight hierarchy and bureaucracy as hard as you possibly can. Don’t ever let it become the master; always remember it’s the servant.” he went on to say “a company is stronger if it is bound by love rather than by fear.”
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Beyond Money
For Le Roux, confidence in yourself and the belief that you can achieve something is the starting point and not money. He says many young potential entrepreneurs see the lack of money as an excuse.
Also, he believes good management and having an effective team for the job is much more valuable than trying to do it alone. He stated how his colleague, Stassen was able to polish his idea into what it is today. Although he had the idea, Riaan Stassen also contributed to the execution.
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Understand The Market
Capitec Bank came in to revamp the South African banking industry even at a time when the industry was tense.
Although the big banks provided a wide array of products to the large market, they were not really suited to service the low-income segment. There was a gap that needed filling. Capitec came in by bringing in a better, less expensive service targeting the rural areas first where the big banks didn’t see as a market before moving to bigger cities. Other big banks were caught by surprise when Capitec Bank began to soar.
An entrepreneur must be able to see where the gap is in the market and create solutions to fill the gaps. That’s how to be champion and business leader.
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