Compagnie Financière Richemont SA is a Swiss luxury goods company that was founded in 1988 by the South African billionaire businessman, Anton Rupert. It has four main business areas: jewellery, watches, writing instruments and clothing. The company is listed on the SWX Swiss Exchange (ticker: CFR). It is the eighth biggest company in the SMI (Swiss Market Index). As of 2004, it is the second-largest luxury goods company in the world by turnover; behind LVMH and just ahead of PPR.

Companies

Principal companies in the group are:

• Cartier SA - jewellery, watches, etc.
• Van Cleef & Arpels - jewellery, watches, etc.
• Piaget - jewellery, watches
• Vacheron Constantin - watches
• A. Lange & Söhne - watches
• Jaeger-LeCoultre - watches
• Officine Panerai - watches
• International Watch Co - watches
• Baume et Mercier - watches
• Montblanc - pen manufacturer
• Alfred Dunhill
• Lancel
• Chloé
• Old England
• James Purdey & Sons
• Montegrappa - Italian pen manufacturer

All companies, except Old England SA, are fully owned subsidiaries. In addition to the above companies, Richemont has an 18.5% (as at September, 2005) investment in British American Tobacco; about 40% of the Richemont balance sheet is BAT ordinary shares.

External links

• Richemont corporate website

Anton Rupert

Dr. Anthony Edward Rupert (4 October 1916 – 18 January 2006) was an Afrikaner-South African billionaire entrepreneur, businessman and conservationist. He was born and raised in the small town of Graaff-Reinet in the Eastern Cape. He studied in Pretoria and ultimately moved to Stellenbosch, where the Rembrandt Group [1] was formed and still has its headquarters. He died in his sleep at his home in Thibault Street, Stellenbosch at the age of 89, and is survived by a son Johann [2], a daughter Hanneli[3] and six grandchildren.

After dropping out of medical school due to a lack of funds, Rupert earned a chemistry degree at the University of Pretoria, where he also lectured for a short while. Subsequently, he started a dry-cleaning business.

Some time later, with an initial investment of GBP 10 and together with two fellow investors, he started manufacturing cigarettes in his garage, which he eventually built into the tobacco and industrial conglomerate Rembrandt, overseeing its transition to the industrial and luxury branded goods sectors, with Rembrandt eventually splitting into Remgro (an investment company with financial, mining and industrial interests) and Richemont (a Swiss based luxury goods group). Currently, this business empire encompasses hundreds of companies located in 35 countries on six continents, with combined yearly net sales in the region of USD 10 billion.

Rupert had also been deeply involved in environmental conservation and his companies have been prominent in funding the fine arts; since 1964 foundations established by Rembrandt have used a part of the group's profits for the promotion of education, art, music and the preservation of historical buildings.

He also played an important role in the South African Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC), a non-profit company whose loans to small and medium-sized businesses have created nearly half a million jobs since 1981.

Although he was openly critical of the apartheid system during that era, both at home and abroad, he avoided confrontations that may have threatened his business interest.

In 2004, he was voted 28th in the Top 100 Great South Africans.