Billionaire Saltzman family loses $50m as Dis-Chem crashes

The family of South African billionaire Ivan Saltzman lost about R828 million ($50 million) on paper on Friday after shares of Dis-Chem Pharmacies Ltd., the pharmacy chain he founded with his wife, Lynette, had their worst day since 2018.

Dis-Chem fell 12.63% to R24.42 in Johannesburg, its biggest one-day drop since May 2018 and its lowest close in three years, a day after the company reported lower half-year earnings and cut its interim dividend. The fall left Dis-Chem with a market value of about R21 billion ($1.27 billion), less than half that of its larger rival, Clicks Group Ltd., at R49 billion.

What the family owns

The Saltzman family’s disclosed holding in Dis-Chem adds up to about 234.5 million shares, or 27.3% of the company, based on its latest filings. At Friday’s close, that stake is worth R5.73 billion ($345 million), down from about R6.55 billion ($395 million) a day earlier.

Most of it now sits with the couple’s sons Dan and Mark Saltzman. In June 2025, Ivlyn Local Investment Holdings, the family company through which the Saltzmans held their shares, handed 217,125,386 Dis-Chem shares to the two brothers, giving each a 12.62% stake. The shares were valued at R6.8 billion at the time, or about R31.33 each. Ivlyn’s own stake fell to 4.06% from 29.31%.

The brothers then sold 17,640,357 shares between Jan. 6 and Feb. 27 this year at prices between R35.60 and R37.57, raising about R642 million. That left each with about 99.7 million shares, worth roughly R2.44 billion ($147 million) at Friday’s price. Ivan and Lynette Saltzman also own smaller direct holdings from the company’s share incentive plans, part of which they sold in June.

Friday’s close is about a third below the prices at which the brothers sold earlier this year. The family’s fortune was valued at about $1.3 billion in June.

Profit and dividend fall

Dis-Chem said on Thursday that headline earnings, which strip out one-off items, fell 13% to R550.1 million ($33.1 million) in the six months to Aug. 31. Revenue rose 8% to R23 billion ($1.39 billion), but costs grew faster, as the company spent on new stores and on rebuilding its technology and data systems. It cut the interim dividend by 12.9% to 25.62 cents a share, which will pay the family about R60 million ($3.6 million) on Nov. 23.

Chief Executive Officer Rui Morais said shoppers are under strain. “Customers are increasingly shopping during promotions and consolidating their spend around payday,” he said. The company’s Better Rewards loyalty programme, which gives instant discounts at the till, has won it market share, but the discounts have also held down prices.

Dis-Chem is also reorganizing its management. The number of executives reporting directly to Morais has been cut to 14 from 24, and the group plans to open at least 50 stores a year while refurbishing its existing ones over five years. Stanley Goetsch, a pharmacist who spent 42 years at the company, has stepped back from his executive role.

A family business in transition

Ivan and Lynette Saltzman opened their first pharmacy in Mondeor, south of Johannesburg, in 1978 and listed Dis-Chem on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 2016. Ivan Saltzman handed the chief executive job to Morais in 2023 and left the board in July, about the same time as his son Saul resigned as a director, ending the founding family’s 48 years in the company’s leadership.

The family has reduced its holding several times since the listing. It raised R1.96 billion from a share sale in 2021, and Ivan Saltzman sold about R1.4 billion of shares in early 2024.

Figures were converted at R16.6 to the dollar.