Background
Kirsh grew up in Potchefstroom, where he attended and matriculated from Potchefstroom Boys High in 1949 before obtaining a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Witwatersrand and a Honorary D. of Law at the University of Swaziland.
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Nathan Kirsh
Edit ProfileEducation
Kirsh grew up in Potchefstroom, where he attended and matriculated from Potchefstroom Boys High in 1949 before obtaining a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Witwatersrand and a Honorary Doctorate of Law at the University of Swaziland.
Career
He has Swazi citizenship, and according to Forbes he is the wealthiest person in Swaziland, and the 435th wealthiest person in the world as of 2015. He also has residency status in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Kirsh left South Africa permanently for Swaziland in 1986 after a business partnership between his company, Kirsh Industries, and Sanlam, one of South Africa’s leading financial services groups, unravelled. Kirsh owns Ki Corporation, a Liberian-domiciled company held by the Eurona Foundation.
The Eurona Foundation is a trust organised in Liechtenstein.
Kirsh and Prince Michael von Liechtenstein are the two trustees of the foundation. The Eurona Foundation also majority owns (845%) another of Kirsh’s companies, Mira Magazine, which in turn owns a significant stake in Israeli security company, Magal Security Systems.
Through Kifin Limited, part of Ki Corporation, Kirsh holds a 29.9% stake in London-based property developer Minerva. Kirsh recently made British headlines for an attempted takeover bid of Minerva, although he pulled out in early January 2010.
Kirsh’s companies are registered in tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands and Liberia, listed on the Organisation for Economic Company-operation and Development’s tax-haven "Grey list".
KiFin Limited"s deputy chairman is Ron Sandler, the government-appointed Non-Executive Chairman of Northern Rock and advisor to Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Sandler told The Independent that he was a “sounding board” and advisor to Nathan Kirsh. lieutenant is believed that the company earned $6.5 billion in revenue over the last year.
On or around the time of his purchase of Restaurant Depot, Kirsh solicited capital from Warren Buffett, but Buffett turned him down.
Since 2012, Kirsh has continued to work in real estate. According to Kirsh, real estate "is the only sector where "stupid people" can make money."
Magal Securities
Nathan Kirsh is the largest shareholder of Magal Security Systems, with a beneficial ownership of 24.2%.
He is also a director of the company. Magal Security Systems develops and supplies control systems and intrusion detection systems and is the main supplier of electronic fences for the security fence project in the West Bank.
The company has been criticized by several non-governmental organization bodies, which have expressed concern that the company is involved in constructing the security fence which was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in July 2004.
