Brothers behind WeBuyCars helping South African property giant buy itself back for R655 million

Atterbury Property is in the midst of buying itself back in a R655 million deal to take over JSE-listed RMB Holdings (RMH), which owns 38.5% of the property giant. 

This deal is being done through AttBid, which is 51% owned by WeBuyCars co-founders Faan and Dirk van der Walt. The remaining 49% is owned by Atterbury Property Fund. 

Ultimately, the deal will see AttBid takeover RMH and delist it from the JSE, making it a pure property holding and investment company. 

This seems to be a long way away from the initial RMH investment in Atterbury on 3 May 2016. 

RMH at the time was looking to diversify its investments out of financial services, with it holding stakes in FirstRand, Discovery, Momentum, and OUTsurance. 

It had funded many of these businesses from their early days, resulting in it holding substantial stakes when the companies were listed on the JSE. 

Atterbury Europe CFO Henk Dienst leveraged his contacts from his time at RMH to set up a meeting between the two companies. 

Atterbury CEO Louis van der Watt, who co-founded the company in 1994, said the synergies between the two businesses were immediately obvious. 

“The transaction on the table just made sense – a combination of an equity investment in Atterbury as well as the funding facility via RMB,” Van der Watt said. 

RMH explained that it was looking to invest in entrepreneur-led businesses, leveraging its financial might to fund their growth. 

The meeting of minds saw RMH  snap up a 27.5% stake in Atterbury, which it would later increase to 38.5%. 

At the time of the deal, Atterbury was one of South Africa’s most successful property companies, having successfully taken a contrarian stance on the local economy. 

It has invested heavily in developing new offices, industrial spaces, and shopping malls in the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis. 

In the midst of a crisis, it secured the largest loan for a private property developer worth R1.3 billion to develop Lynnwood Bridge. 

Most famously, it acquired 1.7 million square metres of development rights in Waterfall in 2008. Today, this is the Waterfall Precinct, which houses the Mall of Africa, numerous offices, and luxury estates. 

This holding was unbundled and listed separately on the JSE. Known as Attacq, it is currently valued at R13 billion by investors. 

RMH was betting on Atterbury being able to repeat these successes. 

From hero to buying itself back

The RMH plan to back entrepreneur-led businesses with its financial might never worked out as hoped. 

Instead of becoming a diversified investment company, it was still essentially a company holding major stakes in financial services companies. 

Following the success of the creation of the FirstRand Group, it did not have many successes. 

More worryingly for investors, the company had begun selling down its lucrative investments in FirstRand and other financial services providers to fund new investments. 

With many of these investments not generating significant returns, the company was effectively cutting the flowers and watering the weeds. 

In 2019, it announced a shift in strategy to unbundle all of its investments and return capital to shareholders. This began with the sale of its FirstRand stake. 

This process left RMH with the 38.5% holding in Atterbury, and as a predominantly property-focused investor. 

Selling this asset has proven to be challenging, with no serious buyers coming forward. 

This was until 9 February 2026, when it was revealed that a new company, AttBid, had reached a deal to buy RMH for R655 million. 

A week earlier, Faan and Dirk van der Walt had sold R886.4 million worth of WeBuyCars shares. They were listed by RMH as 51% owners of AttBid. 

WeBuyCars has dismissed speculation that the sale was to fund AttBid’s acquisition. 

“Faan and Dirk have been invested in Atterbury-related assets for many years, and this opportunity was committed to long before the recent sale of shares was executed,” CEO Faan van der Walt said in response to queries from Daily Investor. 

“The timing of the sale and this announcement are unrelated.” 

AttBid appears to be the natural acquirer of RMH, given the fact that it is the only one to offer a deal and already has the buy-in of Atterbury. 

The company will delist RMH once the deal has been concluded, with AttBid taking the company private. 

South Africa’s competition watchdog has approved the offer, with the only obstacle being the sale of shares by investors to AttBid. 

As it stands, Atterbury Property Fund owns 32.77% of RMH, with AttBid holding a further 23.59% of the company. Collectively, the parties own 56.36%. 

A major complicating matter is the ownership of 20.04% of RMH shares by Breede Coalitions, which may demand a higher bid price for RMH. 

AttBid is set to pay R654.58 million for RMH, which is not much of a premium on the company’s current market value of R640.75 million. 

The company explained that the lack of a premium must be considered against the ongoing operational costs of running a listed company and the significant future capital requirements of Atterbury.