Business

Two South African brothers who became billionaires with their second-hand car empire

Brothers Faan and Dirk van der Walt went from repairing old cars to starting WeBuyCars, which made them two of South Africa’s wealthiest people.

They grew up in Bronkorspruit in a working-class family. Their mother was a teacher, and their father worked as a security guard at the CSIR.

Their father, Koos, taught them how to fix cars, and from an early age, they spent a lot of time under the hoods of cars.

Faan loved working on cars. “I didn’t mind getting stuck under the bonnet and getting my hands dirty,” he said in an interview.

The brothers started buying, fixing, and selling cars as a hobby while still in school in Bronkhorstspruit.

In 1988, while still in high school, Faan bought his first motorbike, a Yamaha XT500, for R400. He did some work on the motorbike and later sold it for R450.

“The entrepreneurial spirit grew within me during those high school years. I recall having that money in my hands and getting a real kick out of doing a successful deal,” he said.

After finishing school, Faan studied to become a teacher at the University of Pretoria, and Dirk completed a degree in marketing.

Faan married Tanja in 1998 after qualifying as a teacher. They then moved to the United Kingdom for two years, where they taught.

The money they made in the United Kingdom was used as the initial capital investment, which Faan and Dirk used to establish WeBuyCars in 2001.

For many years, the brothers did everything themselves. This helped them gain a deep insight into the second-hand card business, marketing, and finance.

They launched a website and launched advertising to promote the fact that they buy cars, using the company name ‘WeBuyCars’ as a service.

“Our strategy allowed vehicle sellers to approach us before they put their vehicle on the market,” Faan said.

From 2010, the company’s growth started to accelerate, and WeBuyCars bought land and built its very own car warehouse in Pretoria East, with a capacity for around 100 cars.

Their national expansion continued, and in 2014, WeBuyCars appointed its first buyer in Cape Town. After that, they appointed buyers in all the major towns in South Africa.

Today, WeBuyCars is a powerhouse with a presence across South Africa and large warehouses in numerous cities.

In just over twenty years, WeBuyCars grew from a two-person operation to a 2,800-employee powerhouse that buys and sells over 13,000 cars monthly.

Faan and Dirk van der Walt become billionaires

WeBuyCars’ success attracted the attention of JSE-listed Transaction Capital, which bought a non-controlling stake in the company in 2020.

Faan and Dirk sold their initial 49.9% of WeBuyCars for around R1.86 billion to Transaction Capital in 2020.

The deal was split between a cash portion of R1.47 billion and newly issued Transaction Capital shares of R390 million.

The following year, Transaction Capital signed an agreement to increase its shareholding in WeBuyCars from 49.9% to 74.9%.

They sold the additional 25.1% of WeBuyCars to Transaction Capital for a total consideration of around R1.6 billion.

The deal was structured as R1.23 billion paid in cash and around R367 million in Transaction Capital shares.

The brothers currently hold about 10% of the total issued shares of WeBuyCars.

  • Faan van der Walt owns 21.38 million WeBuyCars shares worth R914 million.
  • Dirk van der Walt owns 21.16 million WeBuyCars shares worth R905 million.

Therefore, the brothers generated a combined wealth of over R5 billion from WeBuyCars, excluding salaries and dividends.  

A rough estimate suggests that Faan and Dirk van der Walt’s net wealth exceeds R2.7 billion each, making them two of the richest people in South Africa.

The two brothers continue to run WeBuyCars and continue to earn good salaries for serving as executive directors.

Over the last financial year, Faan received a total remuneration of R14.325 million, and Dirk received R9.483 million.

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