{"id":808620,"date":"2025-01-26T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-26T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=808620"},"modified":"2025-01-24T18:46:38","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T16:46:38","slug":"the-brother-billionaires-who-built-a-used-car-empire-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/808620\/the-brother-billionaires-who-built-a-used-car-empire-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"The brother billionaires who built a used car empire in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Brothers Faan and Dirk van der Walt went from repairing old cars to starting WeBuyCars, which made them two of South Africa\u2019s wealthiest people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faan loved working on cars. \u201cI didn\u2019t mind getting stuck under the bonnet and getting my hands dirty,\u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The brothers started buying, fixing, and selling cars as a hobby while still in school in Bronkhorstspruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After finishing school, Faan studied to become a teacher at the University of Pretoria, and Dirk completed a degree in marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

They launched a website and launched advertising to promote the fact that they buy cars, using the company name \u2018WeBuyCars\u2019 as a service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur strategy allowed vehicle sellers to approach us before they put their vehicle on the market,\u201d Faan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 2010, the company\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, WeBuyCars is a powerhouse with a presence across South Africa and large warehouses in numerous cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faan and Dirk van der Walt become billionaires<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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WeBuyCars\u2019 success attracted the attention of JSE-listed Transaction Capital, which bought a non-controlling stake in the company in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faan and Dirk sold their initial 49.9% of WeBuyCars for around R1.86 billion to Transaction Capital in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deal was split between a cash portion of R1.47 billion and newly issued Transaction Capital shares of R390 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following year, Transaction Capital signed an agreement to increase its shareholding in WeBuyCars from 49.9% to 74.9%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They sold the additional 25.1% of WeBuyCars to Transaction Capital for a total consideration of around R1.6 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deal was structured as R1.23 billion paid in cash and around R367 million in Transaction Capital shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The brothers currently hold about 10% of the total issued shares of WeBuyCars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n