When it was confirmed this past week that the Red Disa consortium concluded its equity deal to secure a controlling shareholding in Western Province Professional Rugby, it was not exactly a secret.
It had been widely reported that the consortium – consisting of the Cape Town-based investment holding company Fynbos Ekwiteit, Ardagh Glass Packaging and Marble Head Investments have pooled their resources to save the Stormers from drowning in debt and being killed off by petty infighting.
There were attempts from the same factions which initially landed the Cape Town franchise and its parent body, Western Province Rugby Football Union, in this monetary mire, to put the kibosh on.
However, they had already lost their grip when the South African Rugby Union placed the union under administration in October 2021.
There were a couple of false starts, but through painstaking and arduous exertion the process was dragged over the line.
Fynbos Ekwiteit’s Johan le Roux, one of the main driving forces behind the new equity partner, sat down with @king365ed to explain the process and why they initially walked away from what had become a dogfight.
Le Roux revealed that long before Red Disa was ‘born’, his father (banking billionaire Michiel le Roux) and himself saw that WPRFU was looking for an equity partner.
“I thought: ‘It is fairly priced’ for such an iconic brand,” he told @rugby365com.
“I had a chat with my dad and asked if he wants me to have a look at it.
“He said: ‘Yes’.
“We met with Rian Oberholzer, who was the administrator at that stage.
“It transpired about 10 people were looking at the asset.
“Our only goal would have been to save Western Province if nobody wanted to buy it.”
He explained that they almost immediately walked away from the process.