Thirty-four years after he founded the most successful independent distributor in South Africa, the doyen of local distribution – Neil Rex, MD of Drive Control – is in the final stages of selling his company to a consortium of private equity investors for an undisclosed sum.
In a statement today, Rex says there remain a few conditions precedent to be met but the transaction is expected to close by 1 November 2022.
The consortium is made up of Kleoss Capital, Fairstone Capital, and Sciation, led by Managing Partner Halekopane (Hale) Matsipa and Zain Laher of Kleoss Capital.
Rex, according to sources, will hand over to a new executive team which is representative of the shareholding companies.
The new executive will be: Carlos Ferreira of Fairstone Capital; Andrew Harris of Sciation; and Craig Young of Sciation.
An official statement on the transaction is expected, and IT-Online will keep readers updated.
Update:
Referencing a “Deep Throat” opinion piece in the Channelwise magazine, DCC MD Neil Rex comments: “Let me state emphatically that I never had any discussions with Investec, and from a company DNA and business model I have never subjected my employees and business to Sahara and/or the Gupta family.”
He reiterates that he has entered into an agreement to sell the business of DCC to a consortium headed by Carlos Ferreira, and hopes to close the transaction on 1 November 2022 subject to conditions precedent being met.