There is an adage that by the third generation most entrepreneurial business dynasties have been destroyed. This isn’t always true. The later generations of Hiltons, Rockefellers and Agnellis are still around — though more often than not running the family foundations.
Locally, the most prominent of these foundations is run by the family of the late reclusive fund management tycoon Allan Gray. His children are still involved in running family foundations. These are substantial entities in their own right, with as many employees as Allan Gray’s arch-rival, Coronation Fund Managers. But the Gray family no longer has an economic interest in Allan Gray and its sister companies Allan Gray Australia and Bermuda-based Orbis.
When I started in financial journalism we used to write regularly about the most powerful families in SA business. We pretty much assumed the families of entrepreneurs such as Anglo’s Harry Oppenheimer, Rembrandt’s Anton Rupert, Pick n Pay’s Raymond Ackerman and Altron’s Bill Venter would be running the business into the future.
Ackerman was the son of an entrepreneur, Gus Ackerman, and built on this success. His family hung on to control until just months ago. Arguably it is still run by Raymond’s surrogate son, Sean Summers, a close school friend of Raymond’s oldest son, Gareth. Summers came back to the helm after a disastrous experience with professional management who had little feel for the grocery trade. Nonetheless, the Ackerman family, like the Grays, have given up economic control.
Nicky Oppenheimer looked set for a career overseeing diamond colossus De Beers, the most glamorous part of his father’s legacy, if not Anglo American itself, but even that fizzled out. Harry’s ex son-in-law, Gordon Waddell, had the competence to lead the business and if he hadn’t fallen out with the family perhaps the dynasty would have perpetuated.
Venter’s sons, Robbie and Craig, at least made a stab at following in their father’s footsteps and seemed competent enough. But as the trend moved towards unbundling family control, the Venter family is no longer the owner-manager of what was once SA’s leading electronics company.
Anglovaal, started by Bob Hersov and Slip Menell, was perhaps the best example of a dynastic business, though quite a bit smaller than (unrelated) Anglo American. Basil Hersov and Clive Menell, the founders’ sons, built on the foundations. Though a mining house, its most successful businesses were in consumer products as humble as tea (Five Roses) and biscuits (Bakers). AVI (previously Anglovaal Industries) is still one of SA’s best consumer goods businesses.
However, the mining house itself is now the core of Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Minerals. Basil Hersov’s son, Rob, is not actively involved in any part of the family empire, but he still has a profile as SA’s leading conservative commentator, a kind of Mzansi Tucker Carlson.
It was often said that out of Liberty Life founder Donald Gordon’s children his daughter, Wendy Appelbaum, had the most drive and business savvy, and the ability to take over. He was clearly disappointed when Monty Hilkowitz, his favourite to take over, left the business.
History will show whether Johann Rupert improved on his father Anton’s business empire. He is certainly as flamboyant as his father was modest and low profile. Johann has diversified the group (which was known for decades internally as “The Group”) from tobacco, which he had to do given the controversial nature of cigarettes. He has certainly never lost his passion for deal-making. His businesses seem to be in a permanent state of restructure.
Rupert probably did a good deal when he merged Rothmans into British American Tobacco in 1999 and now it seems the Rupert group (Remgro, Richemont and Reinet) is about to exit the industry altogether. Yet the current Remgro looks like one of the last unfocused conglomerates left on the JSE, with an amorphous portfolio of interests and no real core anymore.
Richemont is prospering in the virtually recession proof luxury goods markets, yet it is still considered a poor relation to industry titan LVMH. Now that fund managers can invest up to 45% of pension fund assets overseas, which will they choose? There is less interest in Sasol now that investors can consider oil majors such as Shell and BP instead. Reinet looks as though it will soon turn into a cash shell.
If there is such a thing as entrepreneurial genes they were certainly passed on by Sir Ernest Oppenheimer to his son — even if Harry Oppenheimer was a somewhat more polished character than more recent entrepreneurs such as Stephen Koseff and Bernard Kantor at Investec.
Raymond Ackerman is perhaps an even better example as he was always a passionate retailer interested in the smallest details of the business, and not just a taking a helicopter, big picture approach. It would be hard to find anybody as hands-on in the grocery business as the Pick n Pay founder other than Shoprite’s Whitey Basson, but he was always a corporate employee.
Johann Rupert is quite a different character. He doesn’t (I imagine) approve every company advertisement as his father did. His passion is deal-making.
• Cranston is a former associate editor of the Financial Mail. His second book on the history of Investec will be published next year.
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