Change in shareholding at DGB

The South African asset management company Capitalworks and businessman Tim Hutchinson – long-time head of the liquor company DGB – have acquired DGB’s majority shareholding held by Brait, the JSE-listed independent investment company, for an undisclosed sum.

DGB is the owner and producer of leading wine brands that include Boschendal, Brampton, Franschhoek Cellars, Bellingham, Douglas Green, Tall Horse and The Old Road Wine Co. It also handles distribution for the likes of Kanonkop, Graham Beck, Steenberg and Vergelegen as well as number of prominent international beverage brands.

Ricardo Ferreira and Tim Hutchinson.

The transaction followed a process that Brait began last year to realise various investments and was concluded during the Coronavirus-lockdown. This development at one of the country’s foremost liquor companies also sees a major change in DGB’s executive, with Hutchinson stepping down after three decades at the helm and handing over the reins of DGB Group CEO to Ricardo Ferreira, current CEO of DGB South Africa.

Hutchinson becomes executive chairman of the company that he helped build into a major force in the wine and spirits sector since concluding a management buy-out in 1999. This saw DGB management and Brait acquire 80% of the company from the late mining and wine magnate Graham Beck.