South African billionaire Michiel le Roux's family doubles its Stormers rugby stake to 71.5%

The family of Capitec founder Michiel le Roux has doubled its holding in Stormers Rugby, taking control of the Cape Town club outright.

Fynbos Group bought out Ardagh Glass Packaging Group Africa's shares in Red Disa Investments, the consortium that holds the controlling interest, lifting the family to 71.5% of the club. André van der Veen's Marble Head Investments keeps 2.5% and the Western Province Rugby Union holds the remaining 26%.

Johan le Roux, Michiel's son and the club's chief executive, announced it on Tuesday evening at the Stormers' season and kit launch at Cape Town Stadium.

Fynbos Equity and Ardagh had been equal partners in Red Disa since 2023, when the consortium acquired control. A change in Ardagh's shareholding prompted Fynbos to buy the rest.

The money is meant to fund a specific plan. The Stormers want to bring the Springboks Siya Kolisi, Cheslin Kolbe and Wilco Louw back to the club, and to keep funding the Stormers Rugby Institute, Stormers Bolts and Stormers XXIII development structures.

Fynbos is the vehicle through which the le Roux family holds much of its private wealth. Two of its arms, Fynbos Ekwiteit and Fynbos Kapitaal, gave a combined 55 million rand to the Democratic Alliance between April and June, more than half of everything the party raised in that quarter and 47% of all political donations declared across South Africa.

Michiel le Roux founded Capitec in Stellenbosch in 2001 to lend to low-income South Africans with little access to conventional banking, and it grew into the country's largest bank by customer numbers. He stepped back from the chairmanship in 2019 and remains a substantial shareholder, holding roughly 11% of a company whose shares traded at about 4,644 rand on Sept. 3. Forbes ranked him tenth among Africa's wealthiest people on Sept. 1 at $3.7 billion.

Neither Fynbos nor the Stormers disclosed what the additional shares cost.