Cape Town - The Rupert family has been a dominant force in the South African business world since the 1940s when Anton Rupert founded the Rembrandt Group and built it up into a multibillion rand group that was at one point second only in size to Anglo American.
With interests ranging from tobacco and mining to industry, the Ruperts became the leading family in Afrikaans business circles, in much the same way as the Oppenheimers were the family figureheads of the Anglo mining empire.
In 2000, after a process of disinvestment of many of its industrial interests, the Rembrandt group's pyramid structure was collapsed into two groups: Remgro, which holds the financial services, industrial, mining, tobacco and liquor interests; and VenFin, which has a 15 percent stake in Vodacom that it uses to fund investments and development in small technology businesses.
Johann Rupert (53), the eldest son of Anton, still maintains an active role in the family's business concerns. He is the non-executive chairman of VenFin and Remgro, executive chairman of Richemont and Business Partners, and a member of the international advisory board of DaimlerChrysler.
The family maintains its control of VenFin and Remgro through the Rembrandt Trust, which controls 100 percent of the unlisted B ordinary shares. Johann Rupert is the director of the trust.
The group's business interests remain substantial. Remgro has a 9 percent stake in British American Tobacco (BAT), the world's second largest tobacco group; a 30 percent stake in Distell; a 10 percent interest in FirstRand; a 23 percent stake in RMB Holdings; a 9 percent interest in Absa Bank; 16 percent of Sage Group; 11 percent of Gencor; 41 percent of Trans Hex; 34 percent of Total South Africa; and 42 percent of Dorbyl, among others.
The family empire started in 1941 when Rupert and two companions took over a small tobacco factory in Johannesburg and created the company Voorbrand. Because of a shortage of machinery during the war, the idea to make cigarettes had to wait and only pipe tobacco was produced.
In 1943 Rupert and the late Dirk Hertzog founded Technical & Industrial Investments, a public investment company that invested in tobacco, liquor, coal, wool, tea and coffee.
In 1948 the Rembrandt Tobacco Corporation was established and the first cigarettes were manufactured in an old flour mill in Paarl. After 1954 the group expanded worldwide and obtained interests in 27 countries.
Anton Rupert's indisputable entrepreneurial ability was underscored by the fact that, at a time when many countries had imposed sanctions on South Africa, Rembrandt went to Europe with £30 000 and built the Swiss-based luxury goods group Richemont out of this.
In 1995 Rembrandt and Richemont merged their tobacco interests in Rothmans International, and then in 1999 merged these interests with those of BAT.
The group maintains a strong tradition of social investment, particularly in Anton Rupert's special area of interest, the preservation of wildlife. He was a founding member of the World Wildlife Fund - South Africa 35 years ago and founded the Peace Parks Foundation.
Rembrandt was also well-known for the catalytic role it played in the cultural field. Since 1964 foundations established by Rembrandt have used a part of the group's profits for the promotion of education, art, music and the preservation of historical buildings.