Boschendal winery in the Cape is set to dance to a Caribbean beat, with three Bahamas-based businessmen acquiring a 70% share of the sprawling 2,440ha property in the Cape.
The R323m deal was formerly announced yesterday after nearly two years of searching by former owners, mining giants Anglo American.
It is estimated that an equal amount of money will be needed to take Boschendal from its present position as a brand to the next level on the international front.
The main partners in the deal are Frank J Crothers, chairman and CEO of Island Corporate Holdings, which also has interests in the USA and Canada, and Craig Symonette, chairman of a publicly listed food wholesaler in the Bahamas.
He has already been a distributor of Boschendal wines in the Caribbean for the past eight years.
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By GlobalDataClive Venning the newly appointed CEO of Boschendal said one of the unique concepts introduced into the massive venture was to hive off 40 to 60 hectare “gentlemen’s estates” which could be sold at R15 million to R35 million apiece.
The first of these has already been sold to golfer, Gary Player, who said he may not have been interested in turning this prime real estate into a golf course, but he had always dreamed of owning a piece of it.
Boschendal would continue to farm the grapes on his behalf and make wines from it.
