Billionaire Christo Wiese’s Titan sells Dire Wolf broker

South African billionaire Christo Wiese’s Titan Ventures is selling Dire Wolf Financial Services, a Western Cape-based specialist insurance broker, to Price Forbes South Africa, the local arm of the London specialty broker.

Price Forbes South Africa said on Nov. 13 that it had agreed to acquire Dire Wolf, which has been part of the Titan Ventures portfolio founded by Wiese. Terms were not disclosed.

The deal adds to Price Forbes’ high-net-worth offering in South Africa, where it is building out specialist lines. The firm traces its roots in the country back more than a century and describes itself as South Africa’s first insurance broker. In May it launched a construction insurance team in the country, working alongside its London construction unit.

“South Africa needs more people who are prepared to build businesses,” Wiese said in the announcement, crediting the Dire Wolf team with creating a specialist firm.

Price Forbes is owned by Ardonagh Specialty and calls itself the largest independent specialty broker in the London market, with about 2,000 staff and more than $7 billion of gross written premium under management. Kenny Thorpe chairs its South African business.

Wiese’s investments

Titan is the family investment group Wiese uses to hold his stakes, including his shareholding in Shoprite Holdings Ltd., the retailer he built into Africa’s largest grocery chain. He is also a major shareholder in Brait Plc, the investment company that controls gym chain Virgin Active, which agreed this month to buy Holmes Place’s 13 German clubs for €135 million ($151 million).

Wiese, 85, later became the biggest shareholder in Steinhoff International, whose 2017 accounting scandal wiped out most of his fortune. He has since rebuilt part of it, and Forbes counts him among Africa’s billionaires.

Figures were converted at €1 to $1.12.