Jebb McIntosh, founder of car dealer CMH, dies at 80

Jebb McIntosh, the South African businessman who co-founded car retailer Combined Motor Holdings Ltd. and ran it for decades, died on Monday at the age of 80, leaving a 37.6% stake in the Johannesburg-listed company worth about R978 million ($58.9 million).

CMH announced his death in a statement on Tuesday. McIntosh had been on the board since 1976, when the business started trading, and was its longest-serving director. He was still working until the end. “Up until the moment that he passed, Jebb was having a typical day in the office,” Chairman James Dixon said.

The board described him as a business icon with a sharp command of detail and sound judgment. “For those in the motor industry, Jebb and CMH were synonymous,” it said. He is survived by his wife, Liz, and five children.

McIntosh’s stake

McIntosh was by far the largest shareholder in CMH, with 26.07 million shares, or 37.55% of the 69.4 million shares in issue. CMH shares last traded at R37.50 on Tuesday, giving the company a market value of about R2.6 billion ($157 million). At that price, his stake is worth about R978 million.

The holding paid him well. CMH declared a final dividend of 222 cents a share in April for the year through February, worth about R57.9 million ($3.5 million) to McIntosh. He took no share appreciation rights under the company’s incentive plan because the board considered his shareholding enough to align him with other investors.

Stuart Jackson, the group’s longtime financial director and McIntosh’s partner in running the business since the 1980s, owns another 5.88 million shares, or about 8.5%.

A handover already under way

McIntosh’s death brings forward a change at the top that CMH had begun planning last year. In June 2025, the company said he would take a smaller role in day-to-day operations and gave more responsibility to Charles Webber, chief executive of its motor retail and distribution division, who joined CMH in 2000 and was appointed to the board that month. Priya Govind, the company secretary, was named chief financial officer designate at the same time and took over from Jackson as CFO in June this year. The board has not yet said who will succeed McIntosh as chief executive.

From two dealerships to the JSE

McIntosh, a chartered accountant, and his business partner Maldwyn Zimmerman opened Chevrolet and Datsun dealerships in KwaZulu-Natal in 1976. The group listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1987 and has paid dividends every year since. It later moved into car rental, which it now runs as First Car Rental, and into parts distribution and fleet services.

CMH now runs dealerships for 31 brands across Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape, including Ford, Isuzu, Nissan and Suzuki. In his last years in charge, McIntosh steered the group toward fast-growing Chinese and Indian carmakers such as Haval, Chery, Foton and Mahindra, which now account for more than half of new-car sales in South Africa. “The early call has proven advantageous as the local vehicle numbers expand and age,” he said in April.

The bet has paid off. In the year through February 2026, CMH’s revenue rose 18.6% to R15.7 billion ($946 million), operating profit climbed 17.1% to R748.6 million ($45 million), and headline earnings per share, the main profit measure in South Africa, increased 33% to 536.4 cents. The company ended the year with R1.15 billion in cash and employed 2,712 people. It also bought back about 5.4 million shares at R35.50 each in a voluntary repurchase offer in December 2025.

Figures were converted at R16.6 to the dollar.