Rich and reclusive: The enigma of Derek Brink Snr
Mbongeni Mguni | Monday January 23, 2023 06:00
So far out of the public eye did Brink keep that in publishing his death notification this week, local media could not accurately locate a photograph of the man who many suspect was the country’s richest and most powerful ever.
While not uncommon, reclusive billionaires range between the late Howard Hughes who spent the latter part of his life holed up in a penthouse to Dietrich Mateschitz, who cut down his circle of friends and kept a tight lid on his private and business life.
Brink was on a different spectrum, apparently keeping a large circle of friends, acquaintances and family, his businesses well-known household names, but at the same time, evidently, making an effort to swim below the radar of personal public renown.
But the opening up of the country’s company register to the public in 2019 meant that anyone with Internet access could look up records on who owned which company. Yesterday, a cursory search for the late magnate on the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA)’s website, returned directorships, many of them linked to actual ownership of shares, for 102 companies.
However, Brink was known for preferring to keep his business interests private i.e off the public stock exchange. As a result, in the public eye at least, his wealth is more frequently estimated through his links to household names such as Senn Foods, Bokomo Botswana, Notwane Estates, Spar Botswana and a host of others across crop and animal farming, tourism, manufacturing and retail.
And yet, the man who quite possibly held more assets and enjoyed higher incomes than any other in the country, passed away this week with the majority of Batswana unaware how he looked like and who he was.
Information dug up by Mmegi this week indicates that Petrus Frederik Brink, more commonly known as Derek, was born in the 1940s in Lobatse. He built on the family assets to expand an empire that eventually touched on most of the country’s key non-mining business sectors.
The evidence indicates that Brink preferred a model of vertical integration, which involved controlling the value chain from his vast land holdings to businesses such as chicken production and retail, in the process strengthening his hold over several sectors.
As with the spotlight shone by CIPA, the late mogul’s business dealings in later years were further illuminated by the establishment of the Competition and Consumer Authority, with his regulatory filings on mergers and disposals regularly being featured.
In 2021, Brink broke his low profile to defend an issue close to his heart, intervening in a highly public boardroom squabble at the then Botswana Building Society Limited (BBSL). Brink and his family are not only one of the BBSL, now BBS Bank, largest shareholders, but having occupied the share registry since the early days, the late businessman was quite influential.
In April 2021, as a stand-off between old directors and new nominees developed, Brink successfully secured a court order forcing BBSL to hold an AGM, eventually leading to the resolution of the dispute.
“Mr Brink served on the board of the Botswana Building Society from its inception on December 2, 1976 until he retired in September 2006.He was a formidable presence on the board whose interventions, sharpened by his vast experience and skills from establishing and running multiple businesses were always perfectly timed,” said BBS chair, Bernard Mzizi this week.
Mzizi is one of the victors of the 2021 AGM, the time during which the turbulence at BBSL marked a rare period of public scrutiny for Brink, even though he did not appear at the court case or the AGM in person.
His influence in working a resolution to the BBSL troubles showed a glance of the hard edge Brink reportedly brought to his business dealings, a fact known by his competitors in various sectors and those who sought to cross swords with him legally.
Outside of his businesses, however, those who know him best describe Brink as warm-hearted, unassuming and pragmatic with a sense of humour.
His family viewed him as larger than life person.
“We hang him like a star, between the earth he loved and the Heaven too small to hold him,” the family said in a statement this week.
Brink passed away on the morning of Tuesday after a long illness.