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Becoming a billionaire: Ascendis founders have joined the exclusive club
Becoming a billionaire: Ascendis founders have joined the exclusive club

Becoming a billionaire: Ascendis founders have joined the exclusive club

2021-01-15T11:52:41+00:00By Gary Shayne|

I first met the Coast-2-Coast duo Cris Dillon and Gary Shayne a few years

Gary Shayne (born 1970) is a South African based investor with extensive experience in identifying investment trends and building large companies via a buy-and-build strategy.

In 2007 Shayne, who is the sole shareholder of the Company, founded Cambridge Capital with approximately R30 million and built the group, with an outstanding team of professionals, to a net equity value in excess of R3 billion by 2017.

Cambridge is an investment holding company using its own funds and partnering with co-investors to finance investments. The Company creates value via a buy-and-build platform strategy, as well as partnering with management teams in order to create value by improving strategic, operational and financial performance.

In 2011 Cambridge Capital, via one of its subsidiary companies and under the leadership of Shayne, founded Ascendis Health and grew the Company’s profits to over R1 .3 billion within six years. It is now one of the largest health companies in Africa. Ascendis sells a wide range of health products from pharmaceuticals, to nutraceuticals and medical devices. The Company has operations in South Africa and Europe and is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

In 2015 the Cambridge Group founded Bounty Brands which owns numerous consumer brands in South Africa spanning from foods to apparel and home care, and now has annual profits of approximately R400 million.

Then, in 2016, the group founded Marlin Brands, a durable consumer brands business selling its product exclusively in Australia through 15,000 stores and generating profits in excess of R300 million/annum.

Later in 2016, the group acquired Krosno, one of the largest manufacturers of wine glasses and tumblers in Central and Eastern Europe.

To date the Cambridge Capital group has successfully acquired over 60 companies with cumulative earnings in excess of R2.5 Billion in Europe, Africa and Australia and raised over R12 billion in funding.

In late 2017, the Cambridge Group contributed an additional R750 million in equity funding to Ascendis, increasing its shareholding in Ascendis to just over 30%, worth approximately R2.5 billion. However in 2018, numerous risk factors including the China-US trade war, resulted in investors selling out of listed businesses which had acquisitive strategies and the corresponding higher gearing, including Ascendis Health.

To strengthen the Group, Cambridge Capital raised R1.6bn in equity in 2018 for Bounty Brands and a further R1.2 billion of equity funding into Marlin Brands in April 2019. In February 2019 it sold its Krosno business at a profit for R800m, having increased its earnings by 30% over 2 years and used those funds to reduce gearing in the group.

Despite its large minority shareholding in Ascendis, Cambridge only occupied two of the nine board seats in Ascendis and was unable to influence the board sufficiently to follow Shayne’s advice with regard to debt reduction. Ascendis’ high gearing at a time when investors were seeking shelter from the China-US trade war resulted in its share price dropping from R18 to R5/share in late 2018. At that point the Cambridge Group, via one of its subsidiaries, held R50m of Ascendis derivative contracts which it was forced to sell. Whilst the quantum sold represented less than 4% of Shayne’s net worth a few months earlier, Shayne and Cambridge suffered greater financial losses caused by the drop in the Ascendis share price.

When Shayne’s vision for Ascendis Health diverged from a number of other board members in early 2019, including Shayne’s insistence to sell some of the businesses to de-gear Ascendis, he subsequently resigned from the company and has since reduced his shareholding in Ascendis.

Cambridge however continues to invest in the health and consumer brands sector in a private capacity and more recently is looking at investing into the services and technology sectors.