Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa April 2014 | Page 13

UPFRONT

L

ouis van der Watt, a maverick propert y developer and
entrepreneur, has built the Atterbury Property Group into
a market leader and one of South Africa’s most successful
property companies.

LOUIS VAN DER WATT

From humble beginnings as a small company in Pretoria, Atterbury’s
meteoric rise has occurred over a fairly short period of time. Down-toearth Louis credits his team, his employees and partnerships for the
success and growth of the company.

Marital Status: Married to Celeste

Louis has always been an entrepreneur. He started his first small
business when still in primary school, in Standard Four at Menlo Park.
He bought and sold cars as a young entrepreneur, selling as many as 15
cars up to his matric year. As a result of his efforts, in 1983 Louis received
the Beeld / Rapport Young Entrepreneur award at age 16. Louis is a proud
Pretoria boy and remains a resident of the city today. His two children
attend the same school he did, Menlo Park High School.

CA (SA); CIMA (UK)

After school Louis completed his national service and then studied
B Comm Accountancy at the University of Pretoria. While he was at
university he started a business that cleaned the rugby boxes at Loftus
Versfeld for extra cash. He completed his articles in the management
consulting division of Deloitte & Touche, qualified as a Chartered
Accountant in 1992 and obtained his CIMA in the same year.
It was during this period after that he met his business partner and
co-founder of Atterbury, Francois van Niekerk. At the time Francois
headed an IT company called Infotech. They hit it off and chatted
regularly about their shared interests in property investment. Louis was
investing in rental apartments and trading plots of land.

Personal Statistics
Age: 46

with two children, Petronel and
Philip.
Experience/Qualifications:

Hobbies: Farms cattle with friend

Jean Engelbrecht of Rust en Vr