Firm gains Reward to push its global ambitions

South African businessman Christo Wiese, who has an estimated wealth of 3.5bn US dollars, is a major backer of Reward Capital, which is supporting Yorkshire entrepreneurs who might have struggled to gain finance from the banks.

Leeds-based Reward, is part of Tradehold, an investment holding company listed on the main  board  of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, of  which Mr Wiese is a major investor. According to Forbes, Mr Wiese is the sixth richest man in Africa.

Doncaster based Websters, which is run by mining industry veterans Eddie Daly and Dave Dean, has secured £400,000 of investment from Reward Capital.

Mr Daly and Mr Dean are often approached by clients who want to get their hands on drilling equipment. They buy the equipment second hand, strip it down and refurbish it. Afterwards, they sell the equipment for around a third of the price of a new machine.

The investment from Reward enabled Websters to buy a Dosco drilling machine from China. It was brought to Doncaster and refurbished, so it works like a new machine.

When it arrives in India the Webster’s engineers will re-assemble the machine for the client, which wants to use it for mining. Websters had a stock of equipment which they were able to offer up as security.

Mr Daly, who has worked in the mining industry for 38 years, said he and Mr Dean set up D & D Mining in 1999, and “reversed” into Websters three years ago.

Mr Daly said there was a glut high quality mining machinery abandoned around the world.

Mr Daly believes that Websters, which has a current turnover of £2.5m and eight staff, could become a £20m turnover enterprise with the right investment.

“We need to look to the future,’’ Mr Daly said. “We’ve got two lads being trained by engineers. It’s created positions in Doncaster.”

Dave Jones, a partner at Reward Capital, said: “It was the mining expertise of these guys that enabled them to win the contract. When the mines closed down they decided that they and their pals had got the expertise to provide a niche in the market place.

“In this instance, the business need fitted Reward’s profile exactly, in that they had plenty of security balanced against a need for cash. They also had a defined exit route in terms of an agreement to sell a machine to a client in India.

“However, the Indian client didn’t want one of the machines Websters had in stock, so they had to source the machine and didn’t have the cash to buy it.

“We had a willing seller and a willing purchaser.”

Reward Capital reported revenues of £3.01m in the year ending February 28, up from £853,000 the previous period.

Reward provided finance to more than 60 organisations in 2012, with an average deal size of £350,000.