New Zealand Rugby chairman Brent Impey
Photo: Photosport
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) need the backing of more than 50 percent of the country s provincial rugby unions at Thursday s AGM along with the approval of the New Zealand Rugby Players Association for Silver Lake to get a 12.5 percent stake in NZR s commercial interests.
The deal is worth $387.5 million for NZR.
NZR chairman Brent Impey said the mediation between NZR and the New Zealand Rugby Players Association was ongoing and the players would not support the deal at the AGM. We ve agreed to go back to our stakeholder groups, we ll reconvene at some point after this week, but no deal with the players, Impey told Checkpoint.
Silver Lake deal: Robertson urges NZR, players to continue talking rnz.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rnz.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
RNZ
D-Day looms for New Zealand Rugby and their deal with US tech giant Silver Lake - is it the silver bullet to secure their financial future?
New Zealand Rugby risks making a $465 million misstep if they sell a chunk of their business to private equity firm Silver Lake, according to an Australian based Kiwi investment banker with over 30 years experience in capital markets. The investment expert told
Stuff he did not believe the proposed deal from US-based outfit Silver Lake was anywhere near the “can’t lose” offer it was being portrayed around rugby circles. He pointed out when private equity firms buy into companies, their intention was always “how do we exit this? Their strategy is either go IPO or do a trade sale.”
New Zealand Rugby has its annual meeting on Thursday, with the deal to be voted on then. A California-based private equity firm, in 2019 Silver Lake acquired a 10 percent stake in City Football Group (CFG), which owns reigning English Premier League champions Manchester City and teams in the United States, Australia and China. An investment in one of the most famous brands in world sport would expand the buyout giant s US$75 billion (NZ$104b) portfolio of companies, most of which are technology and sports venues and teams, according to its website. Silver Lake has been in the news this week as part of the European Super League crisis in which 12 European football clubs tried to set up an alternative competition to the Champions League, before it fell apart from public opposition.