Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?
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Report: NZ Rugby for sale in mega deal
A small percentage of NZ Rugby could be up for sale - for a mammoth price.
NZ Herald?
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@Kiwiwomble said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
NZ Herald?
He didn't want a crap NZ website...
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@Kiwiwomble said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
Report: NZ Rugby for sale in mega deal
A small percentage of NZ Rugby could be up for sale - for a mammoth price.
NZ Herald?
Thank you.
With the realisation that NZ Rugby's financial model can no longer rely solely on the All Blacks to fund the game, a high ranking NZ Rugby source explained how a private investment could be carried out.
"You would set up a subsidiary company of NZ Rugby and get investment into that company in some form of partnership," the source told the Herald in May. "You put commercial assets into that company — whether that's in combination with Sanzaar partners and something like Super Rugby in its reincarnated form, or the Rugby Championship.
and
Following the Herald's report, which stated negotiations with Silver Lake and other private investment firms would resume once Super Rugby's future had a firm blueprint, Sky News UK now suggests a 15 per cent stake could be sold.
That's what I thought.
Some NZRU and maybe SANZAAR cmpetitions. Not 'The All Blacks'.
Panic over.
Good old useless foreign rugby media and use of the term All Blacks. A BBC article I read last year made it sound like the All Blacks teams were in financial negotiations in the build up to a test match. Would have needed to select Ben from Accounts.
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$2B for a 15% stake would make the ABs worth over $13B?
Doesnt seem right.
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@taniwharugby said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
$2B for a 15% stake would make the ABs worth over $13B?
Doesnt seem right.
No, it doesn't.
But even more, not right, for just a stake in the competitions.
Panic re-commenced.
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@Rapido said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@taniwharugby said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
$2B for a 15% stake would make the ABs worth over $13B?
Doesnt seem right.
No, it doesn't.
But even more, not right, for just a stake in the competitions.
Panic re-commenced.
It's not $2B for the 15% - I think they're saying NZRU in total is $2B:
NZ Rugby's entity has been tentatively valued at US$2 billion ($2.79b NZD).
So, they're saying they might carve a bit of that out, into it's own entity, and sell 15% of THAT... was my impression.
In general, the quotes from the "high ranking NZ Rugby source" - suggest that they're going to be very careful that there's zero foreign ownership of the actual NZRU/ABs... keeping this stake/investment fairly well firewalled. -
@Kruse They cannot sell the NZRFU as it is not owned by paid employees of that organisation. It is simply a body set up to organise and administer rugby in NZ and is effectively owned by the financial (and Life) members of each and every club affiliated to a provincial Rugby Union that is also affiliated to the NZRFU (and there are none that aren't!). .
They might be able to sell off or pledge assets/intellectual property or interests in things they own or run (eg broadcasting rights to the NPC, naming rights to teams or competitions etc) but they cannot "sell" part of the governing body as it is, in effect, a "Co-operative". -
Unless the NZ government comes to the rescue, NZR (like other nation unions and many sports organisations) is going to need a lot of investment to make up for revenue lost in the Covid-19 crisis. Silver Lake has a very strong track record of successful investments (Skype, Dell, UFC, Twitter).
For me, the chief stakeholders in New Zealand Rugby will always be the players and the fans, especially those closely involved in grassroots and Heartland Rugby. But if the piggy bank is so empty that Private Equity's involvement is necessary for competitive Rugby to survive in New Zealand then Silver Lake are a good organisation to be speaking to.
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@sparky Investment firms don’t give money away for free. They will want a return that is greater than current owners (Clubs & Provinces). No one can just magic new revenue sources out of nothing - so the plan has to be good and the chosen partner has to add value to that plan. I note the digital media stuff.
For me the worry is that the plan will be non existent and something will be lost.
I worked for Telecom (Spark) when it was sold to the Americans in the 80’s with the same type of story - they would magically bring investment and knowledge and the company would do wonderful things. All that happened is they bought a monopoly for a song - just after the Government had upgraded its network ( to digital exchanges at that time ). So with no major new investment required for the foreseeable future, and a rising share market they just cut costs (people) milked the company (read NZs ) for dividends and sold their shares at the top of the market. Best investment ever for them but they really added no long term value - they were nothing special. Still remember sharing the lift with the big Texan CEO of Telecom Auckland in his boots and smoking cigars - they just came and went.
So when the story is we need the foreign investment I say bullshit to that. Show me first how they will grow our revenue streams and why only they can do that for us and why they require ownership rights? It’s all fairies and unicorns - but with a good (?) chance they will just end up just being blood sucking leeches.
Just waiting for the full story but a little bit skeptical
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@Rapido said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
I'd rather NZRU just gave up on competing at sub-national level, settled for top players being foreign based. Come back to play test rugby.
Obviously will play less tests per year (fine with me).
Then, if they are playing for foreign clubs I don't give a shit about, I won't even need to be angry ever again about terrible bland tribeless franchise rugby kits. Sub-national rugby has become so identity-less that I don't really care anymore.
This is the crux of it for me too. What do they need the capital for? If it is just to prop of recurrent expenditure (player salaries, the franchises etc) and they don't intend to change the model then what is in it for Silver Lake?
If the model is going to be changed it's not clear why we would need additional capital to let players play overseas, cull unions or pull out of SANZAAR and auction off our test matches etc. If we were trying to renationalize the structure I could understand why you would need that injection.
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@rotated To me sub national rugby is everything. You undermine that and in 10-15 years the ABs will be also rans on the field and we will all be watching English football. When the ABs become a team of rich pricks coming back from Europe a few times a year then it’s game over for me as a spectator.
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@kev said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@rotated To me sub national rugby is everything. You undermine that and in 10-15 years the ABs will be also rans on the field and we will all be watching English football. When the ABs become a team of rich pricks coming back from Europe a few times a year then it’s game over for me as a spectator.
Need to protect the grassroots
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@canefan said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@kev said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@rotated To me sub national rugby is everything. You undermine that and in 10-15 years the ABs will be also rans on the field and we will all be watching English football. When the ABs become a team of rich pricks coming back from Europe a few times a year then it’s game over for me as a spectator.
Need to protect the grassroots
Seriously wonder though, you could sell stakes in nzr for$1k each...30,000 folks and you've got$30M to play with. Honestly, I'd support to keep us out of the hands of venture capital in exchange for support, half price tickets and no voting rights👍👍
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@nzzp said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@canefan said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@kev said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@rotated To me sub national rugby is everything. You undermine that and in 10-15 years the ABs will be also rans on the field and we will all be watching English football. When the ABs become a team of rich pricks coming back from Europe a few times a year then it’s game over for me as a spectator.
Need to protect the grassroots
Seriously wonder though, you could sell stakes in nzr for$1k each...30,000 folks and you've got$30M to play with. Honestly, I'd support to keep us out of the hands of venture capital in exchange for support, half price tickets and no voting rights👍👍
I’d invest in a heartbeat.
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AFC Wimbledon ran a bond scheme
This meant there was a min spend of $1000 but you could put in more if you wanted and choose the term length (3 - 20 years) and the return (0-3%) so those that just wanted to help could put it in for 0% and 20 years but those that wanted to help but may not have been able to afford just to give the cash got a small return
we raised 7 Million quid (over $12M) in maybe 6 months, I imagine the AB's would have much more pull than a small league 1 football club
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@Rapido said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
I'd rather NZRU just gave up on competing at sub-national level, settled for top players being foreign based. Come back to play test rugby.
Obviously will play less tests per year (fine with me).
Then, if they are playing for foreign clubs I don't give a shit about, I won't even need to be angry ever again about terrible bland tribeless franchise rugby kits. Sub-national rugby has become so identity-less that I don't really care anymore.
I'm 100% the opposite to this. That would be me almost done as a rugby fan. Would I have to get back into cricket? Become a soccer fan? Get Fox back on so I can watch the Worriers?
Ah fuck, I'm about to slink off into a deep depression.
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@nzzp said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@canefan said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@kev said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:
@rotated To me sub national rugby is everything. You undermine that and in 10-15 years the ABs will be also rans on the field and we will all be watching English football. When the ABs become a team of rich pricks coming back from Europe a few times a year then it’s game over for me as a spectator.
Need to protect the grassroots
Seriously wonder though, you could sell stakes in nzr for$1k each...30,000 folks and you've got$30M to play with. Honestly, I'd support to keep us out of the hands of venture capital in exchange for support, half price tickets and no voting rights👍👍
Join a club?
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Exclusive: The $465m offer that could change NZ Rugby forever
NZ Rugby field revolutionary $465 million private investment offer from US tech giants.
New Zealand Rugby has received a $465 million offer from US technology investment giants Silver Lake for a 15 per cent share of commercial rights valued at $3.1 billion, the Herald can reveal. The deal, should it be signed off by New Zealand Rugby's provincial unions in the coming months, would be the biggest seachange since the game turned professional 25 years ago, and the largest transaction of this nature in NZ sports history. New Zealand Rugby and Silver Lake have been in talks for over nine months, with the Herald first revealing their shared interests last May. While Silver Lake's minority stake remains under negotiation and could be anywhere from 10 to 15 per cent, with terms yet to be finalised, the Herald understands they have tabled a $465 million offer for 15 per cent of a new, separate NZ Rugby entity.
