11 May 2022

Date for NZR-Silver Lake deal set

4:44 pm on 11 May 2022
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - April 29: NZ Rugby House building. NZ Rugby AGM April 29, 2021 in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Elias Rodriguez/ www.photosport.nz)

Photo: Photosport

New Zealand Rugby has set a date to finalise the Silver Lake deal.

NZR will hold a Special General Meeting in Auckland on 2 June to allow provincial unions to vote on the whether to proceed with the deal that will see the US equity firm invest in $200 million in a new commercial entity that will cover NZR's commercial generating assets.

It's been a year and a half in the making with at times bitter wrangling between the NZR, the provincial unions and the players' association.

The deal was due to be voted on at last months AGM but the vote was postponed after the provincial unions asked for more information and a bigger slice of future revenue.

The proposed deal would result in Silver Lake investing $200m in a new commercial entity that will control all revenue-generating assests of NZR.

The entity would be called CommercialCo and remain under the control of NZR.

Silver Lake Investment

Photo: Silver Lake

An additional co-investment of up to $100m will be offered to New Zealand-based institutional investors later in 2022.

At the conclusion of the additional co-investment, Silver Lake will own between 5.71 percent and 8.58 percent of NZR CommercialCo, representing $200m-$300m investment, depending on capital needs and the uptake of New Zealand-based institutional investors.

-RNZ