American consortium interested in buying the Stormers
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A group of American businessmen are reportedly interested in buying South African Super Rugby franchise The Stormers for the sum of $6 million (about R100 million), according to a report by IOL Sport.
The cash-strapped Western Province Rugby Football Union is entertaining an offer the group of businessmen from New York-based MVM Holdings according to the report. The company is headed by South African Marco Masotti, who is recognised as one of the USA’s leading lawyers in the private equity and hedge fund fields.
Masotti, representing a group of former South African businessmen in the US, submitted an exclusivity agreement to the WPRFU on July 8 in which his consortium offer to buy 51% of the Stormers for the controlling interest. Masotti told Independent Media from New York that $2 million would go to the union and $4 million would go into the balance sheet of the Board of the Stormers.
EXCLUSIVE: The cash-strapped Western Province Rugby Football Union is entertaining an offer from a group of American businessmen to buy the @THESTORMERS for about R100 million
— IOL Sport (@IOLsport) July 27, 2020
By Mike Greenawayhttps://t.co/k11qPdFWB4
Masotti, a partner at the New York-based law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, said: “The Western Province RFU has come back to us with the concern that they should keep the controlling share, but that they would give us an equitable share of the Board (of the Stormers).
“They want to keep control of rugby affairs and we could control the commercial affairs, but that wouldn’t work for us. There needs to be one controller and the guys that are involved in this bid have extensive experience in enterprises of this kind — we are talking about owners of NBA and ice hockey teams.
“Our discussions with Western Province are ongoing and they are going to come back to us regarding our concerns.”
