[imagesource: DHL Stormers / Getty Images]

If New York-based MVM Holdings gets its way, then the Stormers could soon have a new majority shareholder.

The US consortium, headed by Durbanite Marco Masotti, is reported to have submitted an exclusivity agreement to the Western Province Rugby Football Union on July 8, offering $6 million (around R99 million) for a 51% controlling interest in the Stormers.

IOL broke the news overnight, with Masotti, an internationally recognised lawyer in the private equity and hedge fund fields, operating on behalf of a number of former South African businessmen now based in the US:

Masotti, speaking to Independent Media from New York on Monday night, said that $2 million would go to the union and $4 million would go into the balance sheet of the Board of the Stormers.

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.

He added that the discussions between the parties are “ongoing”.

Rather than the consortium seeking out the WPRFU, the board itself had sought equity investors, with board member Andre van der Veen tasked with that job.

Clearly, there is much work still to be done before anybody is signing on the dotted line, but the WPRFU is in need of a cash injection, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic further damaging its depleted coffers.

Masotti explained that the consortium would like to link the Stormers with NBA team the Milwaukee Bucks, in order to grow the brand.

You can read the full IOL report here.

[source:iol]