Private equity firm CVC Partners has invested hundreds of millions of pounds in return for minority stakes in rugby tournaments with the most prestigious being the Six Nations.
With its first investment being its £200m plus deal for a 27% stake in Premiership Rugby in England, followed by £120m for a 28% interest in the United Rugby Championship (URC), in which the four Welsh regions compete, they were positioned as a potential commercial turning point for the game with CVC bring its expertise from investing in other sports to bear to effectively grow commercial revenues through new and improved media and advertising deals.
For the equity diluted unions with regards the Six Nations, the thinking was, and remains so, that additional revenues generated with the input of CVC will offset the impact of the private equity firm taking its ‘slice of the cake’.
