An American private equity firm is in advanced negotiations to buy a 15% stake in New Zealand Rugby in a mega-deal worth billions of dollars.

The investor is Silver Lake, which part-owns Manchester City’s owner City Football Group, and is known as one of the world’s leading technology investors. Silver Lake was also part of a consortium which took control of UFC, the Mixed Martial Arts franchise, in 2016.

The talks have been going for several months, and according to a new Sky News report in Britain, the deal could be wrapped up as early as this month.

It said insiders suggested the transaction, if confirmed, could involve a 15% share valued roughly at $2 billion.

‘If completed, it would be the latest – and arguably most prominent – example of a major sports-rights owner seeking to raise capital after a year in which the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc with the global sporting schedule,’ Sky News reported.

‘Silver Lake is understood to have been vying with a number of rival private-equity investors to secure the deal during a process run by Jefferies, the investment bank.’

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