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Rescue package Local entrepreneur to buy debt-ridden Warriors
WELLINGTON (Reuters) -- Cash-strapped New Zealand rugby league team the Auckland Warriors is to be snapped up by Auckland-based entrepreneur Eric Watson, New Zealand media reported on Wednesday. In a deal expected to be approved by the team's current owner, the New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL), within 48 hours, Watson's private investment company Cullen Investments would take a 75 percent stake in the Warriors for an undisclosed sum -- estimated by the Dominion newspaper to be around NZ$5 million (US$2.03 million). The Warriors team has had a chequered past, incurring large-scale debts under its previous major shareholder, Maori tribe Tainui, and suffering a succession of defeats in the Australian National Rugby League competition. "I would like to watch them beat Australian (clubs). That's really my main motivation," the Herald quoted Watson as saying. Former New Zealand league captain Matthew Ridge was likely to be named as a director of the club, the paper said. Watson, a former butcher's apprentice with an estimated personal fortune of around NZ$140 million (US$57 million), built the Blue Star office products company from scratch in the early 1990s.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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