Ex-All Black David Kirk with the Webb Ellis Cup. Photo / Dean Purcell
Ex-All Black David Kirk with the Webb Ellis Cup. Photo / Dean Purcell
Outdoor clothing retailer Kathmandu's cup-winning chairman ready to take up invite to tournament as Briscoe offer runs its course.
Kathmandu chairman David Kirk won't let Briscoe Group's takeover attempt keep him from jet-setting to this year's Rugby World Cup.
The All Blacks captain when the team won the 1987 Rugby World Cup, Kirk is staring down the $1.80 per share takeover offer from Rod Duke's Briscoe Group, which he and Kathmandu see as too low.
The World Cup starts on September 18 in Britain and Kirk said he was going over mainly for the semifinals and final.
"I'm lucky all the previous winning captains and coaches get invited as guests.
"They fly me over and put me up and give me the tickets, which is very nice." Briscoe's current offer is open until September 17, but could be extended.
Kirk said the takeover attempt wouldn't keep him at home.
"These things run their course."
Transfer window
New Zealand-born sports entrepreneur Bart Campbell could be on the hunt for a new team to back after being bought out of Melbourne City football club.
One of New Zealand's most successful players in the business side of professional sports, Campbell is best known here as the chairman and a part-owner of the Melbourne Storm league team.
A New Plymouth native, Campbell was in a group of investors who joined with England's Man City FC to buy the Antipodean football side in 2014.
In a deal worth A$11.25 million ($12.69 million), Campbell and three others in his consortium took a 20 per cent stake in the team, with Man City holding the rest.
But the top English club, ultimately owned by the United Arab Emirates Deputy Prime Minister and billionaire Sheikh Mansour, has now bought out the four-man consortium's investment in the Australian A-League side.
Melbourne City finished fifth last year, one place behind the Wellington Phoenix.
Man City, according to the Australian Financial Review, had rights under the original deal to buy out its partners for A$2.25 million - what the consortium paid when they picked up the 20 per cent share.
Based in London, Campbell has listed two sports businesses on the city's AIM stock exchange and is a former chief executive of sports marketing and management firm Essentially Group.
According to its website, the firm has consistently represented more than half the All Blacks since 2007.
Courtroom drama
The Serious Fraud Office will be served up an unwelcome reminder this November of its resounding loss in the South Canterbury Finance trial.
That's when the company's former chief executive, Lachie McLeod, is due back in court seeking legal costs from the Crown.
Along with SCF director Robert White, McLeod was last year acquitted of all wrongdoing by Justice Paul Heath, who will be back in Timaru to decide the costs application.
McLeod, a well-known rugby referee who stepped down from SCF in 2009 to pursue farming interests, borrowed money to fund his defence, which would have easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Of the five men who originally faced charges from the SFO over their alleged conduct at the now-failed finance company, only one - Edward Sullivan - was convicted.
Billed as the biggest fraud case in New Zealand's history, it ended up being the Serious Fraud Office's biggest courtroom loss in a finance company trial.
Sticky wicket
All-rounder Graham Vivian founded Tiger Turf almost 35 years ago. Photo / File
Businessman and former international Kiwi cricketer Graham Vivian will get a second innings in the fight over the sale of shares in the synthetic turf business he founded almost 35 years ago.
Companies directed by the leg-spinning all-rounder - who played in a handful of test matches in the 1960s and early 1970s - are in a stoush over the multimillion-dollar sale of TigerTurf shares to multi-national giant Ten Cate.
Ten Cate in 2009 agreed to buy shares in the turf-maker's three operating subsidiaries in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
While the sale of the first two tranches of shares went off without a hitch, the parties are in dispute over the third tranche - priced at $7.72 million.
After exercising its options to buy this third tranche in 2010, Ten Cate alleged breaches of warranty under the purchase agreement.
While the deal was due to settle in 2011, Ten Cate said its warranty claims exceeded the agreed purchase price of the shares.
The warranty claims went off to an expert for assessment and TigerTurf was eventually paid $7.2 million for the shares in March 2013.
Both sides launched action against the other - Ten Cate in the United States and TigerTurf in the New Zealand High Court.
In the local proceedings, TigerTurf wanted interest on the price of the last tranche of shares from the settlement date to when it was paid.
It also wanted a declaration of non-liability to Ten Cate's warranty claims.
Although Ten Cate had both these legs of the action thrown out by the High Court, TigerTurf succeeded in having this overturned by the Court of Appeal last week.
The two causes of action were reinstated and the proceeding was sent back to the High Court for a hearing.
Vivian started TigerTurf in 1981, two years after his retirement from domestic cricket.
Remembered as a mercurial player, Vivian played in five international tests and a single ODI match from 1965 to 1972.
