Rugby: a record turnover of €160.7m for New Zealand Rugby in 2022 (+43.3%)

New Zealand Rugby (NZR) has posted a record turnover of NZ$270.8m (€160.7m) for the financial year 2022, i.e. 43.3% more than in 2021 (NZ$188.8m/€117m), announced the Federation on 27/04/2023.

This turnover was largely driven by the body's commercial revenues (€145m in total for sponsorship, media rights and matchday revenues), which set up a commercial company (New Zealand Rugby Commercial) in June 2022 following the entry of the American investment fund Silver Lake into the Federation's capital via an initial investment of NZ$200m (€121.6m). "The first tranche of funding from the Silver Lake transaction allowed NZR to pay NZ$37m (€22m) to its stakeholders and build more than $90m (€53.4m) in cash reserves despite the ongoing Covid costs and inflationary pressure through 2022," said the body.

Operating expenses were NZ$277m (€164.4m), compared to NZ$183m (€110.4m) in 2021. "Expenses increased mainly due to more activity in 2022 coming out of a reduced schedule in 2021 due to Covid. NZ$21m was spent on women and girls' specifically, excluding the Rugby World Cup, with an increased…