Western Province Rugby Union Granted Final Liquidation Order

The Western Province Rugby Union has been "granted a final liquidation order" of its commercial arm, the WP Rugby Ltd., in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday, according to Ashfak Mohamed of IOL. The WP Rugby Union was "handed a provisional liquidation order" for the company on Nov. 7, but the final liquidation was "opposed by one of the creditors," Aerios, who has lodged a claim of around 72M rand ($5M) for a contract it had with WP Rugby Ltd. to provide services such as Wi-Fi, media and other commercial rights. However, Judge Ashley Binns-Ward made the liquidation order final on Tuesday, "which means that the company is now liquidated." Since the provisional liquidation was granted, the 24.9% stakeholder in the WP company, Remgro, is believed to have provided a “bridging loan” to pay salaries and contracts. Now, the final liquidation order "effectively allows a new company to be established, and if that happens, Remgro or any other third party will be able to own" 74% of the commercial arm of WP (IOL, 12/20).