Fiji Government pays NZ$6m to own 51 per cent of Drua

Fiji Attorney-General and Economy Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has explained why the Government has invested NZ$6m for a 51 per cent stake in the Fijian Drua Super Rugby franchise.

Sayed Khaiyum told Parliament the New Zealand Rugby (NZR) did not want Super Rugby teams run by the rugby union of a particular country while another compelling reason was to ensure any failure of the franchise would not impact on the Fiji Rugby Union.

The Fiji Times report Sayed-Khaiyum said the NZR required an independent entity which led to the formation of Counter Ruck Pte Ltd, which owns and operates Fijian Drua.

Nic White – Wallaby Legends, Cheika v Jones, and The Honey Badger let loose in Chicago | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 33

Video Player is loading.

Play Video

PlaySkip BackwardSkip Forward

Unmute

Current Time 0:00

/

Duration 0:00

Loaded: 0%

Stream Type LIVE

Seek to live, currently behind liveLIVE

Remaining Time -0:00

 

1x

Playback Rate

Chapters

• Chapters

Descriptions

• descriptions off, selected

Captions

• captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
• captions off, selected

Audio Track

Fullscreen

This is a modal window.

The Video Cloud video was not found.

Error Code: VIDEO_CLOUD_ERR_VIDEO_NOT_FOUND

Session ID: 2025-05-23:86d4c0551e8e250310c3b311 Player Element ID: brightcove-embedded-video

OK

Close Modal Dialog

Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.

Text

ColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityOpaqueSemi-Transparent

Text Background

ColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparent

Caption Area Background

ColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaque

Font Size

50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%

Text Edge Style

NoneRaisedDepressedUniformDrop shadow

Font Family

Proportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall Caps

ResetDone

Close Modal Dialog

End of dialog window.

Close Modal Dialog

This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.

Nic White – Wallaby Legends, Cheika v Jones, and The Honey Badger let loose in Chicago | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 33

Sayed Khaiyum said one of the conditions was it required a minimum of $NZ3 million equity or debt. “The rationale, of course, was to set up a separate private company to keep the financial affairs of the rugby union away from the team that is going to participate in the Super Rugby competition, because of any financial failures that may occur.

“Because these competitions are extremely expensive and if it is going to put additional burden to the rugby union, we could have the entire structure within that individual country collapse. That is why they have to keep that as separate entities.”

When Counter Ruck sought the government to fund the Drua franchise, Sayed-Khaiyum stated the government couldn’t award a grant to a private corporation because taxpayer dollars were involved. After seeing the economic benefits of a Fijian club competing in Super Rugby, he said the government chose to become an equity owner.

“We also saw the economic advantage in terms of the competition and how Fiji of course is going to be the home base for Drua, at least not now but later on it will be. We saw the economic benefits and we also know rugby is a very, very important part of our national psyche,” said Sayed-Khaiyum.

“We then said that we could become an equity holder. In that way we could actually give the $6 million but in return get shares for it as we do in other companies.

“So which is what we have done and as a result of which we get 51 per cent of Counter Ruck, we have already disbursed $3 million, the second lot of $3 million will be disbursed by December, 2022.

“We have said that in time to come, the Government could of course divest its shares, get back its money but what we would have done would have had the Drua team up and running and a good company will be running it too.”