Moana Pasifika collapse leaves $8m debt, $2.7m unsecured taxpayer loan unlikely to be repaid
The Super Rugby Pacific team Moana Pasifika leave debts of over $8 million, including a $2.7m unsecured taxpayer-funded loan to Sport New Zealand Ihi Aotearoa, the failed parent company’s first liquidator’s report shows.
The company’s assets cover: “plant and equipment” such as gym equipment and rugby training gear; accounts receivable of some $700,000; and Moana Pasifika’s brand and intellectual property such as trademarks.
The report does not estimate the value of the team’s assets, which are clearly eclipsed by debt.
Liquidator Stephen White of Teneo Financial Advisory said that the totals provided in the report remain a moving target and were generated, in large measure, from the company’s April 30 balance sheet provided to the liquidator.
White said that in the order of half a dozen parties have been in touch to express interest in acquiring the team’s assets.
He said that any prospective purchaser of the team’s intellectual property would need to prove their seriousness by demonstrating the support of New Zealand Rugby.
Moana Pasifika hold a Super Rugby Pacific franchise licence. However, control of the licence, including to terminate it, sits with New Zealand Rugby.
The liquidation follows a failed effort to sell the team; Moana Pasifika retained Deloitte in 2025 to run the sale process but no acceptable bid emerged.
However, an eleventh-hour Government effort to rescue the team in some form is underway.
Foreign Minister and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is currently holding talks with Pacific leaders, which include discussions about the struggling franchise’s future.
Peters has asked Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFAT) officials and New Zealand Rugby to “explore all possible options” to secure the future of the team.
Kanaloa Rugby chief executive Tracy Atiga has also said she’s interested in acquiring the team but that her consortium has been repeatedly shut out of the process by parties including New Zealand Rugby and the New Zealand Rugby Players Association.
The team were established in 2021 with the help of some $5m of taxpayer funds, which originated from MFAT coffers, earmarked for diplomacy in the Pacific, including through sport. Moana have always struggled financially.
The funds included a loan of $3m to underwrite the team. The remainder of this, $2.7m, held through Sport New Zealand and unsecured, is very likely to be written off.
Funds recovered from accounts receivable, likely the most valuable to the team’s assets, are reserved for the payment of preferential creditors: the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) and team employees, including players whose contracts run until the end of October 2026, and, in some instances, to October 2027.
Some 70 team players and staff, including coaches and sports therapists, are named in the reports’ list of known and likely creditors.
Also included are the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), ASB Polyfest, Auckland Council, accountants BDO Auckland and the New Zealand Rugby Players Association.
New Zealand Rugby has stepped in and is paying the squad until roughly the end of July.
The team’s single largest debt, $4.3m, is owed to its shareholder, the Pasifika Medical Association and related parties, which have general security over the team’s assets.
This debt ranks below preferential creditors but ahead of the long list of unsecured parties, including the publicly funded debt.
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