Moana Pasifika has been placed into liquidation, with shareholders voting on Monday afternoon to wind up the Super Rugby Pacific franchise’s holding company and put a 2.7 million dollar Crown loan at serious risk of being written off.
According to NZ Herald reporting, Stephen White and John Fisk, both senior managing directors of Teneo Financial Advisory, were appointed as joint liquidators of Moana Pasifika Ltd by a special resolution of shareholders. The Pasifika Medical Association, which has bankrolled the team since its 2021 launch, said it could no longer carry the cost, and that both the PMA and Moana Pasifika boards had resolved to appoint liquidators.
In a statement reported by RNZ, the PMA said, “We are proud to have supported the franchise over the past two years and are deeply disappointed to have reached this point.”
The headline financial casualty is a 3 million dollar Sport NZ loan extended to the team in 2021 at a notional 5 percent interest rate. Interest has never been paid and only 300,000 dollars of principal has been returned, leaving 2.7 million dollars on the books that the liquidator has already signalled may not be recovered. The Crown also tipped in another 1.5 million dollars in grants, 1 million dollars to Moana Pasifika Ltd and 500,000 dollars to the associated charitable trust, money taxpayers are now unlikely to see again.
The liquidator told the NZ Herald that “there don’t appear to be significant assets in the company,” which means the queue of unsecured creditors, including roughly 75 to 80 players, coaches and back office staff, is unlikely to be paid out in full. Most player contracts run through to October 2026, with a handful extending into October 2027.
New Zealand Rugby has confirmed it will step in to keep the lights on for the closing weeks of the season. NZR spokesperson Paul Stevens told the NZ Herald the national body will cover player and staff wages through to roughly the end of July 2026 so the team can complete its Super Rugby commitments. The decision means Moana Pasifika will travel to Canberra this weekend to face the Brumbies, rather than defaulting on the match and breaching the competition’s broadcast agreement, as outlined by 1News.
Crucially, NZR has been careful to keep the licence question separate from the liquidation. The organisation told RNZ, “This has no impact on the process for potential parties to take the licence moving forward. They are two parallel situations,” and said it expects a resolution in the coming weeks.
Two groups are publicly in the running. The Kanaloa Consortium, fronted by a group of former All Blacks of Pasifika heritage, has been working on a takeover bid, while the Pacific Rugby Players Association is also at the table. NZR has indicated it will support a viable long-term plan if either party can demonstrate it can fund the team properly through the next broadcast cycle.
Foreign Minister and NZ First leader Winston Peters fanned the speculation on Tuesday afternoon. Speaking to RNZ at Parliament, Peters said, “It’s good news later on,” and added, “I’d love to see them carry on, because the reality is they’ve got a great future.” Pressed for detail, he replied, “You have to wait.” His deputy Shane Jones offered only that “there’s an appointed time when all will be revealed.” Peters was explicit that the government was not intervening directly, but said he was in conversations with people connected to the team.
The franchise was founded in 2021 by a charitable trust led by Savae La’auli Sir Michael Jones and Tuifa’asisina Sir Bryan Williams to give Pasifika players a permanent professional home and to lift Pacific representation in Super Rugby. Current chairman Dr Kiki Maoate and head coach Fa’alogo Tana Umaga have steered the side through four seasons of professional rugby, with the team breaking through to the Super Rugby Pacific quarter-finals for the first time in 2025 and pulling in some of the loudest, most loyal crowds in the competition.
For supporters, the next 72 hours are likely to be emotional. The Brumbies match in Canberra on Saturday now stands as the last guaranteed game for a team that has become a beacon for Pasifika rugby in Auckland and across the wider Pacific. Whether the promised good news lands before kick-off, or whether the franchise plays one final time before its licence is handed to a new owner over the winter, remains an open question.
For New Zealand taxpayers, the more uncomfortable question is what 2.7 million dollars of Crown lending says about the original due diligence behind the team. The Charitable Trust model that propped up Moana Pasifika since 2021 has now run out of road, and any successor bid will need a far more robust commercial spine if Pasifika rugby is to keep a foothold in the southern hemisphere’s flagship club competition.
What’s your reaction to the liquidation, and what do you think the future of Pasifika rugby in Super Rugby Pacific should look like? Drop a comment below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job π
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