Western Province Rugby placed under liquidation

Western Province Rugby (PTY) Limited was placed under final liquidation in a court ruling handed down on Tuesday.

The Western Province Rugby Football Union had earlier obtained a provisional order to have its commercial arm placed into provisional liquidation.

Judge Ashley Binns-Ward’s judgment listed certain evidence placed on record by the union. This included that the company’s liabilities exceeded its assets by over R6.3 million and that it sustained an operating loss of more than R4.1 million after tax in 2014. The following year the figure amounted to more than R12.7 million.

Cape Town marketing company‚ Aerios‚ opposed the liquidation. It had entered into an advertising deal with the company in 2011 which gave them commercial rights at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town.

But Aerios and Western Province Rugby had been locked in a dispute over the contract and the company claimed it was owed more than R70 million. Aerios also claimed that the bankruptcy claim was an attempt to get out of their deal.

“A winding-up of [Western Province Rugby (PTY) LTD] would not‚ of itself‚ result in the termination of its contractual obligations to Aerios. Aerios would not have the right to compel specific performance‚ but the liquidators would have to decide whether to abide by the contracts or to terminate them.

“The liquidators would have a duty to make their decision with conscientious regards to the best interests of the creditors. An election by a liquidator to terminate the Aerios contracts would be regarded as equivalent to repudiating them‚’’ said Judge Binns-Ward.