Moelis woos NBL team NZ Breakers as sporting M&A action heats up

afr.com:

The New Zealand Breakers are understood to be in talks with MA Moelis to potentially bring the investment bank on as a strategic adviser, as Tesla chairwoman Robyn Denholm’s investment in rival National Basketball League team Sydney Kings sparks M&A expectations in the sector.

MA Moelis’ bankers have been jockeying for a defence advisory role at the Breakers, betting no doubt the M&A interest in the Sydney Kings would flow on to the second-ranked team in the NBL.

Parker Jackson-Cartwright of the Breakers earlier this month. Getty

Sources said the investment bank has its teams in the United States and more locally working on the pitch. However, it hadn’t been formally hired yet. The Breakers are also likely to field pitches from rival investment banks.

MA Moelis has had a good run advising sports teams. It has just acted for US businessman Robert Sarver’s sale of a 57 per cent stake in NBA team Phoenix Suns for a $US4 billion ($6.2 billion) whole-of-company valuation to mortgage billionaire Mat Ishbia.

At Chelsea Football Club’s £4.25 billion ($8.5 billion) acquisition last year, Moelis were among the bank line-up – alongside Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Robey Warshaw – that advised the buyer, a consortium led by American businessman Todd Boehly.

It is the second advisory type Street Talk’s spotted around the Breakers this month. Bardoc Advisory previously approached a handful of investors to gauge their appetite for a stake in the basketball team. When contacted for a response at the time, the team’s majority owner, Matthew Walsh, said he hadn’t appointed Bardoc. Walsh said he had a “duty… to be commercial” but was “looking forward to the next five years of ownership”.

Both MA Moelis and Walsh did not respond to