Its new £55m facility follows the refinancing of debt with NatWest and the Welsh Government
WRU chairman Richard Collier-Keywood.(Image: © Huw Evans Picture Agency)
The Welsh Rugby Union has refinanced it debt on more favourable terms with a new £55m facility. The union has entered into a short-term bridging funding arrangement with HSBC and US investment bank Goldman Sachs.
It has refinanced in full debt facilities it had with NatWest Bank, around £35m, and £12m owed to the Welsh Government.
It said that its aim is still to negotiate a longer-term debt facility, potentially up to 20-years, at the end of the new three-and-a-half year deal, which could be used to fund significant improvements to the Principality Stadium.
The Cardiff Bay administration provided a commercial loan of around £18m to the union in 2022 after it refinanced a Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loans Scheme (CLBILS) funding package the WRU had struck with NatWest. The WRU passed through the initial NatWest loan roughly equally to the four regions in Cardiff ( now WRU-owned after acquiring it out of administration last year), the Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets, who are liable for the interest and capital repayments.
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The CLBILS had to be refinanced within three years and with limited options the union turned to the Welsh Government. The interest rate was negotiated at the current Bank of England base rate (then 0.25% but now 5.25%) plus a 3% margin. Following a spike in inflation during the pandemic the regions were at one stage faced with an eye-watering interest rate of more than 8%.
Giving evidence to the Welsh Affairs Committee in Westminster chairman of the WRU, Richard Collier-Keywood said the funding from HSBC and Goldman Sachs provides a lower interest rate of around 1%
He told the cross-party MPs on the committee: “When I first arrived we were absolutely up against our banking covenants and we were in special measures with our major bank (NatWest) so couldn’t do anything financially without talking to our bankers. We were really up against it from a financial perspective. So, for the last two years we have been improving the finances.”
He said its latest accounts for the year to the end of June, 2025 has seen a “significant rise in its earnings profile.”
The chairman said: “We have also completed a major refinancing of all the debt with the Welsh Rugby Union, repaying NatWest Bank and the Welsh Government (via the Development Bank of Wales).
“We are now being backed by two international organisations, in Goldman Sachs and HSBC which again sets a bedrock for the future of Welsh rugby. Either of those two organisations would have invested in us if they had any concerns about our governance or the future plans we have put forward to them. We are now on a sustainable financial footing.”
HSBC will provide the core banking facilities. Some £5m of the £50m has been assigned for specific projects.
On the terms of the debt Mr Collier-Keywood said: “The terms are better from what we had before with Welsh Government by around 1% – Sonia (Sterling Overnight Index Average) plus 2.75%. He confirmed the initial focus on was looking at a long-term deal (10 to 20 years), potentially via US paper markets. “
He added: “But having taken some advice we had refinanced for around three-and-half years which we see as essentially a bridge to allow us to make the investments we need to make in this cycle. In about two years we will go out to look at a longer term debt, which could allow for significant redevelopment work on the stadium and related areas.”
