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Hong Kong based sports marketing company ActionHouse International
has become the largest foreign shareholder of Valke Rugby, a professional
South African Rugby Club who were Champions of the prestigious Vodacom Cup in South
Africa in 2006.
The deal includes an injection
of funds into the professional rugby team as well as the rights to develop the commercial property
for Valke Rugby. The agreement is part of a new business development plan between founding
investor, Guy Kebble, also known as “Springbok Prop”, a former key player of a South African
national rugby union team, and ActionHouse who registered a South African subsidiary in
September 2006.
Kebble
said, “We are delighted that we can pass on the management and commercial
busines development to ActionHouse who have embraced our long held vision to bring this company and the professional rugby team to another
level. After an 8 year involvement in Valke Rugby, we feel that it is time to bring in new blood and an international perspective to the
company’s future.”
“ActionHouse, as the new partner in this company, bring an expertise that has been used in some of the
biggest sports events in Europe and Asia. It also manages the annual Laureus World Sports Awards of Asia Pacific area. Their Directors
have been on the board of major events like the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens, and worked with some of the greatest names in sports. Their
international experience and long standing sports marketing knowledge is exactly the kind of shareholder this company needs for the
future,” Kebble added.
Cape Town born Managing Director of ActionHouse, Mal Thompson
said, “We were not looking for a shareholding deal initially, but were
encouraged to consider this option by Guy Kebble and the current Valke Chairman, Cobus Van Niekerk. Their rationale was to ensure that
ActionHouse has an active role in the management of the business as well as procuring the marketing rights for Valke Rugby. It made sense
to us and we are delighted to continue our international association with rugby now that we have established an office in South Africa.”
In recent weeks Valke Rugby
appointed Rudy Joubert, 1995 World Cup winning technical advisor and former
coach of Blue Bulls as Head Coach. The Director of Rugby is Springbok legend Naas Botha, who won the Currie Cup six times as well as
remained as the highest-point-scorer in Springbok rugby history for a number of years.
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