Property developer Malcolm Gillies steps in to save Hurricanes after Super Rugby club reels from $2m loss
Monday, 8 December 2025
Gillies and Summit Capital complete deal that could save rugby in Wellington.
Crisis-hit Wellington Rugby sells 50% of Hurricanes shareholding.
NZ Rugby takes minority share and bolsters Hurricanes and Wellington with loans.
Property developer Malcolm Gillies has come to the rescue of the Hurricanes and the Wellington Rugby Football Union (WRFU) after the Super Rugby club recorded a shock $2 million loss in the last financial year.
Gillies and Porirua-based Summit Capital have joined forces to buy the WRFU’s 50% shareholding in the Hurricanes, providing the WRFU with much-needed funds after years of heavy losses.
Gillies has been working on a deal for months but he told The Post that he needed to “take a very deep breath” after discovering during the negotiations that the Hurricanes’ loss for 2025 had blown out to about five times what he had been expecting.
“Our initial investigations were that the Hurricanes were potentially going to make a loss of $400,000,” Gillies told The Post in an interview.
“As it transpired - we got involved probably three months before the end of the financial year - it was $2 million plus.
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“Would we have still got involved if we had known the true story? We don't know.
“But going through that process further convinced us that there was a lot that we could offer the club.
“So, once we'd taken a very big deep breath and really looked at both sides of the equation - i.e. income and expenditure and potential - we felt we could still turn this around.”
The Hurricanes have been bleeding money in recent years, losing about $2m across 2023 and 2024, but the $2m loss in 2025 alone was also the tipping point for New Zealand Rugby intervention.
NZ Rugby will become a minority investor in both the Hurricanes and the WRFU, taking board seats across both organisations, but chair David Kirk said the financial support would be “temporary”.
“As we have done previously with other provincial unions and Super Rugby clubs, NZ Rugby is providing temporary financial support in the form of loan facilities on acceptable terms and a capital injection we expect to recover, to help both organisations get on a firm financial footing again,” Kirk said in a statement.
“This is backed up with governance arrangements to support both organisations in their financial recovery.”
Gillies will become chair of the Hurricanes as he attempts to turn the club’s fortunes around, and said that a search for a new chief executive to replace the departing Avan Lee would not begin until the club had been stabilised.
In the interim, outgoing Hurricanes general manager of rugby Tony Philp has agreed to stay on until a full-time chief executive is found.
Gillies is one of developers behind the New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport at Upper Hutt, whose tenants include the Hurricanes and the WRFU.
He said he had initially been approached by the WRFU about buying the Hurricanes’ shares and despite already having plenty on his plate, saw a chance to help the region as a whole.
“We felt there was was a lot of potential there,” he said.
“When Wellington came to us and told us about their financial struggles and mentioned that they were going to be selling their shares, then we decided at that point that, ‘Look, this is an opportunity for us to help Wellington’.”
Gillies plans to be an active chair until the club is on a firmer financial footing, while Gillies Group chief executive Peter Thomas - who will also be on the new Hurricanes board alongside Summit Capital’s John Mallon - will also devote plenty of time to the club.
“We're hands-on,” Gillies said. “One of the partners is running the finance side and Peter's overseeing the operations side.
“Peter's a very experienced CFO and CEO and has worked in a number of large companies, and I'm working on a day-to-day basis.
“I'm on the tools, selling sponsorships and helping the commercial side.”
In a statement, WRFU chair Phil Holden said: “Selling our shares in the Hurricanes was necessary to recapitalise the WRFU.
“Malcolm and NZSI [the joint venture between Gillies and Summit Capital] will bring real energy and focus to the Hurricanes. We are pleased to retain a seat on the Hurricanes board which will ensure strategic alignment between WRFU and the Hurricanes.”