LIV Golf running on loans as Saudi PIF halts | Golf News

LIV Golf is working on loans as it seeks new buyers amid appreciable uncertainty surrounding the breakaway league’s future.

PIF has financed LIV since its launch in 2022, pouring billions of {dollars} into the enterprise to appeal to top stars from the PGA Tour, including Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm. However, the sovereign wealth fund announced in April that it might end its financial backing of LIV at the conclusion of this season.

LIV CEO Scott O’Neil indicated that the league was funded through the end of the 12 months, but it appears Saudi funding that has arrived since the announcement has come with circumstances.

The league is at the moment in the center of a seven-week break between tournaments after scrapping its tour stop in Louisiana, which was slated for later this month.

O’Neil and his government workforce have utilized the break to intensify their search for new buyers, with a focus on non-public equity in the United States.

The league is offering equity in the complete product, as nicely as in its 13 groups, that are 75 p.c owned by LIV. The remaining stakes are held by workforce captains, whom O’Neil is hoping to keep onside by promoting them on the potential upside of their equity, ought to the league survive and thrive.

“We’re looking at raising $300 million,” O’Neil said in a latest interview with Bloomberg. “And we’re talking to a combination of traditional private equity investors that invest in sports, talking to family offices, and a group that I would characterize as sports team owner billionaires.”

He additional acknowledged: “PIF’s been very clear with us. They’ve been really good, positive, solid investors with us and they’ve been really clear. They’re going to fund through the season and it’s up to us to make sure that we spend all our waking hours finding the next investors and we’re up to the task.”

Holding onto its greatest stars, notably DeChambeau, will probably be essential to LIV attracting new buyers, and O’Neil maintained that he can keep them dedicated to the league.

“Oh, absolutely,” he said. “We have stars like Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, Dustin Johnson, Cam Smith, household names. The difference with this league, more than any other business I’ve ever been a part of, and I’ve been a part of a few, is that this league was built for, by, and through the players.

“We’re truly like building it for them. So, they’re going to truly be the bulk house owners of this business going ahead. And there hasn’t been a time in historical past where gamers have owned a majority of a league. And that’s a fairly particular alternative.”