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Straits Times
06-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Report: PIF's LIV Golf investment nearing US$5 billion
Bryson DeChambeau of the United States poses for a photo with the victor's trophy after winning LIV Golf Korea on May 4. PHOTO: EPA-EFE MIAMI – LIV Golf's investors are reaching into their pockets again for funding, with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) nearing US$5 billion (S$6.5 billion) in spending on the three-year-old league. LIV Golf Investments, the parent company for worldwide LIV Golf operations, has increased its authorised share capital twice in 2025, once in mid-January and once late in April, for a total of US$674.3 million, according to the Money in Sport newsletter on May 5. This brings the total spend to US$4.58 billion, with US$1.9 billion of that coming since January 2024. Money in Sport had previously projected an increase in the PIF investment of US$5 billion by the end of 2025. With a reference to US$82 million in revenue from January to October 2024, PIF's filing included the first time a consolidated revenue figure for LIV Golf has been publicly disclosed. The filing shows the latest authorisations come with three conditions – a minimum number of events this season, a minimum revenue and a finalised TV deal with Fox Sports. LIV Golf has made significant changes in 2025, including Scott O'Neill replacing Greg Norman as CEO in addition to altering its team format to make all players' scores count in every round. Its first event in the United States of 2025 brought record viewership for the league, with 484,000 people tuning in to watch Marc Leishman's triumph in Miami on April 8. Unfortunately for the breakaway league, that was still less than a third of the amount of people who opted to watch a standard PGA Tour event the same day. 'I think we all hoped it would have been a little bit further along, and that's no secret,' Brooks Koepka said ahead of the LIV Golf Miami tournament at Trump National Doral on April 2. 'No matter where you're at, you always hope everything is further along. But they're making progress, and it seems to be going in the right direction.' In other golf news, rising talent Elvis Smylie has been given a late exemption to the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow after claiming the Australasian tour order of merit in 2024-25. The Australian 23-year-old and son of former women's tennis professional Liz Smylie follows in the footsteps of the previous two order of merit winners, David Micheluzzi and Kazuma Kobori, who were each given late exemptions to the Major. The world No. 202 will join a strong Australian contingent at Quail Hollow next week, including former British Open winner Cameron Smith and fellow Major-winners Adam Scott and Jason Day, the event's 2015 winner at Whistling Straits, Wisconsin. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Reuters
05-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Report: PIF's LIV Golf investment nearing $5 billion
May 5 - LIV Golf's investors are reaching into their pockets again for funding, with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund nearing $5 billion in spending on the three-year-old league. LIV Golf Investments, the parent company for worldwide LIV Golf operations, has increased its authorized share capital twice this year, once in mid-January and once late in April, for a total of $674.3 million, according to the Money in Sport newsletter on Monday. This brings the total spend to $4.58 billion, with $1.9 billion of that coming since January 2024. Money in Sport had previously projected an increase in the PIF investment of $5 billion by the end of 2025. With a reference to $82 million in revenue from January to October 2024, PIF's filing included the first time a consolidated revenue figure for LIV Golf has been publicly disclosed. The filing shows the latest authorizations come with three conditions: a minimum number of events this season, a minimum revenue and a finalized TV deal with Fox Sports. LIV Golf has made significant changes this year, including Scott O'Neill replacing Greg Norman as CEO in addition to altering its team format to make all players' scores count in every round. LIV Golf's first event in the United States of 2025 brought record viewership for the league, with 484,000 people tuning in to watch Marc Leishman's triumph in Miami on April 8. Unfortunately for the breakaway league, that was still less than a third of the amount of people who opted to watch a standard PGA Tour event the same day. "I think we all hoped it would have been a little bit further along, and that's no secret," Koepka said ahead of the LIV Golf Miami tournament at Trump National Doral on April 2. "No matter where you're at, you always hope everything is further along. But they're making progress, and it seems to be going in the right direction."
USA Today
05-05-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Saudi Arabia's PIF nearing $5 billion in spending on LIV Golf League, per report
Saudi Arabia's PIF nearing $5 billion in spending on LIV Golf League, per report Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has dipped into its coffers again to continue funding LIV Golf and is closing in on $5 billion in spending on the renegade golf league. In its latest newsletter, Money in Sport reported recent filings indicate LIV Golf Investments, the parent company for worldwide LIV Golf operations, has increased its authorized share capital twice in 2025: $330 million on January 16th and a further $344.3 million on April 25th for a total of $674.3 million this year. By its estimates, LIV's total funding for 2025 could reach $1 billion as soon as July or August 'assuming a third capital injection by PIF of $330 million is required.' That lifts the total spend on the golf startup to $4.58 billion, an increase of $1.9 billion since January 2024. In a previous post, Money in Sport predicted the PIF investment in LIV Golf would reach $5 billion by the end of 2025. A further capital increase of $330 million over the summer would take the total investment to $4.9 billion. 'This projection looks comfortably on track,' Money in Sport wrote. The latest round of investment suggests PIF remains staunchly behind the venture. Interestingly, the filings show PIF attached three conditions to the latest financial injections, including a minimum number of events to be played this season; a minimum revenue; and the completion of a TV deal with Fox Sports. The reference in the filing to $82 million of revenue for the period January to October 2024 is the first time a consolidated revenue figure for LIV Golf has been publicly disclosed, Money in Sport noted. 'Full year revenue of circa $100 million must be a major disappointment to PIF considering 2024 was LIV Golf's second full season of 14 events,' it concludes. 'The revenue benchmarks beg the question as to why PIF has not done a deal to acquire the DP World Tour. It would have cost a lot less than the $4.6 billion it has already sunk into LIV Golf. The PGA Tour's existing relationship with the European Tour would not be a serious barrier to getting a deal done if the Tour's Board of Directors and membership believed the price was right.' Other conclusions include: 'The tipping point for PIF and LIV Golf could be the renewal of the deals for the star players' 'The elephant in the room for PIF is the plunging oil price which could eventually force it to batten down the hatches and curb spending on LIV Golf.' And Money in Sport offered one more question for its readers to ponder: 'What would have happened if LIV did not meet PIF's conditions? In the worst-case scenario, is PIF willing to pull the plug on LIV?' LIV Golf wrapped up a two-week post-Masters run in Mexico and South Korea and has reached the halfway point of its season. Negotiations between PIF and PGA Tour have received the support of U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this year but hit a snag ahead at the last meeting and there are no indications of when the two sides plan to meet again.
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New report unveils 'staggering' losses for LIV Golf
The Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund's investment in LIV Golf could approach $5 billion by the end of this year based on financials reported by LIV Golf's UK arm (and excluding its U.S. business). LIV Golf's financials were put under the microscope by Money in Sport, a newsletter following the money that is published on Substack. LIV Golf's UK arm, which manages all of LIV's operations outside of the U.S., filed its 2023 financials this week. Among the notable figures: Revenues picked up in 2023 from $4.9 million to $37.1 million, with Australia providing 45 percent of the annual total ($16.6 million) based on the LIV Adelaide tournament. Tournament hosting fees made up 37 percent of revenues, the largest category of income. Broadcast rights income amounted to only $3 million (8 percent of total revenue). The expense side of the ledger isn't pretty. One positive: the per tournament cost, which worked out to almost $10 million in 2022, fell to $7.3 million in 2023 as LIV expanded from six events to 14. The largest line item is legal and professional expenses. In 2023 LIV UK's legal fees of $15.7 million were almost as high as PGA Tour's legal expenses ($18.7 million). 'It's reasonable to conclude that LIV's total legal fees are significantly higher than the fees incurred by PGA Tour,' Money in Sport wrote. LIV's 'Player indemnification' most likely relates to the penalties being handed out by the DP World Tour to members and former members who play on the LIV tour and continue to play occasional events on the European Tour. Those expenses of $6.9 million in 2022 reportedly were paid out in 2023, 'which must have been a welcome upside in the European Tour's books that year.' Operating losses grew from $244 million to $394 million. Overall, the losses being incurred by LIV are 'piling up at a staggering rate, necessitating regular injections of new capital by the Saudi PIF.' How much? The total capital injected to LIV Golf UK topped $1.0 billion after a recent issue of new capital in December 2024. 'The level of new share issues in 2024 of over $400 million implies no improvement in LIV's 2024 financial performance (ex-USA) which won't be filed for another 12 months,' Money in Sport wrote. Money in Sport concluded: 'We know from the statutory reporting by the Jersey holding companies that the total capital approved by PIF is now at $3.9 billion, $1.0 billion of which relates to LIV Golf UK and the balance to LIV Golf Inc. in the U.S. Clearly the U.S. financials must be considerably worse than the rest of the world performance reported by LIV Golf in UK. PIF's investment in LIV Golf could approach $5 billion by the end of this year, with further big bills on the horizon if they want to retain the top golfers as their contracts expire.' Could this be a reason why the PIF's governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan has been more willing to sit at the negotiating table with the PGA Tour? It seems plausible but only he and a few others really know. For Money in Sport's complete update on LIV financials, including some helpful charts and graphs, click here. This article originally appeared on Golfweek: LIV Golf financial losses mounting fast
