A key figure behind a New Zealand consortium bidding to become the NRL’s 20th team was in charge of a string of forestry companies that collapsed a decade ago with debts of more than $25 million.
The Southern Orcas are making a high-profile play for an NRL licence from 2029, when the competition is expected to add a third team in three years following the Perth Bears and the PNG Chiefs in 2027 and 2028 respectively.
Chaired by former Manly, Queensland and New Zealand coach Graham Lowe, the Orcas are lobbying for an expansion franchise on New Zealand’s South Island and pursuing former All Blacks mentor Scott Robertson to lead the team if they are successful.
However, the track record of Orcas managing director Andrew Chalmers has raised questions about his suitability to run an NRL club.
Chalmers managed a forestry business through a network of companies registered in New Zealand, five of which ran into trouble from 2015 with lenders owed $23 million and unsecured creditors left millions out of pocket.
Chalmers said his forestry group was a $120 million operation but “an industry-wide downturn in 2014 and significant global falls in forestry prices materially affected the businesses and required a substantial restructuring”.
He said creditors were ultimately left $3.4 million short.
“All external lenders were fully repaid from asset sales. All staff entitlements were fully paid, including all tax liability,” Chalmers said. “Post the restructure and asset sales nearly all staff received employment.”
Chalmers also part-owned Bradford Bulls during a tumultuous period for the former world-champion club between 2017 and 2019 before selling the team amid mounting debts.
Asked about his ownership of Bradford, he said an increase in debt while he oversaw the club was fully budgeted and funded by shareholder loans and was not unlike other English teams.
“Bradford was already in a very difficult financial position before our involvement in 2017, with the previous clubs having gone into liquidation four times. Without our involvement, the club was going to be closed for good,” Chalmers said.
He was also the chairman of the New Zealand Rugby League from 2006 to 2007, a year in which the organisation lost $NZ1.7 million, and served as a director of the Rugby League International Federation during that time.
He said the NZRL’s operating results during his tenure on the board from 2002 to 2008 were broadly in line with budget. The losses when he was chairman, he said, “reflected, in material part, the board writing down legacy pub and gaming assets that had been acquired prior to my tenure”.
According to Chalmers’ LinkedIn page, he has had a three-decade career in business including as group managing director and CEO of ASX-listed travel company Pacific International between 1996 and 2002.
A former executive director of English rugby league team Salford Red Devils, he was involved in restructuring the club with billionaire Marwan Koukash when he rescued it from financial ruin in 2013.
Chalmers’ profile says that in recent years he has also been chairman of an international resources provider, a director of one of Auckland’s best Italian restaurants and held senior positions in companies specialising in thoroughbred horse breaking and fuel supply.
He said he still had various large-scale freehold forestry joint ventures and carbon-forestry related interests.
“I have more than 40 years of business, investment and rugby league experience,” Chalmers said. “The Southern Orcas will be a professionally governed and well-capitalised organisation and will not be dependent on any one individual. Directors, among others, are of course subject to the NRL rules.”
Lowe, who had no connection to Chalmers’ forestry businesses, was also part of the then Auckland Warriors ownership during a turbulent era for the club around the turn of the century before being ousted as chairman in 2000.
With rugby league booming in New Zealand thanks to the success of the Warriors, Christchurch is considered a leading contender for the NRL’s 20th team, which is being fast-tracked under the terms of the game’s new $5.3 billion broadcast deal.
A Christchurch team would play at the impressive, fully roofed One New Zealand Stadium, which staged its first NRL game in June.
The Orcas’ private bid claims to be valued at $325 million and backed by investors on the South Island as well as the Carter Group, a wealthy, family-owned property developer.
Despite the publicity they have received, however, the Orcas are “a million to one” to gain inclusion in the competition, according to one NRL source.
That doesn’t necessarily mean Christchurch will miss out.
A separate bid is being led by Christchurch City Council with support from other previous bids including one fronted by David Moffett, a former NRL chief executive.
Moffett is adamant that a government-sponsored team like the Bears is the path forward.
“The only way Christchurch is going to get a team is to do what they’re doing, which is following the Perth model,” he said.
The Orcas, Moffett said, were “pissing into the wind”.
Christchurch City Council has distanced itself from Chalmers and Lowe’s bid, saying in a statement it “is not working with the Southern Orcas”.
The main challenger to a second team in New Zealand is the Ipswich Jets and their push for another club in south-east Queensland.
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Chris Barrett is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former South-East Asia correspondent for the Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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