US investors confident of Cornish Pirates growth

Cornish Pirates have played in the second tier of English rugby since 2003 [Brian Tempest]

Moritz said he was first made aware of the Pirates after reading an article online, and following some initial calls he met those running the club late last year.

After further talks, Stonewood committed money to the club and agreed to take a place on the board of directors.

"We had a meeting of the minds, so to speak, in terms of what we could add and what the club was offering, and it wasn't very long after that that we formalised a framework for an investment," Moritz said.

"I think we're going to be involved at the board level, and that means to us that we are involved in important decision-making.

"We are certainly not operations people, we're not going to get involved in the day-to-day operations of the club.

"But, as in any of our investments, we do care about the strategy, the direction, how we can help, and those things are done more at the board level than the day-to-day grind, so to speak, of the club."

Moritz said he had no timescale on how long he and his firm would stay involved with the Pirates, or what sort of return they were looking for on their investment.

But he is confident that with Stonewood's input the club will grow and become a more attractive asset.

"We never really know how we're going to get a return on any of our investments," he said.

"We assume that we will do the right things by the enterprise, and grow the value of the investment... and then how we exit, and when we exit, it's always up in the air, and we don't really try to make too specific a claim on when that might happen.

"We find that if we do the right things by the investment, we grow it, we execute the strategies that people think will take us to a better place, all good things happen at that point.

"So, when we are there, we'll realise that there's been enough accretion and value that we've done what we can do, and at that point, maybe we'll have an exit."

Related internet links

• Cornish Pirates