Cox’s Crusaders’ loyalties tested on buying Rebels

Christchurch-born businessman Andrew Cox says he’s ‘‘always loved the Crusaders’’ but his primary loyalty will change if he buys the Melbourne Rebels.

The 47-year-old, whose father, David Cox, was a long-serving former Christchurch city councillor, has offered to buy the Rebels franchise from the Australian Rugby Union through his company, Imperium Capital Group.

The due diligence process

is under way and Cox has to be careful what he says in the interim.

But on a flying test home to New Zealand this week, his enthusiasm for the Rebels’ potential shone through.

Cox grew up in Christchurch as a hockey player with a strong interest in rugby. The University of Canterbury commerce graduate remembers ‘‘standing on the bank at Lancaster Park’’, watching Canterbury play. He’s called Mel- bourne home for the past ‘‘20 plus years’’.

But he says he has ‘‘always loved the Crusaders’’. ‘‘And I will continue to love the Crusaders. But I will obviously be a little bit conflicted when they play the Rebels.’’

Head will rule the heart on this occasion. As the Rebels’ owner, he will be barracking, as they say in Australia, cheering over here, for the Rebels.

Cox, a noted ‘‘business turnaround’’ operator, has had a long association with rugby in Melbourne as a regular attendee of the Victoria Rugby Union’s Weary Dunlop luncheon, a gathering often dubbed a highlight of the Melbourne sporting landscape.

The Rebels lost $A3 million last year, according to the ARU’s annual report.

But Cox, who specialises in polishing established brands and maximising their potential, saw a challenge, and ‘‘a brand management and guest and fan engagement’’ opportunity.

His diversified investment company, which employs 700 people and earned A$100 million in revenue in 2014, specialises in taking on ‘‘distressed businesses’’ that ‘‘need some work’’. It owns the Eichardt’s and Spires luxury boutique hotels in Queenstown and the TGI Friday’s restaurants.