LIV Golf seeks to raise up to $350 million from investors

LIV Golf is preparing to take its updated business plan and investor pitch on the road as soon as Thursday, in an effort to raise fresh capital to continue operations past the end of the current season, people familiar with the plans told CNBC.

The upstart golf circuit will be seeking financing in the range of $250 million to $350 million from potential investors, according to the people, who requested anonymity given the confidential nature of the discussions. The capital raise plans are being taken to market by boutique investment bank Ducera Partners, which is advising LIV Golf.

Parts of the proposal seen by CNBC are targeting qualified investors and aim to “fully recapitalize LIV and drive path to profitability.”

The move comes weeks after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, or PIF, announced it would stop funding LIV’s operations after the 2026 season. PIF Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan also stepped down as the chairman of LIV Golf, which he founded alongside former professional golfer Greg Norman back in 2022.

The league said last month that a newly established independent board of directors had been put in place, led by capital markets and restructuring veterans Gene Davis of Pirinate Consulting Group and Jon Zinman of JZ Advisors. 

The new capital raise paves the way for league ownership to be controlled by not only new investors, but the league’s players and LIV management, as well. 

LIV may have a tougher road ahead to fundraise in the wake of PIF pulling its support. Multiple reports over the last several months have pegged PIF’s investment at more than $5 billion through the life cycle of its LIV involvement, which has yet to lead to a profitable golf league operation. 

Since its founding, LIV has garnered splashy headlines with massive contracts that were reportedly awarded to top talent to lure them away from the highly established PGA Tour. That vast spending was in part justified by having the vast resources of one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds backing it. 

Now that the PIF funding is no longer a cornerstone for the future of LIV, questions are being raised about how LIV CEO Scott O’Neil will restructure business operations without billions of dollars in funding. The league has hundreds of millions in player contract obligations and a goal of becoming profitable in the next two years.

Earlier this week, Bloomberg News reported that LIV had begun evaluating bankruptcy as a potential tool for resetting the stage for business operations with an aim of profitability. Bankruptcy filings have been used by other companies as a way to nullify contractual obligations in things like real estate and employment contracts.

The potential for bankruptcy has reportedly led some players within the LIV ranks to explore other avenues to continue their professional playing careers. Still, there are a number of high-profile LIV players who have recently expressed interest in keeping the LIV business operating as a going…