Dubai, October 25
Business tycoon Sanjeev Goenka and international equity investment firm Irelia Company Pte Ltd (CVC Capital) jointly spent Rs 12,715 crore (approximately USD 1.7 billion) to win bids for two new IPL teams, which exceeded BCCI’s expectations. is far more. Monday.
The BCCI was expecting a cumulative bid of Rs 10,000 crore, but surprisingly, the Lucknow franchise from Goenka’s RP-SG group earned Rs 7090 crore, while CVC Capital gave Rs 5625 crore for the Ahmedabad team. Both the new teams will take part in the 2022 IPL.
PTI had reported on Sunday that Goenka was one of the top contenders to win the team after being in the IPL for two years in 2016 and 2017 when he was owned by Rising Pune Supergiants.
“BCCI is pleased to announce the following successful bidders (subject to completion of certain documents and other formalities): 1. RPSG VENTURES LIMITED – LUCKNOW (for Rs.7090 Crore). 2. Irelia Company Pte Ltd. (CVC Capital Partners) – Ahmedabad (for INR 5625 crore),” the board said in a press release.
The board said that the IPL 2022 season will consist of 10 teams and will consist of 74 matches, with each team playing seven home and seven away matches.
Goenka was happy to be back in the IPL and this time, as a full-time owner and not on a temporary basis, which is what happened when he ran the Pune franchise during the spot-fixing-related suspensions of CSK and Rajasthan Royals.
“At first, it feels good to be back in the IPL. But it’s just the first step. Now, it’s really an effort for us to build a good team and do well. So the work really starts now. Actually the coach To get, put a team together,” Goenka said after his company won the bid.
“IPL has built some of the biggest brands. Look at Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, Chennai Super Kings and look at a few others, they are really household names, some of the biggest brands in the country,” he said.
Asked whether Rs 7,000 crore is financially viable, Goenka argued: “We believe that its valuation will go up in future. And the investments we make will be whatever may happen over a period of 10 years.” is, its multiplier will be sometime.”
He was also happy to have Lucknow as a home base as the RPSG Group has business interests in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
“We distribute electricity in Greater Noida. We have several Spencer stores in the state. So we are confident, this will help us connect with the state, and we look forward to that.”
BCCI President Sourav Ganguly was happy that the IPL was spreading far and wide.
“The IPL will now move to two new cities in India, Lucknow and Ahmedabad. It is a pleasure to have two new teams at such a high valuation, and it reiterates the cricketing and financial strength of our cricket ecosystem,” Ganguly said. said in a press statement.
“The ITT (Invitation for Tender) process involved two interested bidders from outside India, which emphasizes the global appeal of IPL as a sporting asset,” he said.
BCCI secretary Jay Shah also welcomed the two new companies to the board.
“It is an important day for all of us and I formally welcome RPSG Ventures Ltd and Irelia Company Pte Ltd to IPL. We had promised that IPL will be bigger and better from 15th season and with Lucknow and Ahmedabad We will take the league to different parts of India.”
It was a nearly seven-hour process that led to the BCCI announcing the winners after a thorough scrutiny, which included technical scrutiny after opening the financial bid documents.
Companies that cleared the final round of technical scrutiny to be eligible for bidding included RP-SG, Adani Group, HT Media Pvt Ltd, Torrent Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma, All Cargo, CVC, Kotak Group in Consortium and Glazers Huh. of Manchester United through its equity firm.
Riti Sports, known to be the management firm of former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, also made a bid, but was rejected on a technical level as the official believed it was front for an industrialist whose The relatives already have an IPL franchise.
Similarly, the little-known All Cargo Company attracted much interest as it was understood to have had the blessings of a powerful BCCI administrator and a well-connected politician from the opposition party.
One of the major losers was Gautam Adani’s Adani Group, which bid around Rs 5,000 crore, while the bids of Manchester United and Torrent Group’s Glazers also fell short of the mark.
In fact, there was a BCCI sponsor along with representatives of the Adani Group during the bidding, who were then asked to move out of the premises as it was in violation of the rules.
Twenty-two companies took tender documents worth Rs 10 lakh, but the base price for the new teams was pegged at Rs 2,000 crore, with only five to six serious bidders in the final.
Goenka’s bid of around USD 1 billion is an insane amount and possibly the highest in the history of the league.
“The bids were going to pick up when news broke that the next cycle of broadcast rights could go up to USD 5 billion (over Rs 36000 crore) for the next 10 years, meaning that from the BCCI’s broadcast revenue pool, each Each of the 10 franchises will earn around Rs 360 crore.
“The math is simple, broadcasting rights will increase income and gate money for franchises in Ahmedabad (1.2 lakh capacity) or Lucknow (70,000) will also help them earn decent money. Add money from sponsorship pool as well and that is bad economics. No.” Goenka is desperate to return to the IPL after a brief stay with RPS and during one of the two editions (2017), his team played the final and lost to Mumbai Indians by one run.
With an asset base of US$6 billion and revenues of US$4 billion, the group’s businesses include power and energy, carbon black manufacturing, retail, IT-enabled services, FMCG, media and entertainment, infrastructure and education.
They have been a part of Indian Super League football since the first year as ATK and later merged with the legacy club Mohun Bagan last year to play as ATK-Mohun Bagan. PTI