RPSG Group Takes Lucknow with 7000 Crore Bid, CVC Capital Bags Ahmedabad
The Indian Premier League (IPL) got two new teams on Monday for a staggering total of Rs 12,715 crore, more than threefold the base prize ( Rs 2,000 crore per team) set when bids were invited.
The RP Sanjeev Goenka Group (RPSG) made the highest bid of Rs 7,090 crore and chose Lucknow to be their home base. Singapore private equity firm Irelia Co. Pte Ltd, whose parent company is CVC Capital Partners, was the other successful bidder, with a bid of Rs 5,625 crore. It chose Ahmedabad as its home city.
Both teams will make their IPL debuts in 2022.
While RPSG previously ran the IPL team Rising Pune Supergiant — the company had a two-year contract for 2016-17 to fill in for two suspended teams—CVC Capital owned Formula One before selling it in 2016 and has major investments in European rugby as well as Spain’s top tier football league, La Liga.
The winners were announced after a seven-hour bidding process held at a luxury hotel across the Burj Khalifa in Dubai on Monday. Twenty interested parties collected bid documents, of which nine submitted eligible bids.
The RPSG and CVC bids beat Adani Sportsline Pvt. Ltd, Amrut Lila Pvt. Ltd, Hindustan Media Ventures Ltd (a unit of HT Media Ltd, which publishes Mint and Hindustan Times), Avashya Corp. Ltd, Championship Cricket LLC, Capri Global, and Torrent Sports. All nine bidders fulfilled the eligibility criteria of having an average revenue of Rs 3,000 crore and net worth over Rs 2,500 crore.
“We had promised that IPL will be bigger and better from the 15th season, and with Lucknow and Ahmedabad, we will take the league to different parts of India,” Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah said.
