Shah Rukh Khan may pick up stake in Mohun Bagan
Amid mounting losses, Kolkata’s storied Mohun Bagan Athletic Club is looking to bring in actor Shah Rukh Khan as an equity partner in its football team, snapping ties with liquor baron Vijay Mallya.
Mohun Bagan, one of India’s oldest sporting clubs, wants its team to take part in the Indian Super League (ISL), and so wants to shore up its financial strength, according to two key club officials, who asked not to be named.
Talks are on with at least two potential partners, including Khan, they said, adding the actor wants control of the football team, but the 127-year-old club is only willing to sell a minority stake.
Mohun Bagan’s general secretary Anjan Mitra said the club is exploring various options for its football team—which is a privately held company—and that things were likely to materialise only on conclusion of the ongoing I-League football tournament.
“Till then, I cannot discuss specifics,” he added.
Venky Mysore, CEO of Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainments Pvt Ltd, did not answer calls or reply to text messages.
Mallya wasn’t immediately available for comments.
Khan is already deeply invested in Kolkata: he is not only West Bengal’s brand ambassador, he is also the pro- moter of the Kolkata Knight Riders cricket team.
Back in 1998, Mohun Bagan spun off its football team into a separate joint venture with Mallya, who currently owns 49.99% of United Mohun Bagan Football Team Pvt Ltd. The club continues to remain a registered society.
The arrangement was aimed at securing long-term financial support from Mallya’s UB Group. United Spirits Ltd (USL) was its principal sponsor, until the firm decided to stop backing Mohun Bagan in November 2014.
By then, Mallya had ceded control of the maker of McDowell’s whisky to Diageo Plc. USL didn’t have any direct interest in Mohun Bagan’s football team — Mallya had bought stake in it through one of his private firms — and in November 2014, USL’s shareholders voted in support of a resolution to stop sponsoring the football team.
By then, USL had already scaled back funding and things had started to tumble downhill.
In 2015-16, the Mohun Bagan football team’s loss widened to ₹1.12 crore — perhaps the worst ever — from ₹24.52 lakh in the previous year as revenue dipped from ₹12 crore to ₹10.87 crore, according to regulatory filings.
To stay afloat, the team has taken unsecured loans of ₹3 crore from one of its directors, and ₹2.21 crore from the Mohun Bagan club.
If Mohun Bagan is to build a team strong enough to compete in the IMG-Reliance Industries Ltd-backed ISL, it needs to sort out its finances immediately, Mohun Bagan officials added.