New IPL owners whet the appetite for Indian teams

NEW DELHI: When BCCI invited bids for two new teams for IPL T20 league, not many expected a windfall of ₹12,715 crore; but for the two new owners—rp-sanjiv Goenka group and Irelia Company Pte Ltd (CVC Capital Partners)—it was about whetting the appetite to invest in sporting properties.

While for the Rp-sanjiv Goenka group, the owners of Lucknow franchise, it may be a case of an unfinished business with IPL, for the global private equity firm CVC Capital Partners bid for the Ahmedabad team it is about testing waters with cricket for the first time, having agreed to a $3 billion deal with Spain’s La Liga earlier this year.

Back in 2017, when the then Rising Pune Supergiant lost to Mumbai Indians by just 1 run in the final of IPL, there was an unfinished business for the owner of the franchise RPSG group, more so for the man behind the conglomerate Sanjiv Goenka. Allowed for just two seasons along with Gujarat Lions to fill in for two suspended teams—csk and RR for involvement in illegal betting by their respective owners—rising Pune Supergiant ending up as runners asset base having presence in a variety of sectors ranging from power and energy, carbon black manufacturing, retail, It-enabled services, FMCG, media and entertainment to agriculture, didn’t blink to shell out $1 billion (₹7,090 crore), to grab the Lucknow franchise. While the amount dished out by the group may raise many eyebrows, specially at a time when businesses are still reeling under the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, for the RPSG group it is a case of now-or-never considering how deeply it is involved with sports and specially cricket.

Goenka, who has set a vision of the conglomerate to be a dynamic one driven by “sustainable growth, efficiency and innovation” would have surely done the calculations on the sustainability of the new Lucknow IPL franchise before putting in so much money into it.

On Monday, when asked if the ₹7,000 crore bid was economically viable, Goenka reasoned, “We do believe that the valuation of this will go up in the future. And from what we invest, to what it could be over a period of 10 years would be a multiple of a few times.” He was also happy to get Lucknow as the home base as RPSG group has business interests in Uttar Pradesh. In the last decade, just as the group

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In the same year that Ri Pune Supergiant lost the final, the group had formed RPSG Mavericks, one of th city-based teams in India’s league for table tennis, laun in 2017. The group had co-created RPSG Indian Sp Honour along with In cricket captain Virat Kohli multi-discipline annual sp awards to recognise In sportspersons - abled and di ently-abled, competing in i national tournaments.

Then in 2019, the group i tuted the RPSG Indian Cri Heroes, an annual internatio ly-held cricket awards even honour the achievement Indian cricketers on the inte tional and domestic sports cuit. The property is co-ow with Talent Management ag Cornerstone.

For Irelia Company Pte (CVC Capital Partners) which Rs 5,625 crore for the Ahm bad franchise, beating A Sportsline, its investment in