Two bids have been submitted for Royal Challengers Sports Private Limited (RCSPL), the owner of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru franchise and a subsidiary of Diageo’s Indian arm United Spirits, according to reports.
Manipal Hospitals’ Dr Ranjan Pai is leading one consortium along side US private equity firm KKR and Singapore investment major Temasek. The other party includes Swedish private equity firm EQT and Premji Invest, the investment office backed by Wipro founder Azim Premji.
Serum Institute’s Adar Poonawalla had exited the race and did not submit a binding bid, as reported by Moneycontrol.
Diageo said, “We do not comment on market rumours or speculation.”
There hasn’t been any clarity whether Manchester United co-owner Avram Glazer’s Lancer Capital has submitted a binding bid. The reports earlier suggested that Diageo had set a mid-March deadline for the submission of binding bids for the top IPL franchise.
“Though the sell-side ask for a 100 per cent stake in RCSPL is around $2 billion, a few prospective suitors are keen to value the target between $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion. Further clarity will emerge on valuations post due diligence, during the binding bid stage,” a Moneycontrol report read earlier.
What Reports Had Suggested?
There were reports earlier that 6 parties had shown interest in getting stakes of the defending champions. The parties that had shown interest earlier included EQT, Avram Glazer, Ranjan Pai and KKR, Adar Poonawalla, the Times of India Group, Premji Invest and Capri Global.
There were reports earlier this February that KKR is interested to buy a huge share of stakes in RCB or RR. But KKR is not the Kolkata-based franchise but it refers to global private equity investment firm KKR and Blackstone who are a major player in the business world.
According to Reuters report, two banking sources had confirmed about KKR’s strong interest in acquiring one of RCB or RR.
RCSPL’s business includes ownership of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) franchise, which participates in the men’s Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Women’s Premier League (WPL). The deadline for submission of binding bids ended at 5 pm on March 16, the sources said.
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