Royal Challengers Bangalore is up for sale from its current owners, Diageo Group, who had ownership through their Indian surrogate company, United Spirits. Several Indian billionaires are racing to secure a deal on the defending IPL champions.
Reigning IPL champions Royal Challengers Bangalore are away from the limelight, while many teams remain in the news during the pre-season trade window ahead of the IPL mini-auction. The only reason for this is that the team is currently set for an ownership change.
One of the most highly valued franchises in the world, RCB have attracted multiple bidders despite the stampede incident that took place during victory celebrations earlier this year, dealing a serious blow to their worldwide reputation.
Indian billionaire in race to acquire ownership of RCB
UK-based company Diageo is the parent company that owns Royal Challengers Bangalore; However, they announced that RCB is up for sale as they are not willing to continue with a brand that does not comply with the liquor brand.
Adar Poonawala’s ex-post and his interest on RCB first brought this matter into the limelight. Firstly, several companies and business groups were reported to have shown interest in the RCB franchise stake.
Cricbuzz had then reported that Serum Institute’s Adar Poonawala and JSW Group’s Parth Jindal, Adani Group, Ravi Jaipuria and two other US-based private equity firms have shown interest in buying RCB.
According to the latest report in Times of India, three Indian businessmen have joined the race for RCB and are likely to bid on the franchise. They are Bengaluru-based billionaire Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of discount brokerage platform Zerodha; Ranjan Pai, chairman of Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG); And finally, Adar Poonawala from the Serum Institute of India, the world’s second largest vaccine producer.
RCB currently has the highest brand value among IPL franchises.
TOI sent an email and a message to both Pai and Kamath’s teams, but did not receive any response from them. Both of them are quite local for the Karnataka-based franchise, as this will help them connect with the RCB crowd at the local level as well as the political and social connect of the state.
According to Forbes, Pai has an estimated net worth of $2.8 billion, while Kamath has an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion. Whereas the CEO of Serum Institute and his family have a net worth of more than $20 billion.
Another Forbes report for 2022 suggested that RCB would be worth just over $1 billion; However, that was eight years ago, and they had not won a championship then. A valuation report by Houlihan Lokey revealed that the business value of the IPL is projected to reach $18.5 billion, and its brand value to $3.9 billion in 2025. RCB is valued the highest among all franchises at $269 million.
Will the team management and players remain the same under the new RCB owners?
Royal Challengers Bangalore are likely to get a new owner, but there has been no news of any change in their management on the internet. Royal Challengers announced the appointment of Malolan Rangarajan as their head coach and Anya Shrubsole as bowling coach for the WPL.
These changes were made to WPL franchise RCB Women, and they made no changes to the men’s team management, which includes Dinesh Karthik, MO Bobt and Andy Flower.
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