The Adani Group is likely to join another highly visible and high-value sports platform—the Indian Premier League (IPL). The group is in discussions with one of the existing teams to buy a stake. If the deal goes through, that will again pit Ambani against Adani in the business arena.
The franchises of the teams in IPL are owned by wealthy businesspeople and individuals. The Mumbai Indians were there since the very inception of the league and bagged Rs 359 crore in revenue in 2023. They happened to be one of the most successful teams in IPL, as they won the highest number of tournament trophies.
Industrialist Gautam Adani is likely to buy the controlling stake in the IPL team Gujarat Titans. Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners is in discussion with Adani Group for selling its stake in Gujarat Titans. According to ET, the private equity firm is also in talk with Torrent Group over this matter. Sources close to the development said the three-year-old franchise Gujarat Titans could be valued in the range of $1 billion to $1.5 billion. CVC acquired the franchise in 2021 for ₹56.25 billion.
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Now, CVC Capital Partners wants to retain a minority stake in the IPL team. Therefore, it is offloading its majority stake. According to rules of the BCCI, new teams cannot sell their stake for some time. This lock-in period will end in February 2025.
CVC Capital is now looking to offload its stake in the team. However, CVC Capital, Adani Group, and Torrent Group declined to comment on the development. This is not the first time Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani-led groups have had a fallout. In the past as well, both the groups were at loggerheads over picking up stake in solar, data centre and 5G spectrum.
However, this is not the first time Adani Group has invested in a sports franchise or cricket. Adani Group earlier invested in the Women’s Premier League and UAE International T20 League. In WPL, the title of the Ahmedabad team was acquired by paying Rs 1,289 crore.
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