The RP-Sanjiv Goenka group and a private equity firm CVC Capital have won the bidding war to win two new franchises of the Indian Premier League. There will be an addition of two new teams from the next edition of the tournament and those teams will be based out of Ahmedabad and Lucknow.
The Goenka Group bid Rs 7,090 crore for the Lucknow-based side while the CVC got the Ahmedabad-based franchise for a sum of Rs 5,625 crore.
Both these bidders outbid the other interested business houses such as the Adani group, Torrent Pharma and Aurobindo Pharma. The Adani group valued each franchise at around Rs 5,000 crore while the Pharma heavyweights did not come close to even the Rs 5,000-crore mark.
There were other heavyweights such as the Kotak group and the owner of the Manchester United football club but they got knocked out of the race by the eventual winners.
Notably, the base price of each franchise up for the grab was mandated to be Rs 2,000 crore and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was expecting to attract bids around Rs 7,000 and hence they would be happy with the total valuation that the two sides have achieved, a number that stands at a staggering Rs 12,200 crore.