Meet CVC Capitals Partners – Ahmedabad IPL franchise owners who outbid Adani Group – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

There was a massive buzz in the cricketing circle on Monday as people wanted to know who would win the race of owning two new teams of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The final bids were submitted by the representatives of the interested parties and later in the evening, the two names came out that were finalised.

Sanjiv Goenka’s RPSG Ventures Ltd won the bid for the Lucknow franchise, worth Rs 7090 crores. Another team was Ahmedabad and its bidders were Irelia Company Pte Ltd – CVC Capital Partners, who pitched an amount of Rs 5625 crores.

Representational image. Image: Sportzpics for IPL

RPSG are not new in the Indian sports fraternity as they owned the franchise Pune Supergiants that participated in the IPL 2016 and IPL 2017. Hence, it would be safe to say that they are making a comeback in the most lucrative T20 league of the world with a new banner.

But what about CVC Capital Partners? What’s the commotion all about?

A private equity firm, CVC Capital Partners is a dominant player in international sport. They have their presence in Formula 1, Rugby, football and now, made their way into the gentlemen’s game. CVC capitals are known for gaining endless profit in other sporting ventures.

CVC’s involvement in the IPL has also begun making noises in the European sports industry. According to an Indian Express report, Simon Chadwick, director of the Centre for Eurasian Sport Industry at Lyon-based Emlyon Business School, believes that CVC’s agenda to invest in Indian cricket is to strengthen its hold in US cricket.

History of CVC Capitals

The firm was established in 1981, with its headquarters based out in Luxembourg and main office in London. It has assets under management worth $125 billion (Rs 94 trillion approx). It manages roughly $97 billion of assets and $29 billion of AUM. The CVC Capitals have invested in 73 companies across the globe.

They had owned F1 between 2006 and 2017, paying around £1.4 billion for a majority stake. Several foreign media reports claim that they made a profit of up to £3.5 billion in a decade.

Last year in February, the CVC Capital Partners Fund VII associated with the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) to launch Volleyball World with a view towards tapping commercial activities around the sport.

In August this year, they agreed to pay roughly $3.2 billion to acquire a minority stake in La Liga, a Spanish football team. They have major stakes in multiple rugby tournaments as well.

As far as their presence in India is concerned, they own a majority stake in Healthcare Global Enterprises Ltd & technology and UnitedLex Corporation.

Equation after addition of Ahmedabad and Lucknow

The new franchises will participate in IPL from the 2022 season onwards subject to the bidders completing the post-bid formalities as specified in the ITT document. The IPL 2022 season will comprise ten teams and will have 74 matches, wherein each team will play 7 home and 7 away matches.