New IPL franchises: Lucknow and Ahmedabad go to RPSG group, CVC Capital Partners

A conglomerate and a private equity firm will own the next two Indian Premier League teams representing Lucknow and Ahmedabad respectively. According to reports, the Sanjiv Goenka-owned RPSG Group is set to claim the new Lucknow franchise for an over Rs 7,090 crore bid, while the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners clinched the franchise for Ahmedabad with a Rs 5,625 crore bid.

The bidding took place at the Taj Hotel in Dubai on Monday evening.

BCCI said the successful bid was subject to definitive documentation and other formalities being completde.

The RPSG Group—which also owns football club ATK Mohun Bagan—includes ventures ranging from electricity (CESC Limited), IT, media and entertainment (Saregama), consumer and retail (Spencer's retail, Evita-Apricot Foods Ltd and Nature's Basket).

The Luxembourg-headquartered CVC Capital Partners holds $125 billion of assets under management and includes among its investments cybersecurity firm Avast and luxury watchmaker Breitling.

Earlier, it was reported that the Adani Group would be putting up a bid, as well as that the Lancer Group (which owns football club Manchester United) would be entering the fray. Among other bidders was Rhiti Sports, which was promoted by M.S. Dhoni's manager Arun Pandey, which submitted a since-rejected bid for a Cuttack franchise.

The two cities whose franchises were bid for include stadiums like the Narendra Modi Stadium in Motera (with a capacity of over 100,000) and Lucknow's Ekana Stadium with a 70,000 capacity.

BCCI Honorary Treasurer Arun Singh Dhuman said the fact that the winnings bids were way above the base price set for the new IPL franchises was a direct indication of the true value of the IPL. "We received tremendous interest after the ITT was flaoted with many conglomerates putting their hat into the ring".