Rajasthan Royals Sold for $1.63 Billion, Become First Fully Foreign-Owned IPL Team
The Rajasthan Royals have become the first fully foreign-owned team in the Indian Premier League. The sale process for the team had been going on for the last six months.
According to the Times of India, a consortium led by US-based entrepreneur Kal Somani, who is a minority stakeholder, has bought the franchise for $1.63 billion (approximately INR 15,301 crore). Somani had partnered up with Rob Walton, heir to the fortune of Walmart, and the Hamp family, who are majority stakeholders of the Detroit Lions in the National Football League (NFL). Walton co-owns the Denver Broncos.
RR sold for $1.63B, goes fully foreign-owned
Sheila Ford Hamp, the wife of Steve Hamp, also owns a significant stake in Ford Motor Company. Somani has a strong presence in the tech industry. He is the founder of IntraEdge, Truyo, Truyo.AI, and Academian. Somani isn’t new to the sports world either. He is also the co-owner of the Motor City Golf Club and was an early investor in TMRW Sports and Tomorrow’s Golf League.
Earlier, the ownership of the Rajasthan Royals was divided among several stakeholders. Manoj Badale’s Emerging Media Sporting Holdings Limited had a 65% stake, RedBird Capital Partners owned 15%, and Lachlan Murdoch held 13%. The remainder was split among individual investors, one of whom was Somani himself.
Just yesterday, reports claimed that the Rajasthan Royals rejected a $1.7 billion (around INR 15,859 crore) offer from Columbia Pacific Capital Partners, led by Nisha Sachdeva and Debjeet Gupta. However, this cannot be confirmed, as the franchise has reportedly accepted a slightly lower bid from Somani’s group. The four other interested parties, who were in a race to fully acquire RR, were Aditya Birla Group, with David Blitzer’s Bolt Ventures; Capri Global; Times of India Group; and Sanjay Govil. In fact, it was believed that the Aditya Birla Group was the frontrunners. Perhaps their final bid didn’t match what Somani’s consortium offered.
