RCB Officially Put Up for Sale as Diageo Begins Selling Process Ahead of IPL 2026
According to Sportico, a leading publication for news about the sports industry, the sale of RCB is no longer just speculation but has now gone public as the owners of RCB (Diageo) have commenced the sale process for RCB. They have issued documents to prospective buyers to enable them to begin reviewing the club to expedite the sale process. This provides clear confirmation that one of the IPL's top franchises, RCB, is now formally being marketed for sale.
A confidential source with detailed knowledge of this process has confirmed that United Spirits (a subsidiary of Diageo India) has sent out sale documents to prospective buyers for RCB. While it is likely there will still be some time until a binding bid is accepted it is clear from this process that the review initiated by Diageo at the end of last year has now moved into an active sale procedure phase. In case you were not aware the term 'going out of book' refers to the confidential information memorandum (CIM), which is the primary marketing document that is used to market a company/business for sale.
RCB Officially Put Up for Sale as Diageo Starts Selling Process
Potential buyers are able to get enough detailed information for evaluating the business and putting together an offer through a comprehensive report usually ranging from 30-150 pages in length. For example, RCB's valuation has recently been pegged around $2B, representing an approximate value of more than INR 1800 crores, as a result of their winning the IPL 2025 Championship and dominating commercial activities in the market. They also have Virat Kohli - arguably the greatest commercial superstar from India in all of time.
United Spirits has contracted Citigroup for the purposes of sale. It is expected that many private equity firms and other wealthy individuals will be pursuing this opportunity. Completion could happen by the end of March at the latest, because the new IPL season (IPL 2026) is scheduled to begin on March 26; however, that will be the timeframe before Diageo would want to sell their largest agreed-upon (as of 2021) asset in India.
