RCB star Virat Kohli during the IPL title celebrations in Bengaluru.
Credit: DH File Photo
Bengaluru: The sale of the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) gained fresh momentum after its owner United Spirits Ltd (USL) decided to initiate "strategic review of the investment in the Royal Challengers Sports Private Limited" which is the wholly owned subsidiary of USL that manages the men's and women's teams in IPL and WPL respectively.
Though the parent company Diageo had refused to comment on the "speculations" a few weeks ago following talks of sale of the franchise, in an exchange filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday, the USL stated that the move follows its decision to focus on its core "alcobev business."
Though USL said the process of the review was expected to be completed by March 31 next year, it did not specifically comment on the sale of stake in its subsidiary.
According to a source, the company is in the process of exploring various options and is consulting all the stakeholders before taking a decision.
"It is in the process of valuing the company after the phenomenal success with the men's team earlier this year. However, there is no decision on selling the franchise as yet," the source said.
Commenting on the development, Praveen Someshwar, Managing Director & CEO of USL, said in the filing: “RCSPL has been a valuable and strategic asset for USL, however it’s non-core to our alcobev business. This step reinforces USL’s & Diageo’s commitment to continue reviewing its India enterprise portfolio to enable sustained delivery of long-term value to all its stakeholders, while keeping RCSPL’s best interest in mind.”
India's vaccine czar Adar Poonawala is reported to have held talks with USL to buy the franchise which is expected to be valued at USD 2 billion while the sports business accounted for 8.3% of USL's total profit for the last financial year.