Billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla and U.S. private equity giant Blackstone teamed up with other investors to buy the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) amid a bidding frenzy for Indian Premier League’s cricket teams.
The consortium led by Birla’s flagship Aditya Birla Group is buying Royal Challengers from United Spirits, the Indian unit of London-based liquor giant Diageo, for 167 billion rupees ($1.8 billion) in cash. Besides Blackstone, the investors also include The Times of India Group, and David Blitzer’s Bolt Ventures, according to a statement released by United Spirits on Tuesday.
“Over the past two decades, the IPL has morphed to become a global sporting powerhouse that has changed the face of Indian cricket, creating enormous value for India,” Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, said in a separate statement. “RCB, as one of the most compelling franchises in modern sport, offers the Aditya Birla Group a distinctive platform to extend its legacy of institution-building into the arena of global sport.”
Birla joins other high-profile owners of IPL teams including Asia’s wealthiest, Mukesh Ambani, whose Reliance Industries owns the Mumbai Indians. Under the new ownership structure of RCB, Aryaman Vikram Birla, son of Kumar Birla and director of Aditya Birla Group, will become chairman of Royal Challengers, while Satyan Gajwani of The Times of India Group will serve as Vice Chairman.
Royal Challengers, one the IPL’s founding teams, was originally owned by tycoon Vijay Mallya but was sold to Diageo in 2012 as part of the sale of United Spirits, which Mallya divested as his embattled Kingfisher Airlines folded after failing to pay creditors.
As the fourth-generation leader of the Aditya Birla Group, Kumar Birla has an estimated net worth of $19.1 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time data. The conglomerate’s diverse business portfolio includes aluminum, cement, textiles, telecommunications, financial services, and paints.
The acquisition of Royal Challengers was announced on the same day another IPL team, The Rajasthan Royals, was reportedly sold to a consortium led by U.S.-based entrepreneur Kal Somani for $1.6 billion. The deal, set to be completed after this year’s cricket season ends, is backed by billionaire Rob Walton, a Walmart heir and owner of the American football team, Denver Broncos. It also has support from the Hamp family, led by Sheila Ford Hamp, who owns the Detroit Lions and is a scion of the Ford family.
This article was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
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