Manchester United owner among bidders to buy RCB, RR

There are reportedly eight bidders interested in Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and five for Rajasthan Royals

Global investors including Manchester United co-owner Avram Glazer are looking at bidding over a billion US dollars to buy the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) franchises.

The estimated bid amount for each franchise is expected to be close to, or exceed, the combined value of the Lucknow and Ahmedabad IPL franchises that the BCCI sold in 2021 for a combined total of INR 12,715 crore (about $1.69 billion).

ESPNcricinfo has learned that at least eight investors have made the shortlist for RCB, whose men's and women's teams are the current champions in the IPL and the WPL, and five investors for RR, the inaugural IPL winners in 2008.

The RCB shortlist includes: Lancer Capital owned by Avram Glazer, Manipal Group owned by Ranjan Pai, Adar Poonawalla who owns Serum Institute of India, Times Group, EQT Private Capital, Capri Global, Sanjay Govil the US-based businessman who owns Washington Freedom in MLC and Welsh Fire in Hundred, and the private equity firm Premji Invest.

The five on the shortlist for RR are: Lancer Capital, Capri Global, Arizona-based tech entrepreneur Kal Somani, Govil, and Times Group. The news was first reported by State of Play, and has been independently verified by ESPNcricinfo. Apart from Lancer Capital, most of the other bidders, it is believed, are talking to investors to form consortiums. Incidentally, Somani was announced by RR as one of the investors in 2021.RelatedChinnaswamy remains in line to host RCB's home games

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According to at least two people with knowledge of the process, the estimated bid for RCB is likely to be between $1.2 and 1.8 billion, while for RR it is likely to be between $1.2 and 1.4 billion. These ranges have been derived from the non-binding bids investors made in the initial round, which was in January for RR and on February 2 for RCB. It is understood both RCB and RR have provided the option of a 100% sale to bidders.

Most of the bidders have been trying to get a foothold in the IPL at every available opportunity. Both Capri Global and Lancer Capital were among the bidders for the Ahmedabad and Lucknow franchises in 2021. While Capri Global had bid INR 4024 crore for each of the two franchises, Lancer Capital had bid 4128.65 crore for Ahmedabad and 4023.99 crore for Lucknow. While Lancer Capital owns the Desert Vipers team in the ILT20 in the UAE, Capri Global owns Sharjah Warriorz in ILT20 and UP Warriorz in the WPL.

While RCB are owned by Diageo, the international alcohol and beverage giant, RR are majority owned by Manoj Badale's Emerging Media. It is understood that the final bids for RR are scheduled for the first week of March. No date has been finalised yet for RCB, but bidders have been told it will be in February. The second round will include the verification of the technical eligibility of the bidders before the winning bid is finalised. Once that happens both parties will engage in an exclusive conversation before signing the contract.

While the final say on who wins the bid will remain with the current owners of RCB and RR, the BCCI will need to ratify the sale. As per the IPL franchise agreement, the BCCI will get 5% of the sale amount.

It is understood that Raine Group, which oversaw the sale of private equity in the Hundred last year, is managing the process for RR, Citigroup is handling it for RCB.

RCB and RR are two of the eight original franchises when the BCCI launched the IPL in 2008. The Bengaluru franchise was the second-most expensive franchise at the time, bought for $111. 6 million by Vijay Mallya-owned United Breweries Group. The Jaipur-based Royals was the least-expensive franchise, bought for $67 million by Emerging Media. In 2008, though, the dollar value was INR 40.

Last November, in its filings to India's market regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Diageo said it was conducting a "strategic review" of its investment in RCB through Royal Challengers Sports Private Limited (RCSPL) - the parent company that owns the men's and women's teams. Diageo said cricket was a non-core area for the company and it was aiming to close the sale by March 31 this year.

In the case of RR, there have been several investors who have bought minority stakes over the years with Badale owning about 65% majority stake. In 2021, private investment firm RedBird Capital Partners, which has interests in the parent company of Liverpool and the Boston Red Sox, picked up a 15% stake in RR for an undisclosed amount.

The last IPL franchise to divest its stake was Gujarat Titans, who were bought in 2021 by global fund major CVC Capital Partners (Irelia Company Pte Ltd) for INR 5625 crore ($755 million approx.) In 2025, Indian business conglomerate Torrent Group bought a 67% stake in the Titans franchise for INR 5050 crore.