The Ambanis, Asia’s richest family, have bought a stake in Oval Invincibles, the first Hundred franchise to be sold.
The England and Wales Cricket Board are holding an auction this week to sell stakes in the eight Hundred teams.
The Invincibles are the first team to be sold are understood to have been bought by the Ambani family, who own IPL team Mumbai Indians and were reported as being worth £94 billion by Forbes last year. The stake is understood to be for 49 per cent of the franchise, which is valued at £123 million. This will see just over £60 million go into the English game.
For the first four years of the Hundred’s existence, the ECB owned and effectively controlled the eight teams. Now, the ECB is selling a 49 per cent stake in each team, and handing the host county 51 per cent to do with what they please: keep it, or sell some or all of it.
The third and final round of the sales process, which has seen the ECB supported by the Raine Group and Deloitte, will see the winning bidders enter a period of exclusivity to thrash out the details of the deal with the host venue and ECB, which will take months.
Some host venues have taken just two possible investors into the final round, while some have three or four. In the case of counties with two potential options in the final round, the investors will table a final, binding bid. The highest wins. In the case of hosts who have taken more than two potential investors through to the final round, there will bee an auction between the three or four interested parties. Bids will be placed in 15-minute intervals, until the highest bid win. Each bid is binding.
Mumbai Indians have won five of the 17 IPL seasons, making them the joint-most successful franchise. Their brand has already spread to franchise competitions outside India, with teams in South Africa’s SA20 (MI Cape Town), UAE’s ILT20 (MI Emirates) and the USA’s Major League Cricket (MI New York).
It is understood that powerbrokers at Surrey have agreed to share cricketing control as part of the deal. They had initially been keen to retain control of all cricketing and branding matters, as part of their 51 per cent stake.
Having been beaten to Oval Invincibles, the Silicon Valley consortium will be in the auction for Lord’s-based London Spirit on Friday, up against: Sanjiv Goenka, the owner of IPL team Lucknow Super Giants; Manchester United co-chairman Avram Glazer’s Lancer Capital; and Cain International, which is led by Chelsea director Jonathan Goldstein and backed by the club’s joint-owner Todd Boehly. Welsh Fire will also be sold on Friday.
The remaining teams will be sold in the coming days. Manchester Originals are due on Monday, Northern Superchargers on Tuesday, and Trent Rockets on Wednesday. The final team, Southampton-based, Southern Brave, will be sold last. They are an unique case as their controlling county, Hampshire, are owned by GMR, the Indian co-owners of Delhi Capitals. GMR are the strong favourite to buy the ECB’s 49 per cent share.
At this stage, the owners of Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knights Riders, two of the most significant IPL teams who have also popped up in franchise leagues elsewhere, have withdrawn. This is due to a belief that the Hundred is overpriced, a frustration with an ECB sales process that has changed regularly, and difficulties with the “participation agreement”, key documentation that has been a bone of contention for a number of investors. CSK are unlikely to re-enter the process, but insiders believe that KKR could come back into contention next week.
The ECB chairman Richard Thompson has previously said that the governing body does not want the sale of the Hundred to lead to an “IPL takeover” as has been seen in the SA20, where all six teams are owned by Indian franchises. The ECB are keen for around half of the Hundred teams to be owned by IPL teams.
The proceeds of the sale of the 49 per cent will be spread between the counties, MCC and the recreational game. If the hosts sell any of their 51 per cent, they keep the majority of the proceeds, with 10 per cent going to the recreational game and 10 per cent spread between the other counties. Raine and Deloitte will also received fees.
