IPL team owners eye market listing, PE fundraising

livemint.com:

NEW DELHI, MUMBAI : Owners of three Indian Premier League (IPL) teams have approached the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) regarding their capital raising plans, three people aware of the matter said. While KPH Dreams Cricket Pvt. Ltd (Kings Xi Punjab) and JSW GMR Cricket Pvt.

Ltd (Delhi Capitals) are weighing a public listing, Rajasthan Royals is looking to raise private equity funds, said a BCCI official, one of the three people who spoke on condition of anonymity. A second BCCI official also confirmed that two firms approached the board for clarity on listing on bourses. Currently, the talks are at an exploratory stage.

JSW GMR Cricket, the holding company of the Delhi Capitals IPL team, said it is seeking clarity from BCCI on a possible listing. “We don’t have absolute clarity on whether IPL teams can go public. We are awaiting clarity from BCCI on whether franchises are allowed to access capital markets and go public.

So, as of now, none of the IPL teams has done it. So, there’s a little bit of regulatory uncertainty on this front. But once we get that clearance, that it is allowed, then we will plan with my partners at GMR," said Parth Jindal, the chairman of JSW GMR Cricket.

Jindal said the company has not officially approached BCCI on this but only made unofficial inquiries. “We also believe that some other teams have officially inquired. So, BCCI just reached out to us, saying that they will provide clarity in due course.

So, we are just waiting for clarity from them," he further said. The firm, Jindal said, may look at listing JSW GMR Cricket. “We can then even merge Pretoria Capitals and Dubai Capitals to make it one big cricket entity.