The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced two new teams - Ahmedabad and Lucknow - for the Indian Premier League. After some many big bidders and wait, final the winners are out.
The bidders had to submit two envelopes - for personal and financial credentials and for the bid - and after checks by the legal and audit teams, the bids were opened.
The bids were initially meant to be opened on October 17, however, the deadline to buy tender documents was extended to October 20, which led to the delay.
The BCCI had allowed a consortium - up to three companies or individuals - to bid for a franchise, but then, each of the three entities should have an annual turnover of Rs 2,500 crore. For an individual or a company, the annual turnover should be a minimum of Rs 3,000 crore.
The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group got the Lucknow outfit for a record Rs 7090 crore bid, while CVC Capital bagged Ahmedabad for Rs 5625 crore.
Owned by Sanjiv Goenka, the RPSG group - which also owns ISL side ATK-Mohun Bagan - came up with a bid of Rs. 7000 crore - the highest among the ten bidders.
A total of 22 companies had bought the tender documents for Rs 10 lakh, but with the base price for the new teams has been pegged at Rs 2,000 crore, there were only 10 bids.
Adani Group, the RPSG, the Glazer family and Kotak group were the major companies who had submitted the bid. One more firm named as Rhiti Sports Management which was earlier managed by Mahendra Singh Dhoni also submitted a bid for Cuttack. However, it is understood that the bid was not accepted because of late submission.
While the Adani Group and the Torrent Pharma were in the LINE for the Ahmedabad franchise, the Glazers, RPSG and Auribindo Pharma bid for the Lucknow outfit.
The Kotak group which deals in banking and insurance sectors, also submitted the bids, along with a noted media agency.