Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), the owner of Mumbai Indians, are set to acquire a 49% stake in Oval Invincibles. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Thursday, January 30, hosted a virtual auction to buy the share, which RIL won after competing against two other bidders. Now, they have the opportunity to negotiate agreements with Surrey, ECB officials and financial advisors to complete the proceedings.
ECB also allowed each winning bidder to extend their share in the franchise, by buying some or the entire remaining 51% from the county clubs. However, Surrey, one of the richest clubs in England, refused to negotiate their percentage and will hold firm on their stance and own the majority of the share.
As per ESPNcricinfo, RIL will pay just over £60 million for its 49% share. Notably, the franchise was valued at £123 million. In the meantime, the ECB and the Surrey officials have refused to comment on the subject until the deal is entirely completed. A statement is expected to be made in the next week.
Barring RIL, there were other parties as well who were interested in owning the two-time Hundred champion. A tech consortium, involving the chief executives of Google, Microsoft and Adobe was one of the interested parties while CVC, which owns Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League, were also heavily interested in the opportunity.
As things stand, Oval will be RIL’s sixth team in franchise cricket. They currently own Mumbai Indians and Mumbai Indians women in the IPL and WPL respectively, MI Cape Town in SA20, MI Emirates in ILT20 and MI New York in Major League Cricket.
Other IPL franchises are also heavily interested in The Hundred teams. CVC group are in contention to buy stakes of Birmingham Pheonix, while Lucknow Supergiants owner, Sanjiv Goenka set his eyes on London Spirit. The owners of Manchester United, the Glazer family are also expected to bid for one of the franchises.