India's Richest Man Backs Out From Buying Billion-dollar IPL-winning Franchise: Report

India’s richest man, Gautam Adani and the Adani Group have backed out from the race to buy the 2022 Indian Premier League Champions, Gujarat Titans and the majority stake is set to be bought by Ahmedabad-based Torrent Group.

According to a report by The Economic Times, the Gujarat-based franchise is set to have a change in ownership with a verbal agreement in place with the current owners, CVC Capital Partners in a deal valued at over 1 billion USD (8390 crores in INR).

As per the report, “Torrent and CVC have a gentleman’s agreement in place for the Gujarat Titans since a formal deal can only be signed after the lock-in period ends,” one of the sources said on condition of anonymity.”

The deal would only be possible after the ownership lock-in period comes to an end which is in February 2025.

The reported deal would see Torrent Group acquire the majority stake while CVC Capital Partners would still have significant minority shares as well.

Sources as per the report have suggested that the Adani Group might have backed out of the deal due to the high price tag along with the organisation looking to shift their focus on their core businesses which include power and ports.

It is to be noted that both Adani and Torrent Groups had been part of the race to acquire the franchise rights for Gujarat back in 2021. They had bid 5100 crores and 4653 crore INR respectively. But CVC Capital partners had the biggest bid of 5625 crores INR.

The franchise will have to acquire clearance from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to ensure that the deal is finalised.

Torrent Group, an Ahmedabad-based organisation specialises in the power and pharma industries with a market capitalisation of INR 2 lakh crores. Ahead of the 2021 auction, for the franchise rights, they had also set up the Torrent Sports Ventures as well.

Titans after winning the 2022 title have gone to to make the finals in the 2023 season following which saw a slump where they failed to make it to the playoffs for the first time in their brief history in the tournament.