New Delhi : Vijay Mallya, the former owner of Royal Challengers Bengaluru, took to X to mock his critics after his former team was sold at a staggering valuation of Rs 16,500 crore on Tuesday, March 24. Mallya revealed that when he had originally bought the franchise for Rs 450 crore in 2008, many criticised and laughed at his decision to invest in a cricket team.
I would like to heartily congratulate the new owners of RCB. I wish them the very best and Godspeed with the most valuable IPL franchise. When I bought the franchise in 2008 for INR 450 crores, most people laughed at me and criticised my investment as a vanity project. Behind my much touted madnesses was building the Royal Challenge brand and hence I named the franchise RCB,” Vijay Mallya wrote on X.
To all RCB fans who came on board during my stewardship and beyond, a grateful thank you, and please continue to support RCB, the Lion of Bengaluru. Namaskara, he concluded. The winning bid for RCB was led by the Aditya Birla Group, headed by Kumar Mangalam Birla, in partnership with The Times of India Group. The consortium also includes Bolt Ventures, led by American sports investor David Blitzer, and global private equity giant Blackstone Inc..
The RCB deal, however, remains subject to regulatory approvals from the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Competition Commission of India. It marks a significant transition from the previous owners, United Spirits Limited, a subsidiary of Diageo, which had earlier termed the franchise a non-core asset. hts.
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