Deccan Charges, the struggling IPL franchise owned by Deccan Chronicle Ltd., has been sold to Mumbai-based real estate firm Kamla Landmarc for an undisclosed sum, a day when the IPL franchise was terminated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
The Deccan Chargers was terminated, after it failed to submit bank guarantee of Rs. 100 crore to the cricket board before a 5 p.m. deadline, media reports said.
Deccan Chronicle Holdings had paid $107 million for the franchise in 2008. Though the team was 2009 IPL winner, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) later terminated it for defaults like failure to pay overdue player fees. The owners immediately issued a legal challenge against the expulsion, a case which is still ongoing.
Due to heavy losses, the group had issued a tender notice last month inviting bids from prospective buyers for the IPL franchise to solve the financial mess. After the tender, chairman of the $4 billion Videocon Group, Venugopal Dhoot, had also confirmed his interest in bidding for the Deccan Chargers franchise.
A month after inviting bids, the IPL franchise’s sale happened early today to Kamla Landmarc, a firm owned by Ramesh Jain, which undertakes construction of residential and commercial projects. This deal was struck with the intention to help the team to pay a bank guarantee of Rs 100 crore to the Bombay High Court, failing which the court had ordered the dissolution of the franchise.
Earlier, in a filing to the BSE, Deccan Chronicle Ltd said, “It was resolved to authorise the board of directors to sell, transfer or dispose of the Deccan Chargers Franchise business undertaking, business division of the company to Kamla Landmarc Real Estate Holdings Private Limited.”
Shares of DCHL ended up 4.92 per cent at Rs 9.60 on a weak Bombay Stock Exchange, which ended down 0.69 per cent at 18,675.18 points.
Last year, the BCCI terminated the contract of the Kochi franchise for defaulting on payments while DLF, India's largest real estate firm, terminated the title sponsorship of the league in August ending a five-year association.
(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)
