{"id":568740,"date":"2026-03-27T22:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T22:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/568740\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T22:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T22:48:11","slug":"rajasthan-royals-sale-produces-windfall-for-redbird-lachlan-murdoch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/568740\/","title":{"rendered":"Rajasthan Royals’ Sale Produces Windfall for RedBird, Lachlan Murdoch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe pending $1.6 billion sale of cricket\u2019s Rajasthan Royals is set to deliver a windfall for the Indian Premier League<\/a> team\u2019s investors, including Gerry Cardinale<\/a>\u2018s RedBird Capital<\/a>, which is making a nearly 8x return, and Lachlan Murdoch<\/a>, who is getting more than 90 times his original investment.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeveral investors are set to cash out of the Royals as a consortium led by entrepreneur Kal Somani and Rob Walton of the Walmart family buys the team. The bidders are in final negotiations with a goal of signing a contract by mid-April, a person familiar with the situation said.<\/p>\n

\n\tEstablished in 2008, the Rajasthan Royals were one of the eight original IPL franchises. Emerging Media Ventures, led by entrepreneur Manoj Badale, famously bought the franchise for $67 million in 2008. The team has since made the IPL playoffs six times, the finals twice and has won the championship once, in 2008. But 2025 was a disappointing year for the Royals, finishing<\/a> ninth out of 10 teams.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe franchise has many investors. One of the more well-known is RedBird Capital, which acquired<\/a> a 15% stake in the team in 2021 at a $210 million valuation, a second person familiar with the situation said. RedBird has invested close to $50 million in the team, said the person, who was granted anonymity because the details are private. Based on the team\u2019s $210 million valuation when RedBird invested, the deal produced a 7.8x multiple on invested capital, another person familiar with the situation said. RedBird\u2019s gross profit, if the deal goes through, is $365 million or more than 7x its money, the person said.<\/p>\n

\n\tLachlan Murdoch, Fox\u2019s executive chair and CEO and News Corp\u2019s chair who is also Rupert Murdoch\u2019s oldest son, invested $2.3 million in 2008 when the Rajasthan Royals were founded, a third person familiar with the situation said. Murdoch owns 13% of the Royals, two of the people\u00a0said. He stands to pocket about $210 million from the sale, which translates to a stunning 92.4x return.<\/p>\n

\n\tSiguler Guff, the private markets firm with $18 billion in assets under management, will more than double its money with the sale, a fourth person familiar with the situation said. Siguler invested $40 million in August for a less than 10% stake of the Royals, the person added.<\/p>\n

\n\tReturns for other investors aren\u2019t as clear. Badale controls Emerging Media, the sports investment platform of Blenheim Chalcot, which currently owns 66% of the team, the first person said. (Badale holds 10% of EMV\u2019s 66% while Siguler\u2019s stake is also part of EMV\u2019s holding.) Indian businessman Suresh Chellaram has 5%, they said.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeveral parties, including a group led by Aditya Birla Group in partnership with David Blitzer\u2019s Bolt Ventures and The Times of India Group, bid<\/a> for the Rajasthan Royals before the Somani and Walton-led consortium was named the winner on March 20. Ares Management and Michael Hamp\u2019s Middle West Partners were also part of the winning consortium.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis week, Bolt Ventures, Aditya Birla Group and The Times of India Group were all part of a different consortium<\/a> that purchased another IPL team, Royal Challengers Bengaluru. That deal still needs approval.<\/p>\n

\n\tUPDATED: This story was updated to include RedBird Capital\u2019s multiple on invested capital and RedBird\u2019s gross profit, if the deal for the Royals goes through.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The pending $1.6 billion sale of cricket\u2019s Rajasthan Royals is set to deliver a windfall for the Indian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,37586,279626,13849,89922,1482,279627,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-568740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-fox-corp","12":"tag-gerry-cardinale","13":"tag-indian-premier-league","14":"tag-lachlan-murdoch","15":"tag-private-equity","16":"tag-redbird-capital","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}