Torrent Group, a business conglomerate based in Ahmedabad, looks reportedly set to acquire a majority stake in 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Gujarat Titans (GT). According to a report in ESPNCricinfo, Torrent Group will likely buy a 67 per cent stake in GT from CVC Capital Partners, who had bought the franchise in 2021.
GT’s new owners likely to be involved from IPL 2025
The IPL is processing the paperwork before getting approval from the governing council. The details of the valuation, however, could not be confirmed. And once Torrent's acquisition of the franchise has been approved, GT’s new owners could likely be involved from the start of the 2025 season which will get underway on 21 March. In 2021, CVC Capital Partners had acquired GT for a whopping amount of Rs 5,625 crore.
Torrent Sports Ventures Private Limited, a subsidiary of the Torrent Group, was in fact among the final nine bidders at BCCI’s walk-in auction in 2021, as they added two more teams to the original eight teams in the IPL, making the tournament a 10-team affair. Ahmedabad and Lucknow were among six cities that the bidders were eligible to bid for.
The other cities were Dharamsala, Guwahati, Cuttack and Indore. Torrent had placed a Rs 4,653 crore bid on Ahmedabad and a Rs 4,356 bid on Lucknow but both were unsuccessful. Lucknow was later acquired by the RPSG Group for Rs 7,090 crore with the team being named as Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). Torrent had also put unsuccessful bid for three out of 10 cities for the Women’s Premier League (WPL) in 2023, which has five teams playing.
With a valuation of Rs 41,000 the Torrent Group is one of the leading multinational companies (MNCs) in India. Torrent Power and Torrent Pharma are the two of the leading subsidiaries of the Torrent Group. Jinal Mehta, who is the son of Sudhir Mehta, the Torrent Group chairman emeritus, will look after the group’s investment in the IPL, the report adds.
Gujarat Titans, under former skipper Hardik Pandya, won the IPL in their maiden season in 2022 and went onto reach the final in 2023, where they lost to Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Ahead of IPL 2024, Pandya returned to Mumbai Indians (MI) via a trade deal and Shubman Gill was named GT captain. GT, however, endured a disappointing IPL 2024 season as they finished in eighth place, missing the playoffs for the first-ever time.