IPL basks in Sun shine

Sun TV Network became the newest entrants of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after winning the bid to take over the Hyderabad franchise on Thursday afternoon. The verdict was announced by BCCI president N Srinivasan following the IPL governing council's meeting in Mumbai.

Srinivasan revealed that the board had received only two bids as part of the tender process with Sun TV, southern India's most popular television network and owned by media baron Kalanithi Maran, pipping PVP Ventures with a bid amount of Rs 85.05 crores per year for the next five years. PVP, whose initial attempt to buy the Deccan Chargers franchise had been thwarted by the former owners, it was learned, proposed a bid of Rs 69.03 crores per year for the same period.

Jaypee Group opted out after the BCCI failed to reply to their correspondence regarding a few clarifications about the contract. Despite the overall lacklustre response to the tender process, Srinivasan insisted that the board was elated to have Sun TV joining them.

"It is a very good value-twice that of Deccan Chargers. If you take into account the sharing of central rights compared to the earlier expansion of franchise, you will find that this bid represents a higher value," Srinivasansaid.

Though the Hyderabad franchise did cost Sun TV a lot more than what the original owners had paid for it back in 2008, they can surely take solace by comparing it with the colossal sum of Rs 1702 crores paid by Sahara Group to procure the Pune IPL franchise two years ago. Not surprisingly, SL Narayanan, Sun TV's chief financial officer (CFO), agreed that the deal was indeed a satisfactory one. "The price that we paid is a very attractive price because the last deal was almost at 170 crore per annum and we got it for 50 percent of the last transaction price. We have a fair understanding of the inflow and the expenses, so we have done our math," he said.

... contd.

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