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Mumbai: Kalanithi Maran-led SUN TV, the South India-based media conglomerate, on Thursday, successfully won the bid to own and run the Hyderabad Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise team, replacing the debt-ridden Deccan Chargers which was terminated by the Indian cricket board.
After a failed bid last month and a flurry of court cases involving the board and Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DCHL), the parent company that owned Chargers, the BCCI had floated a fresh tender inviting bids for 12 cities in the fray.
The board's sources said they expected at least five to six interested parties to turn up. SUN Tv, led by the Marans; PVP Ventures, who had bid for Chargers last month at Rs 900 crore and once again showed interested; and Noida-based Jaypee Group, which has interests in other sports ventures such as the Formula One, participated in the bidding.
SUN TV Network will now pay Rs 85.05 crore per year to the BCCI, for the next ten years, to own the franchise. The franchise fee represents a premium of over a 100% above the amount paid by the Deccan Chargers owners for the Hyderabad franchise in 2008.
Sun TV's bid was also substantially higher than the second bid of PVP Ventures, which was at rs 69.03 crore per year. BCCI had placed Rs 300 crore as the base price for the team.
In September this year, the BCCI had terminated the franchisee agreement of Deccan Chargers, following which it had issued tender notices inviting bids for a new franchise.
At that time, there had been heavy speculation that the Sun TV Network would bid for the Deccan Chargers -- which PVP Ventures eventually did in a failed attempt.
SUN, however, had categorically said back then that they were not interested in bidding for an IPL team.
Last week, the Supreme Court had rejected a plea by DCHL, who had requested for more time to pay Rs 100 crore as Bank Guarantee to BCCI and revive the team.
