7 potential bidders buy IPL's invite for new franchises

The bidding process for the two new franchises for the 2011 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament is gathering heat, with seven companies having collected the invitation to tender from the administrators of the auction.

Today was the fourth day for procuring tender documents, at a price of Rs 5 lakh. An executive said Jaiprakash Associates, Adani Enterprises, ICICI Venture and Sahara had collected the forms. However, it does not necessarily mean they’d bid for the franchisee teams. The winning bids for the two new IPL franchises will be declared in Mumbai on March 7.

A director of Adani declined to comment. A spokesperson of ICICI Venture also declined. Executives from the other bidders could not be reached for comments.

“The number of participants (interested) is substantially large,” said Sundar Raman, chief executive officer, IPL. He said foreign players had also shown interest. He, however, did not disclose the names of investors who had shown interest in buying the franchises.

IPL will introduce two new teams in the T20 tournament in 2011 and had set a base price of $225 million (Rs 1,040 crore) per franchise. The price is more than four times the base price for franchises in IPL’s first season. Presently, there are eight teams in IPL. The matches start from March 12.

According to surveys, the total brand value of IPL today hovers around $4 billion (Rs 18,400 crore). With two new teams coming up for auction, this is expected to zoom. Also, advertising revenues of most franchises have shot up 50 per cent, especially as they are being able to command a 30-40 per cent premium on advertisement rates compared to those of the first IPL of 2008.