Deccan Chargers reject Rs 900 crore bid by PVP Ventures!

The sole bid for IPL team Deccan Chargers made by PVP Ventures, a film production firm, was rejected today by the  current owners Deccan Chronicle Holdings.

“The price and terms of payment were not acceptable to them (the owners of Deccan Chargers) so they rejected it,” BCCI President N Srinivasan told reporters in Mumbai today.

The company, which was the only firm to submit a bid for the team from Hyderabad, had bid Rs 900 crore, according to a Times Now report. However, the bid was opposed by the banks to whom current owners Deccan Chronicle Holdings owe money, CNN IBN said.

The BCCI had assisted the owners of Deccan Chargers in floating tenders and had examined financial criteria of the bidders, who had bid for the team, the BCCI President said.

“We found that they (PVP Ventures) were acceptable,” Srinivasan said.

However, the owners of the team Deccan Chargers rejected the bid and only they could comment on why it had been rejected, he said.

While refusing to comment on the future course of action for the sale of the team, Srinivasan said that the cricket board had issued notice to the Deccan Chargers to “cure certain defects” and have given them time to resolve them.

The BCCI is expected to take a final decision on Deccan Chargers at Working Committee Meeting on 15 September.

Shares of current team owners, Deccan Chronicle Holdings, dipped 2 percent following the decision.

Potluri Vara Prasad of PVP Ventures, that recently made a bilingual hit film Naan Ee, has financial interests in real estate, finance and entertainment.

In a statement issued following the announcement, the BCCI said,”The bid that was received by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited met the BCCI’s eligibility and suitability criteria. The bid was then reviewed by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited who, in its discretion and with no role being played by BCCI, rejected the bid on the basis of the payment terms offered by the bidder.”

Deccan Chargers has been unable to pay salaries to its players for their performance during the last edition of the IPL.

According to reports, among the corporate houses that were in the fray to buy the team included the RPG Group, infrastructure firm Jaypee Group and Hyderabad-based private equity fund Peepul Capital.

Private equity fund Peepul Capital, which had earlier shown interest in acquiring the media assets of Deccan Chronicle, had later said they were not to keen on funding the team. While RPG Group admitted to having bought the tender document, Videocon group which had initially said it was interested later said that they had no interest in buying the team anymore.

The fact that the new buyer will be responsible for clearing the liabilities of the current owner has held many back from bidding for Deccan Chargers, and has resulted in a lower valuation than expected for the team.

But for Deccan Chronicle Holdings, which is under scrutiny from its lenders across the country, the sale of the team may have come as a lifeline to do away with some part of its debt, estimated by some to be over Rs 4,000 crore.