All You Need To Know About GMR Group’s Deal With Hampshire
Hampshire announces the deal with GMR Group, becoming the first English county cricket club owned by an overseas investor. Here’s what the deal means in practice. Have Delhi Capitals bought Hampshire? Not exactly. Delhi Capitals is a 50-50 joint venture between the two sports arms of Indian conglomerates JSW Group and GMR Group. GMR had bought the Delhi franchise – then called Delhi Daredevils – before the first season of the IPL in 2008 and sold 50% to JSW in 2018. GMR are the only relevant party in the Hampshire deal. Who are GMR and why have they invested in cricket? The GMR group describe themselves as a leading infrastructure developer who own and manage projects in a number of different areas. They own and run six airports, including Delhi and Hyderabad. GMR says its sports division has the social objective of promoting and nurturing potential talent at the grassroot level in Delhi while the IPL has proved a lucrative investment: having paid US$84 million for the Delhi franchise in 2008, they sold a 50% stake in 2018 for US$66m. Do GMR own any other teams? Yes. GMR are the owners of Dubai Capitals in the UAE’s ILT20, India Capitals in the Legends League Cricket (LLC) and have a stake in Seattle Orcas (MLC). JSW, their IPL co-owners, run Pretoria Capitals in South Africa’s SA20 and the two companies also co-own Delhi Capitals Women in India’s WPL. GMR also owns teams in kabaddi and kho-kho. Has GMR taken over at Hampshire? Hampshire Cricket announced on Monday morning that GMR have bought a majority stake – reported to be 53%-in Hampshire Sport & Leisure Holdings Ltd, with a full buyout to be completed in two years. Rod Bransgrove, chair, and David Mann, chief executive, will stay in place until that two-year period has elapsed. What does this mean for the Hundred? In effect, the ECB began the process of disposing stakes in the eight Hundred teams at the beginning of the month. Under this model, the ECB would sell 49% stakes in every team to private investors and transfer 51% to the host venue or county, which in Southern Brave’s case would be Hampshire. Will GMR become the majority owners of Southern Brave by default? No, it isn’t. The ECB’s sales process contains a clause which allows the ECB the discretion whether or not to sell 51% stakes to hosts. They can decide to hold onto it if they feel that an investor is trying to bypass the wider sale process or buying a franchise up the backstairs. The deal is not dependent on getting a Hundred franchise. But in reality…? The ECB have consulted with every franchise in the IPL and WPL to invest into Hundred teams, and GMR seem very likely to make a bid for the remaining 49% in the sales process of Southern Brave. If GMR’s bid is accepted by the ECB as being at fair market value, Hampshire would then be sold the other 51% and GMR would, therefore, be considered 100% owners of the Hundred franchise. What’s in it for Hampshire? Most obviously, money. Hampshire said in a statement that the deal was designed to strengthen the financial position of their parent company, which also runs the on-site hotel and golf course at the Utilita Bowl. GMR will provide a material injection of capital to reduce the leveraging of the company – in other words, starting to pay off Hampshire’s £60 million debt. Bransgrove said GMR was selected following a rigorous selection process due to its aligned values and commitment to our vision. The Utilita Bowl has awarded the first men’s Ashes Test in 2027, with Bransgrove saying it needed investment to allow Hampshire to remain at the top table. Didn’t Hampshire do something like this previously? Yes. Hampshire were formerly part of a remarkably short-lived tie-in with Rajasthan Royals back in 2010, playing as Hampshire Royals for four years as one of five ‘Royals2020’ teams globally. The arrangement was quietly mothballed after a row between Rajasthan’s owners and the IPL saw the franchise briefly expelled from the competition. What’s Kevin Pietersen got to do with it? Kevin Pietersen played a behind-the-scenes role to try to grease the wheels of the deal as a common link between Bransgrove and GMR’s Kiran Kumar Grandhi. Pietersen played for both Hampshire and Delhi Daredevils (as they were then known) during his playing career. Will Hampshire’s deal be the first of many in county cricket? Maybe, but not straight away. Hampshire are one of only three counties, the others being Durham and Northamptonshire, that are private limited companies rather than member-run mutual ‘societies’, though Yorkshire’s chairman Colin Graves is trying to demutualise the club to unlock the door for private investment. Most of the counties rely on ECB central funding for revenue and therefore might consider private investment as an alternative source. The Sportz Planet Desk,Atharva Shetye
