Two of India's most prominent industrial dynasties have joined forces to take control of the Rajasthan Royals IPL franchise in a transaction valued at $1.65 billion - roughly Rs 15,660 crore - marking one of the largest ownership transfers in the history of Indian cricket's premier competition. The deal, announced on Sunday, sees the Mittal family acquiring approximately 75 percent of the franchise, with vaccine magnate Adar Poonawalla of the Serum Institute of India taking an 18 percent stake. Existing principal owner Manoj Badale retains a residual holding of around 7 percent alongside other approved investors.
From $67 Million to $1.65 Billion: The Scale of IPL's Financial Ascent
The arithmetic of this transaction tells a story that extends well beyond cricket. Manoj Badale acquired the Rajasthan Royals franchise in 2008 for $67 million, one of eight founding franchises when the IPL was established. The new valuation of $1.65 billion represents a return that few asset classes - equities, real estate, or private equity - could credibly rival over the same seventeen-year period. It reflects, in precise numerical terms, how the IPL has transformed from an ambitious experiment in televised entertainment into one of the world's most commercially formidable sporting properties. The Rajasthan Royals are not among the IPL's historically dominant franchises, yet their valuation now stands at a level that commands comparison with mid-tier European football clubs and established North American franchises.
The deal's structure also encompasses two international franchise holdings: Paarl Royals, which competes in South Africa's SA20 competition, and Barbados Royals in the Caribbean Premier League. The Mittal family, Poonawalla, and Badale will hold these collectively as a new consortium, signalling that the commercial logic here is not purely domestic. International franchise ecosystems linked to the IPL brand are increasingly seen as leveraged extensions of a central asset - and this consortium is positioning itself accordingly.
Who Controls What, and Why Aditya Mittal Is the Name to Watch
Lakshmi Mittal, the UK-based steel magnate and founder of ArcelorMittal, the world's second-largest steel producer, is the headline name attached to this acquisition. But the operational face of the franchise is expected to be his son, Aditya Mittal, 50, who serves as CEO of ArcelorMittal. Aditya made a significant entry into North American entertainment investment earlier in 2025 when he committed $1 billion to acquire a stake in the NBA's Boston Celtics. The Rajasthan Royals acquisition follows that trajectory closely: a calculated move by a next-generation industrialist building a portfolio of high-visibility, high-value entertainment and cultural assets across multiple continents.
Lakshmi Mittal's personal connection to the franchise carries weight beyond financial calculation. "I love cricket and my family is from Rajasthan," he said in the official statement, "so there is no IPL team that I would rather be part of than the Rajasthan Royals." The Mittal family's prior foray into ownership came in 2007, when Lakshmi Mittal acquired a 33 percent stake in Queens Park Rangers, the London-based football club. The Rajasthan Royals deal, by any measure, represents a far larger and more strategically significant commitment.
Adar Poonawalla, whose Serum Institute of India is the world's largest producer of vaccines by volume, brings a distinct profile to the consortium. His public visibility surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Serum Institute produced the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine under the Covishield brand at scale for global distribution. His 18 percent stake in the Rajasthan Royals extends a pattern of high-profile investment diversification that prominent Indian industrialists have pursued with increasing confidence in recent years - moving capital from core business operations into cultural and entertainment properties that carry both financial and reputational value.
Regulatory Hurdles and the Shadow of a Failed Deal
The transaction does not yet have the force of finality. It requires approval from the Board of Control for Cricket in India and clearance from the Competition Commission of India, the country's antitrust regulator. Both processes are standard for ownership changes of this nature, though neither is automatic.
The announcement also arrives after a period of ownership uncertainty that cast a long shadow over the franchise. In March, credible reports had pointed to a consortium led by Kal Somani, an Arizona-based technology entrepreneur, as the incoming owner. That deal did not materialise. The collapse of that earlier transaction - and the months of ambiguity that followed - makes the current announcement significant not merely for its financial scale but for the resolution it brings to a franchise that had been operating under an ownership question mark for the better part of a year.
Badale, for his part, is stepping back from primary ownership with considered language. "It has been the privilege of a lifetime to be involved with the Rajasthan Royals from inception," he said, describing his incoming partners' "passion for cricket, their connection to Rajasthan and India, and their long-term ambition for the franchise." His continued presence - described explicitly as a bridge between the franchise's founding era and its next chapter - suggests the transition is designed to preserve institutional continuity while transferring financial control decisively.
What the Deal Signals for IPL Ownership and Indian Capital
The broader significance of this transaction lies in what it reveals about where Indian industrial capital is flowing. The IPL has, over less than two decades, become the kind of asset that India's wealthiest families now actively compete to control - not as vanity purchases, but as genuine long-term investments with compounding returns in broadcast rights, sponsorship, merchandise, and global franchise expansion. The entry of the Mittal family, with its established footprint in global ownership across steel, football, and basketball, alongside Poonawalla, who commands one of the most strategically significant pharmaceutical operations in the world, suggests that IPL franchise ownership is consolidating around India's most internationally connected business dynasties.
The $1.65 billion valuation will also recalibrate how other franchise owners and prospective buyers assess the market. For a competition that is still seventeen years old, and whose international broadcast and commercial agreements continue to grow, the ceiling on franchise values remains, by most credible assessments, far from sight.