India Cements sale: Will it affect Chennai Super Kings and MS Dhoni?

With UltraTech Cement set to acquire India Cements, there are questions about what will happen to Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

On Sunday (July 28), Aditya Birla Group’s flagship company UltraTech Cement said it will acquire a 32.72 per cent stake in India Cements from promoters and their associates in a Rs 3,954 deal.

Besides, Ultratech has also announced a Rs 3,142.35 crore open offer to acquire another 26 per cent share of India Cements Ltd (ICL) from its shareholders.

The board of the Aditya Birla firm approved the acquisition of 32.72 per cent stake from promoters and their associates at Rs 390 per share, according to a regulatory filing from UltraTech on Sunday.

Will this sale impact CSK?

For cricket fans, five-time IPL champions CSK and India Cements connection is well known. India Cements Vice Chairman and Managing Director N Srinivasan is the man behind CSK and was also instrumental in bringing MS Dhoni to the team.

Srinivasan has been associated with cricket as an administrator in various capacities including being the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2011-12. He was also the first Chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) from 2014 to 2016.

The Chennai franchise was first bought by India Cements when the T20 league started in 2008. However, later in 2015, CSK was made into an independent company and not part of India Cements. Hence, the Ultra Tech-India Cements deal will not have any impact on CSK.

“Chennai Super Kings and India Cements are different entities. India Cements no longer controls the CSK team. The team is run by a company called Chennai Super Kings Cricket Limited (CSKCL),” Kasi Viswanathan, the CEO of CSKCL, told this Cricbuzz on Sunday.

According to Chennai Super Kings Cricket Limited’s (CSKCL) annual report released in September 2023, the company’s chairman is R Srinivasan (not N Srinivasan), and Viswanathan is the CEO and Wholetime Director. Five others including Rakesh Singh, PL Subramanian, B Kalyanasundaram, K Ramgopal, and E Jayashree are part of the Board of Directors.

CSKCL has two subsidiaries Superking Ventures Private Ltd and Joburg Super Kings (Pty) Ltd.