RCB on sale: Billionaires Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath, Manipal's Ranjan Pai, Serum Institute's Adar Poonawalla in race for IPL franchise ownership?

UK based liquor giant Diageo, has officially initiated the process to sell IPL champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), and with RCB now up on sale, several Bengaluru based billionaires have shown interest in this big purchase.

RCB is a popular team, with a strong fan base, mostly due to Virat Kohli. RCB won its maiden IPL trophy last year, scripting history in Indian cricket. Now when its's up for sale, big names like Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath and Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG) chairman Ranjan Pai have emerged. Another name up for the race is Serum Institute of India's CEO Adar Ponnawalla.

Who will buy RCB?

Nikhil Kamath and Ranjan Rai, both hails from Karnataka. Both of these are main competitors and potential buyers of RCB, which is expected to be valued over 1 billion dollars. Moreover, Adar Poonawalla's comment on RCB sale on social media that read, "At the right valuation, @RCBTweets is a great team" has gone viral.

According to some sources cited by Times of India, a consortium featuring Kamath, Pai, and Adar Poonawalla could be exploring a joint bid for the franchise, said the report.

Who can afford RCB?

A recent valuation by global investment firm Houlihan Lokey suugest that the IPL’s overall business value at $18.5 billion and its brand value at $3.9 billion as of 2025. While, RCB's brand valuation is at $269 million.

Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of Zerodha, has a net worth of around $2.5 billion. Ranjan Pai, whose Manipal Group operates leading hospitals and educational institutions across India, holds an estimated net worth of $2.8 billion.

Adar Poonawalla: India’s vaccine tycoon and CEO of Serum Institute, is worth over $20 billion, as per Forbes.

Apart from these names, Parth Jindal of JSW Group, the Adani Group, and Ravi Jaipuria of RJ Corp, as well as US-based private equity firms, may also emerge as potential buyer in the race to buy RCB.