Reports: JSW Group to acquire Vijay Mallya's RCB
Chairman of Jindal Steel Works (JSW), Sajjan Jindal confirmed the news of his company acquiring an Indian Premier League (IPL) team. He didn’t name any specific team but speculations are around of JSW might buy liquor baron Vijay Mallya-owned Royal Challengers Bangalore team.
"Cricket is the number one sport in our country so there is an idea to acquire a team... an IPL team. But, I cannot comment which team would be," Sajjan Jindal, managing Director and chairman of JSW Steel Ltd was quoted saying by Times of India (TOI).
"...Moneywise I don't think that is the issue (because), the idea is that we want to take some credible team so that we can promote sports."
When asked by the reporters whether the company will indeed buy the Bengaluru franchises, Jindal without giving an expression said, “That depends on them (RCB).”
Mallya is the first buyer of the RCB. He bought the team in 2008 by bidding the second highest amount of USD 111.6 million.
Bengaluru Football Club, one Indian-League team who is captained by Indian national football team’s captain Sunil Chhetri, is owned by JSW Sports, a JSW Group wing.
It is widely getting speculated that JSW is interested in acquiring RCB team which is led by Virat Kohli. Jindal added saying that he wants to focus on others sports like hockey and kabaddi.
"We will focus on other sports also. We are looking at Kabaddi, we are looking at hockey, we also want to go pan-India in various sports through JSW Sports, which is the wing of JSW Group.
"We have a football team and we are building a village for sports in Karnataka."
JSW Steel Ltd. is an Indian steel company owned by the JSW Group based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. JSW Steel is also India's largest private sector steel company.