Deccan Chargers good fit for Videocon's brands: Venugopal Dhoot

Venugopal Dhoot, chairman of the $4 billion Videocon Group, confirmed his interest in bidding for the Deccan Chargers franchise yesterday.  The decision comes hours after Chargers, currently owned by the cash-strapped Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DHCL), floated a tender under the aegis of the BCCI inviting bids for a prospective sale.

An avid cricket fan, Dhoot, in 2010 bid for the Pune franchise, which was eventually won by the Sahara Group. He told TOI that he wanted his own IPL team as a branding exercise for his company, which was also a provider of DTH services, among other businesses.

Dhoot told The Times of India, that the company was interested and would place bids for buying out Deccan Chargers. He added, it was a good fit for its brand and would be used to connect to its  consumers.

According to sources close to the developments, the deal would be pegged at around Rs800 crore, which was 60 per cent less than the Rs1,200-crore valuation of the franchise done by DCH and BCCI.

An industry observer quoted by TOI said the buyer would have a cash outgo of Rs25 crore per year  and may get much more in return from the branding exercise.

Videocon's branding budget had been pegged at Rs200 crore per annum and according to Dhoot, an IPL team would be a value buy. The bids would be collected on 13 September in Chennai and opened the same day.