Chaitali Chakravarthy & Sudeshna Sen
NEW DELHI/LONDON: Anshu Jain, head of global markets at Deutsche Bank, has bought a minority stake in Mumbai Indians, the Indian Premier League More Pictures
(IPL) cricket team owned by Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, ET has learnt.
London-based Mr Jain, a keen cricket enthusiast who is often seen at the Lord’s cricket ground enjoying matches, is said to have picked up the stake in his personal capacity. Reliance did not respond to an emailed query asking it to confirm the information, while Deutsche Bank does not comment on personal investments of its executives.
According to a person familiar with the matter, Mr Jain's investment in the Sachin Tendulkar-led Mumbai Indians was made "some time ago" and was for sheer love of the game. One estimate is that his stake could amount up to 15%.
The franchise for Mumbai Indians, which includes cricketing stars such as Harbhajan Singh, South Africa’s Shaun Pollock and Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya, was won by Mr Ambani for $119.11 million as part of a high-stakes auction in which he outbid liquor baron Vijay Mallya. Mr Mallya later successfully bid for the Bangalore team called Royal Challengers.
Mr Jain, it is now hoped, may take a more active role as a minority investor, and use his contacts to rope in some English players for the Mumbai Indians, the person familiar with the matter said.
Several IPL teams are targeting marquee players such as Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, but so far the English Cricket Board has been reluctant to allow England players to take part in IPL.
Mr Jain’s investment is an expression of his personal love for the game and not because the Mumbai Indians is in need of money, the person familiar with the matter said.
Known to play the odd game of amateur cricket himself, Jaipur-born Mr Jain ranks among the most influential bankers in the world and is widely credited with helping transform Deutsche Bank into an international bond market powerhouse.
A graduate in economics from Delhi University and an MBA in finance from the University of Massachusetts, Mr Jain, 45, is widely acknowledged as a More Pictures
key figure in turning Deutsche Bank from a German commercial bank to a global investment powerhouse that earns most of its revenues outside Germany.
He is considered a strong contender to succeed Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackerman when he steps down in 2010. Mr Jain is also reported to be among the bank’s top managers who voluntarily gave up their bonuses this year in favour of their employees. Deutsche Bank is a rare European bank which has not resorted to state aid to shore up its balance sheet.
News of Mr Jain’s investment in Mumbai Indians comes at a time when owners of two other IPL teams — Deccan Chargers and Rajasthan Royals — are looking for investors to inject funds into their franchises.
IPL, a Twenty20 cricket tournament launched by the Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) in April, turned out to be a huge success for the BCCI. However, team owners will take some time to make profits.
For much of the early part of this year, large business groups and rich overseas Indians were engaged in a bidding war to own one of the eight regional IPL teams.
Team owners have paid the stipulated fee to the BCCI for ownership of the teams. They now have to pay 10% of the bid amount every year to BCCI as a franchisee fee. With the auction fetching BCCI $723.59 million, the board will get $72.36 million each year.
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