Chelsea FC loanee Ares wants to surprise the Oval Hundred franchise | Money News

One of the world’s biggest financial investors has entered the auction of England’s cricket championship “The Hundred“, with signs that the process will generate more profit than expected for the sport. Sky News has learned that Ares Management, which has lent huge sums to Chelsea Football Club, the McLaren Formula One team and Rugby Australia, has bid for a major interest in the Oval franchise. Invincibles. Ares, which has more than $460 billion (£355 billion) in assets under management, is a major player in alternative investments globally and has a growing presence in the international sports arena. While many of his other sporting deals have involved debt financing, his bid for a role in the Invincibles Oval is an equity-led proposition, according to people close to The Hundred’s process. . Sources told Sky News that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and consultants Raine Group have this week reduced the original list of around 100 applications to “several dozen”. It was unclear Friday whether Ares was bidding to partner with anyone, how big a stake it had in the London-based franchise it was trying to buy and whether it had moved on. to the next stage of the process. Many of the proposals involve the same bidders submitting an interest in more than one The Hundred franchise. An insider said India’s Ambani family, one of the world’s richest business dynasties, had expressed interest in “most” of the eight teams. Other interested bidders include Jonathan Goldstein, the businessman who owns the casual restaurant chain Prezzo, who is also courting one of the London franchisees. The Glazer family, which still owns a large stake in Manchester United FC, and RedBird Capital have also expressed interest. The values ​​of the combined franchises are understood to have been valued at more than £600 million in the first round of the process, with the highest bid reported to be a bid valuing the London Spirit team based in Lords at £140 million. The Daily Telegraph reported that the offer came from Sanjiv Goenka, an Indian billionaire who owns Lucknow Super Giants in the Indian Premier League. Under the ECB’s plan for The Hundred, with a huge overall impact on the future of the game in England, the board’s 49% stake in each of the eight franchises will be sold, with the proceeds spread across the recreational game, the first 18-. class counties and the MCC, with Lords. The eight venues, which are home to teams such as the Northern Superchargers, Manchester Originals and Southern Brave, will control the remaining 51% of their franchises, which they can choose to keep, or sell. in part or in whole. A larger-than-expected profit from the process could offer several cash-strapped counties a financial line, with some of the money likely to be used to pay down costly debt. However, concerns have been raised that the money from The Hundred auction will not significantly improve the financial stability of the counties in the long term. Lord King, former governor of the Bank of England who recently became MCC chairman, told Mike Atherton, former England captain, that there were serious risks associated with the use of the money. “This is a one-time sale,” he said in an interview with The Times. “You can’t sell The Hundred twice. They’re selling the family money. “You can’t sell that money be used to support a domestic game structure that is not financially viable.” The outcome of the auction, which will be known in the coming months, is also likely to fuel other questions about the future of cricket as the Test format of the game struggles for international commercial relevance. A spokesman for Ares declined to comment on its involvement, and the ECB declined to comment on the process.