Muthoot Group warms up to fresh IPL tender

Thiruvananthapuram, March 9 : Business conglomerate Muthoot Pappachen Group (MPG) of Kerala is planning to own a cricket team in the Indian Premier League (IPL) after the league's governing council relaxed conditions and invited bids to buy two new franchises.

MPG initially planned to own an IPL team but then decided against it because of the high financial involvement.

A top company official told IANS on condition of anonymity that the agents of film director Priyadarshan and actor Mohanlal had approached MPG to join the two to own an IPL team.

"We were interested and the initial deal was that we would own two-thirds and the film duo would hold one-third and on that lines the capital was to be pumped in. But when we read the fine print, we decided that it was too expensive and backed out," said the Muthoot official.

MPG is one of the largest family-run business houses in the state with presence in areas such as banking, finance, hotels, resorts, real estate, automobile sales, power generation and IT Infrastructure.

"Now with the conditions having been relaxed, we would be interested. We are now waiting for the details of the fresh tender. If it suits us, we will certainly be there to take part in the bid process and it would be a new joint venture company," added the MPG official.

The IPL, an arm of the BCCI, has decided to invite fresh tenders for two locations to own and operate teams from 2011 onwards.