Mumbai-based real estate company Kamla Landmarc has bought Indian Premier League team Deccan Chargers for an undisclosed amount.
The decision to sell off was taken by the board of directors of Deccan Chronicle Holdings on Thursday and the company announced the same in a notice to the exchanges on Friday. Kamla Landmarc, owned by Ramesh Jain, undertakes construction of residential and commercial projects.
"Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd has informed the BSE that pursuant to its meeting of the board of directors held on October 11, 2012, it was resolved to authorise the board of directors to sell, transfer or dispose of the Deccan Chargers franchise business undertaking or business division of the company to Kamla Landmarc Real Estate Holdings. The above resolution of the board has been passed subject to the approval of the shareholders of the company," a notice on Bombay Stock Exchange read.
A month ago, it rejected an offer from an infrastructure and film production firm PVP Ventures, though it reportedly got an offer of Rs 900 crore. DCHL is facing a high debt of over Rs 4,000 crore, court cases and defaults. It has been selling assets to raise funds to pay debtors.
The top brass of the Mumbai realty major were huddled in a board meeting discussing the finer details of the proposed memorandum of understanding and firming up the deal.
The shares of DCHL which have plummeted over the past several weeks reacted positively to the deal announcement. The DCHL scrip was up 4.92 per cent in the afternoon session to trade at Rs 9.60.On the NSE, the stock was up 4.89 per cent at Rs 9.65.
Deccan Chronicle, the owner of the IPL team and publisher of Deccan Chronicle English daily, has been scouting hard to sell off Deccan Chargers in the past few months.
It had also appointed Religare to look out for a prospective buyer. In addition to Deccan Chronicle, the company publishes the Telugu daily, Andhra Bhoomi, owns a retail book chain called Odyssey and was planning big diversification into aviation and courier business.