The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has formally unveiled details of the process through which it will look to sell off stakes in the eight teams from the Hundred, its recently-launched short-format competition.
The Raine Group advisory firm, and professional services heavyweight Deloitte, will work collaboratively as financial advisors during the process of securing private investment in the eight city-based teams. Latham & Watkins, and Onside Law, will act as legal co-counsels.
In the first public communication from the ECB around the sale of stakes in the Hundred (featuring men’s and women’s competitions under the same franchise banners), which has been running since 2021, the ECB said private investment will “take the competition to the next level, while ensuring any investment benefits the whole of the game.”
Vikram Banerjee, director of business operations at the ECB, added: “We have identified this moment as the opportunity to take the Hundred to the next level while capitalizing on the global interest in the competition to underpin the structure of the whole domestic game. The opportunity to engage new global strategic partners will help us unlock the future potential of the Hundred.”
The Raine Group has worked, in the last few years, on sales processes at English Premier League soccer clubs Manchester United and Chelsea, as well as at the World Wrestling Entertainment promotion, and will be the lead advisor to the ECB in this case.
It has been reported that the ECB, which currently owns all of the eight teams fully, will hand 51% of shares in them to the county sides who play at the Hundred grounds, for free. The ECB will then look to sell off the remaining 49% to private investors.
The governing body is reportedly aiming to conclude the sales process by the end of 2024.
This year’s Hundred will run from July 23 to August 18.
With private investment in the teams, the Hundred will join the list of Twenty20 leagues worldwide where teams are privately owned - the SA20 in South Africa, the Caribbean Premier League, the ILT20 in the United Arab Emirates, and most prominently the Indian Premier League.
It is expected that team owners from the IPL will look to acquire stakes in the Hundred sides, with many already owning teams in the other leagues.
However, speaking in April, Richard Gould, chief executive of the ECB, said: “Our interest won't just be with IPL franchises. We have got a lot of interested sports owners from the [US] and from this country. So we'll be looking at all those options."
