Vijay mallya

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Former owner of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) Vijay Mallya reacted to the franchise's record-breaking sale after a consortium, led by Aditya Birla Group, completed the acquisition of the franchise for Rs 16,660 crore and said it's gratifying to see his Rs 450 crore investment has grown exponentially over the years".

Bolt Ventures (Bolt) and Blackstone's perpetual private equity strategy (BXPE, Blackstone) are the other members of the consortium that have jointly bought the franchise, making RCB the costliest franchise in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

"I would like to heartily congratulate the new owners of RCB. I wish them the very best and Godspeed with the most valuable IPL franchise. When I bought the franchise in 2008 for Rs 450 crores, most people laughed at me and criticised my investment as a vanity project. Behind my much-touted madness was building the Royal Challenge brand and hence I named the franchise RCB," Mallya shared in an X post.