MUMBAI: Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli is not just the brand ambassador of Mobile Premier League (MPL), but also holds a small stake in the online gaming platform’s parent company – Galactus Funware Technology Private Limited, records accessed by Indian Express show.
Bengaluru-headquartered Galactus is a subsidiary of M-League Pte Ltd, a company registered in Singapore in April 2018.
The records accessed by the daily reveal that in February 2019, Kohli was allotted 68 CCDs with a face value of Rs 10, each issued at a premium of Rs 48,990 (Rs 3.332 million). These CCDs will be converted into equity shares at the end of 10 years, the conversion ratio being 1:1, i.e. one equity share for one debenture. Post-dilution, Kohli will hold a 0.051% stake in the company.
As per the records accessed by IE, at the same extraordinary general meeting on February 5, 2019, when Kohli was issued the CCDs, Galactus also issued 34 CCDs worth Rs 1.666 million to Cornerstone Sport LLP. Significantly, Cornerstone’s CEO Arun (Bunty) Sajdeh is Kohli’s partner in two other limited liability partnership firms – Magpie Venture Partners LLP and Virat Kohli Sports LLP.
According to IE, there is another Sajdeh-Kohli link. Another firm, Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment Private Ltd, of which Sajdeh is the director, manages the commercial rights of Kohli and a bunch of international cricketers including KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Umesh Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Shubman Gill.
When contacted, Sajdeh said there was nothing wrong with the MPL connection. “I have said this time and again, Virat and Cornerstone are free to invest in as many businesses as they wish to. There is no conflict whatsoever as long as Virat is not invested in Cornerstone,” he told the daily.
Interestingly, a month after CCDs were issued to Kohli and Cornerstone, on March 21, 2019, Galactus allotted 14,285 CCDs of face value Rs 100, each at a premium of Rs 48,900 to Bennett Coleman & Company Ltd (The Times Group) for Rs 699.9 million. The CCDs will be converted into equity shares after 10 years, with the conversion ratio fixed at 1:1, i.e., one equity share for one CCD.
POSTSCRIPT: While SportzPower doffs its cap to the details that IE gathered in preparing its article, this website believes the report’s emphasis on potential conflict of interest over the fact that Kohli is an investor in the company that is BCCI’s official kit sponsor and merchandise partner is misplaced.
