Sun TV board approves £100.5 million acquisition of The Hundred's Northern Superchargers
(You can now subscribe to our
(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel
The board of Sun TV Network has approved the acquisition of a 100% equity stake in Northern Superchargers , a franchise in The Hundred, a professional cricket league operated by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).Valued at £100.5 million, the deal marks the Chennai-based broadcaster's entry into the UK sports market. The board approved the acquisition at its meeting on July 18. Once completed, Northern Superchargers will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sun TV.'We are enhancing our global footprint in sports and are investing in a club that is part of The Hundred, a limited-overs cricket league promoted by the England and Wales Cricket Board, the equivalent of the BCCI in the UK,' said R. Ravi, Company Secretary and Compliance Officer, in a regulatory filing. 'The foreign entity we are acquiring, Northern Superchargers Limited, is already profitable, and we believe that with growing global interest, The Hundred is poised for greater financial success.'Incorporated in May 2019 and based in London, Northern Superchargers reported a turnover of £1.89 million in FY24. The franchise is one of eight teams in The Hundred, a 100-ball cricket competition introduced by the ECB in 2021.Sun TV currently owns two cricket franchises Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League and Sunrisers Eastern Cape in South Africa's SA20 League. The company said the acquisition is part of its broader strategy to expand its presence in international sports.The investment will be made under the Reserve Bank of India's automatic route for overseas acquisitions and will be executed through authorised banking channels. The transaction is expected to close by December 31, 2025.Through the sale of stakes in all eight franchises of The Hundred, the ECB and several participating counties have attracted prominent investors from India, the US, and Silicon Valley.In addition to Sun TV, other major investments in The Hundred include Reliance , which acquired 49% of Oval Invincibles for £60 million; GMR Group, which bought 49% of Southern Brave for £48 million; and RPSG Group, which secured a 70% stake in Manchester Originals.A Silicon Valley consortium comprising Times Internet Vice Chairman Satyan Gajwani, Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen acquired 49% of London Spirit for £145 million.The Hundred is a professional 100-ball cricket competition launched by the ECB in 2021. The format is designed to make it more fast-paced and accessible to a wider audience, especially younger viewers and families.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
9 minutes ago
- Time of India
This Bezos-backed EV startup is betting you'll pay extra for a stereo in your petite pickup
When Will Haseltine saw images online of a small, boxy electric pickup from startup Slate Auto this past spring, he got on the waitlist right away. The sparse interior and crank windows reminded him of the no-frills pickups he grew up around in Memphis, Tennessee - but he was most enamored with the sub-$20,000 price tag. That price, though, factored in a $7,500 federal tax break, which is set to expire Sept. 30, a casualty of the budget package U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law earlier this month. Now Haseltine isn't sure the truck will fit his budget when it comes out, expected late next year. "The Slate was the first time that I looked at a car, wanted it, and could also really make it happen," said Haseltine, a 39-year-old musical instrument technician. Without the tax credit, he said: "That's just plain too much." Michigan-based Slate has raised $700 million from investors, including founder Jeff Bezos, and has racked up more than 100,000 reservations for its cars. But the company is launching into a tough U.S. market. A few years ago, the electric-vehicle space was awash in hopeful entrepreneurs looking to cash in on the global transition to electric cars. But U.S. EV sales growth has cooled as consumer interest has faded. The loss of federal tax breaks will further hurt demand, auto executives and analysts predict. Like other EV startups, Slate likely faces a long road to profitability. The EV business has proven to be a money loser for most industry players, partly because batteries remain relatively expensive. Even in China, where smaller, inexpensive EVs have proliferated and companies enjoy a cost advantage over Western automakers, most are unprofitable. Slate founders believe the company can overcome those obstacles by offering something that is in short supply in today's U.S. car market: affordability. The average new-vehicle selling price is above $45,000. "We are building the affordable vehicle that has long been promised but never delivered," Slate CEO Chris Barman said at a Detroit conference in July. The company has a chance to fill a void left by Tesla, which has backtracked on plans to introduce a mid-$20,000s electric vehicle. The startup has taken a bare-bones approach to its two-seat pickup, which is slightly smaller than a Honda Civic hatchback. How bare-bones? A stereo and power windows will cost extra. Slate hasn't disclosed the cost of such add-ons. 'It's a cool idea' Slate's creation started with an idea from Miles Arnone, the CEO of Re:Build Manufacturing, a Massachusetts-based startup that includes several former Amazon employees. Arnone believed workers needed better access to affordable vehicles. Arnone shared his idea with Jeff Wilke, the company's chairman and a former Amazon executive, and eventually, a small team was formed. The group hired Barman, who spent most of her career as an engineering executive at Fiat Chrysler, now part of Stellantis. Barman told Reuters recently that Slate will be able to absorb the loss of the $7,500 tax credit because the truck's price still will undercut competitors. The company plans to build the pickup at an old catalog factory in Warsaw, Indiana. Executives are taking steps to hold down costs, starting with a simplified design that uses about 500 parts in the truck's assembly, compared with a few thousand for a traditional truck. The plan to build all of its trucks in a basic package - what the company calls a "SKU of one" - allows customers to choose to add a stereo, center console, special lighting, and other features later. The pickup will be built with composite body panels in gray, with an option for a vinyl wrap. That will sidestep the need for a paint shop, which is one of the most expensive investments in a typical car factory. Slate's minimalist approach is a leap of faith that Americans will forgo creature comforts they have been increasingly willing to splurge on. Last year, U.S. buyers spent 33per cent above the base price on average, springing for higher-end trim packages and extra features, according to . That was up from 28per cent in 2014. But there is mounting evidence that new cars are becoming out of reach for many Americans. That could worsen under the effects of the Trump administration's tariffs, which threaten to increase prices on popular budget cars imported from Mexico, Korea and elsewhere. From that standpoint, Slate's price-conscious pickup might be hitting at the right time, said Paul Waatti, director of industry analysis at AutoPacific. "There's a growing appetite, especially among younger drivers, for vehicles that are more honest, more modular and less over-engineered," he said. "Slate taps right into that." Traditional automakers and startups have found mixed success rolling out larger electric pickup trucks in recent years. Now, startups like Slate and California-based Telo are focusing on smaller electric pickups. In a town hall meeting in early May, Ford CEO Jim Farley and Executive Chair Bill Ford told employees they admired the company's customer-centered ethos and focus on affordability. Tim Kuniskis, Stellantis' head of American brands, called Slate "super interesting" at a June event, while also questioning how affordable it would be for some shoppers once they added all the options they wanted. "The idea behind it, we've talked about that idea a million times," he said. "It's a cool idea."
Time of India
9 minutes ago
- Time of India
Elon Musk's Tesla taps Samsung in $16.5B AI chip deal—A game-changer that could rewrite the future of driving; details here
Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has signed a $16.5 billion contract with Samsung Electronics to manufacture its next-generation AI6 chips, Elon Musk confirmed on July 28, 2025. The chips will be produced in Samsung's new Texas-based facility. The agreement spans nine years, from July 24, 2025, to December 31, 2034, and marks a significant milestone in Tesla's push to scale its Full Self-Driving capabilities and other AI-based products. AI6 chips to power Tesla's autonomous tech and robotics The AI6 chips will be developed to support Tesla's upcoming hardware platforms, including its next-gen Full Self-Driving (FSD) systems, the Optimus humanoid robot, and AI infrastructure like the Dojo supercomputer. Currently, Tesla uses the AI4 chip in its Hardware 4 vehicles. An intermediate AI5 chip, produced by Taiwan-based TSMC, is expected to bridge the gap before AI6 is fully rolled out. Elon Musk also noted that TSMC will begin producing AI5 chips in the United States at its Arizona facility, shifting some of the production away from Taiwan. Samsung's Texas fab to focus solely on Tesla chips According to Musk's posts on X, Samsung's Texas fab will be dedicated exclusively to manufacturing Tesla's AI6 chips. 'The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate,' Musk said, adding that Samsung agreed to Tesla playing an active role in maximizing manufacturing efficiency. Musk mentioned he would be directly involved, even 'walking the line personally' at the fab to accelerate progress. He also pointed out that the facility's proximity to his home makes close involvement more feasible. Samsung's foundry business gets a major boost Samsung had earlier announced a major contract for chip manufacturing with a global client without naming Tesla, citing business confidentiality. The deal, worth $16.5 billion, accounts for 7.6% of the company's 2024 revenue. The partnership comes at a crucial time for the South Korean company, which has been under pressure in the competitive AI chip space. Despite being the global leader in memory chips, Samsung's foundry division has struggled to retain major clients, many of whom prefer TSMC for advanced chip production. TSMC's client list includes key industry players like Apple, Nvidia, and Qualcomm. Musk expects output to exceed deal value Musk emphasized that the $16.5 billion figure is only a baseline. 'The $16.5B number is just the bare minimum. Actual output is likely to be several times higher,' he posted. This suggests Tesla expects demand for AI6-powered systems to grow significantly, which would require ramping up chip production well beyond the initial contract estimate. This partnership highlights Tesla's long-term strategy to localize chip manufacturing within the United States and reduce reliance on overseas production. It also strengthens Samsung's position in the U.S. semiconductor market, especially as it looks to compete with TSMC and SK Hynix in advanced chip technologies.
News18
17 minutes ago
- News18
Kinetic re-enters two-wheeler space; drives in Kinetic DX in electric avatar
New Delhi, Jul 28 (PTI) Kinetic Engineering on Monday announced its re-entry into the two-wheeler space and said it aims to invest around Rs 177 crore over the next 18 months to scale up sales network and ramp up production. The Pune-based firm, which used to produce and sell the iconic scooter Kinetic DX from 1984 till 1998, aspires to be among the leaders in the electric two-wheeler space over the next three years. The company on Monday launched Kinetic DX scooter in an electric avatar with an estimated range of 116 km on a single charge. In an interaction with PTI, Kinetic Engineering Vice Chairman and Managing Director Ajinkya Firodia said the company aims to scale up the production and sales network in a phased manner. 'We aim to touch 1.5 lakh unit sales mark in the next 3-4 years, and to sell that number we would require around 300 dealerships," Firodia said. The company plans to produce around 40,000 units by August 2026 and then gradually scale up production, he added. 'The company aims to achieve a 6-8 per cent market share in the next three years, targeting the top three players in the segment," Firodia said. He noted that the top five or six manufacturers are now dominating the domestic electric two-wheeler segment with a market share of around 90 per cent. When asked about the sales network, he said that the company currently has appointed 20 dealers and plans to expand the number to 160 in the first year. It would be scaled up to 300 dealerships over the next three years, with the western region being the first focus area, followed by northern, eastern and southern parts of the country, Firodia said. He emphasised the importance of having a reliable brand with good service is crucial for long-term success in the Indian market. The company also plans to later export the electric scooter to various markets globally, he added. Kinetic Engineering Ltd (KEL) is entering the electric space through a wholly-owned subsidiary — Kinetic Watts and Volts Ltd. It was established in September 2022. Kinetic Watts and Volts has already been capitalised with Rs 72 crore through KEL and the promoters. The promoters have recently pledged an additional Rs 177 crore in KEL, with a significant portion dedicated to scaling up the DX platform. The Kinetic DX is priced at Rs 1,11,499 and the Kinetic DX+ is priced at Rs 1,17,499 (ex-showroom, Pune). The electric scooter, which comes with various connected features, can go up to 90 km/hr. 'Reviving this icon was about more than just launching a scooter, it was about bringing back the reliability, innovation, and robustness that defined Kinetic for decades, giving it a future-ready soul," Firodia said. He noted that the company has been able to design a motor that functions without rare earth magnets, addressing current supply chain issues. PTI MSS SHW view comments First Published: July 28, 2025, 16:45 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
