Reliance Industries keen on buying IMG Worldwide

Sports management company IMG Worldwide is up for sale at an cost of about $2 billion. Forstmann Little & Co., which owns IMG, has currently chosen Morgan Stanley and Evercore Partners Inc. to find a buyer for them.

Bloomberg had recently reported that non-disclosure agreements have likely gone to its potential buyers, along with first-round bids, which are likely due in July. There have been many buyers for the company, that include Guggenheim Partners, Silver Lake Management LLC and Creative Artists Agency.

But according to a source of Daily Tennis News, Indian giant Reliance Industries Limited is among the frontrunners. Mukesh Ambani, who made a partnership in 2010 with IMG called IMG Reliance, heads the company. He has a net worth of more than $20 billion.

Reliance Industries Limited is a Fortune Global 500 company and has annual revenues of over US $66 billion. This company had started with textiles in the late 1970s but later put its foot into polyester, plastics, fibre intermediates, petrochemicals, petroleum refining, oil and gas exploration and production.

Previously, IMG Reliance had also signed a 30-year partnership with the Basketball Federation of India to take basketball from the grassroots to a professional league. The BFI granted IMG Reliance all commercial rights, including those of sponsorship, advertising, broadcasting, merchandising, film, video and data, intellectual property, franchising and new league rights.

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has also signed a 15-year partnership with IMG Reliance. This has been done with an aim to radically restructure, overhaul, improve, popularize and promote football throughout the country.

Existing IMG events in India are now under management of the joint venture, including the ATP tournament Aircel Chennai Open and Lakme Fashion Week.