Who is the suitor for Kings XI Punjab?

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Bottom ranked franchise Kings Xi Punjab is up for sale. Assoon as season three concludes, the four promoters of the Mohali basedclub will exit. The asking price is a steep $300 million and the buyeris conducting a due diligence process right now. Co owner Mohit Burmancategorically told sportzpower that the buyer is neither Hero Honda'sPawan Munjal or Videocon's Venugopal Dhoot who to his chargin foundthat his bid was trumped by Rendezvouz and Sahara in the two teamauction held recently. Bound by a confidentiality agreement, Burmanand his co promoters are not at a liberty to divulge the name of thebuyer. While the modalities of the sale are still not known, it iscertain that the price is no longer a consideration even as theidentity of the new owner is shrouded in mystery. Earlier it wasreported that Pawan Munjal was paying $260 million for the city basedfranchise but this was vehemently denied by both parties.
Dabur's Mohit Burman, Apeejay Surendra's Karan Paul, Bombay Dyeing'sNess Wadia and actress Preity Zinta had together in 2008 to form aconsortium and buy Kings XI Punjab for $76 million. While Burmanrefused to reveal the exact nature of the shareholding of the four copromoters, it is doubtful whether all four have an equal 25 per cent.In any case at a purchase price of $76 million, the selling price of$300 million offers a huge premium, the valuation being 4x. Each oneof the four promoters is expected to make handsome returns on theiroriginal investment. It is understood that Paul, Burman and Wadia havelarger stakes and hence they will make more money out of thisexercise. Burman was also not willing to reveal the shareholdingpattern of the present ownership.
There is likely to be some debt on the books as well, but since thefinancials of IPL teams are not very transparent, this figure cannotbe quantified. As per the IPL conditionalities, none of the eightoriginal franchise owners could exit from their clubs - effectively 51per cent - till the end of season 3. While Kings XI reached the semifinals in season 1 losing to Chennai Super Kings, season two saw themwinning seven and losing seven. However, this season has been anunmitigated disaster with the club losing six of its sevenb games tilldate.
Mired in controversy from the beginning, Kings XI has been more famousfor its off field news flow - a racism row over two of thecheerleaders, followed by an unsavoury dispute between Ness Wadia andPunjab Police, then the infamous slapgate involving Sreesanth andfinally this year the use of the Bhagat Singh's name in anadvertisement created a huge controversy. With Bhagat Singh's kinthreatening to sue Kings XI for use of the freedom struggle martyr'sname in an advertisement, it created a furore in Punjab. Nothing hasgone right on and off the field this year. Though Mahela Jaywardeneshowed spark as a captain in the game against Mumbai Indians onTuesday, a series of losses may have convinced the promoters to getout while the going is still good.