“CSK is showing a strong uptrend ahead of the IPL season, also once the IPL media rights auctions are finalised, the profit of the franchise is expected to soar,” said Rahul Thalia, director, Sarffin Financial Advisors. “Also, the fact that there is no sports franchise team available for trade, investors are lapping it up to get strong returns in any potential IPO which happens at a later date.”
According to experts, CSK is a strong bet for investors, as its price-earnings ratio is cheap compared to global sports franchisees. It has growing revenue from the sale of merchandise, royalties and sponsorships which are huge determinants in future cash flows.
“In the aftermath of the pandemic, the work-from-home culture is setting in with people taking interest in sports and online gaming,” said Tushar Bopche, co-founder of BrainStation India, a startup incubator involved in the financial markets. “This in turn kept the CSK prices soaring. The Super Kings hold the records of most appearances in the playoffs (eleven) and the final (nine) of the IPL.”
The total number of CSK shares is estimated to be 308 million, of which about 5-7% are said to be changing hands. Such liquidity paves the way for more secondary market transactions on those unlisted shares.
What also aided the sharp rise in the demand and value of the shares of CSK, according to dealers, was the addition of the two new franchises in IPL which were bought at a steep valuation – ₹7,000 crore for Lucknow and ₹5,625 crore for Gujarat, much higher than the base price of ₹2,000 crore each.
Dalal Street veteran Radhakishan Damani is one of the key shareholders of CSK.
The Super Kings have won the IPL title four times (2010, 2011, 2018, and 2021), and have the highest win percentage of matches among all teams in the IPL (59.83%).
