Srinivasan, daughter Rupa return as promoters of CSK team owner

Srinivasan and his family now own 28.14 percent of CSK.

N. Srinivasan, vice chairman and managing director of The India Cements Ltd., and his family have returned as promoters of Chennai Super Kings Cricket Ltd. (CSK), the owner of the Chennai team in the Indian Premier League, possibly ending a conflict-of-interest controversy that arose out of the positions they held in national and state-level boards.

The changes in the list of promoters and their shareholdings were published in the Chennai Super Kings annual report for 2022-23. The re-jig came about after the India Cements Shareholders Trust distributed almost its entire holding of CSK shares to eligible promoter and non-promoter shareholders of India Cements.

The stake held by the India Cements Shareholders Trust came down to 1.76 percent in FY23 from over 30 percent in the previous year. The trust distributed 384,882 CSK shares to non-promoter shareholders of India Cements and 86.7 million shares to promoters of India Cements, according to the annual report.

Srinivasan and his family now own 28.14 percent of CSK. The latest annual report lists seven names as promoters: EWS Finance and Investments (21.47 percent), Rupa Gurunath as trustee of the Financial Services Trust and Securities Services Trust (6.48 percent), N. Srinivasan (0.14 percent), Chitra Srinivasan (0.02 percent), Rupa Gurunath (0.01 percent), S. K. Ashok Baalaje (0.02 percent) and Rajam Krishnamurthy (1,940 shares).

None of the seven promoter names held any CSK shares in the previous year.

Board positions
The listing of Srinivasan and his family as promoters comes after he and his daughter Rupa Gurunath gave up their positions in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which governs the sport in the country, and associated entities.

Srinivasan was president of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) from 2001 to 2018. He was the BCCI treasurer from 2005 to 2008 and secretary of the cricket board from 2008 to 2011, before becoming its president in 2011-12. With Rupa Gurunath having quit as TNCA president, there is now no longer any conflict of interest arising out of the positions they held.

India Cements was originally the franchise owner of the IPL Chennai Super Kings team. CSK was created as a division of India Cements. When the controversy over the conflict of interest broke out, the cement company hived off CSK as an independent company in early 2015.

Legal analysts said the changed circumstances could be the reason for listing Srinivasan and his family as promoters of CSK. If the covenants of the trust deed provide for it, there is nothing wrong in it, they said.
According to experts, the changes will have no material impact on the functioning of CSK and actually makes the ownership structure transparent.