Knight Riders Sports Private Limited

Business Overview

• Knight Riders Sports Private Limited owns and operates the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament, one of the eight original IPL franchises acquired in the February 2008 auction.
• Home ground: Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
• The franchise has won three IPL titles, 2012, 2014, 2024, and holds the record for the longest winning streak in IPL history (14 matches).
• Beyond the core KKR team, the group brand "Knight Riders Sports" has been associated with other franchise-cricket ventures, e.g., Trinbago Knight Riders in CPL, Los Angeles Knight Riders in Major League Cricket, though those are typically held via separate/related entities rather than confirmed as directly under this CIN.
• Forbes (2022) valued KKR at approximately $1.1 billion, making it among the most valuable IPL franchises.
• Sponsorship history includes Nokia, Gionee, MPL, WinZO, MyFab11 and Dream11 as principal/title sponsors across seasons
• Current (2026) partners include BKT Tyres, Thums Up, Amul and Google Gemini. Source: Tofler, Falconebiz, TheCompanyCheck, kkr.in, Wikipedia, Kolkata Knight Riders.

Sector & Classification

NIC: Activities of sports and game schools, including specialised sports training centres (per Falconebiz); TheCompanyCheck classifies business activity as "Events and entertainment; event planning and management". Company operates the Kolkata Knight Riders IPL cricket franchise.

Directors & Key Management

GST Registrations

Not obtained. Multiple attempts on KnowYourGST and MastersIndia (searching by PAN AADCK3118M) returned 404/500 errors with no GSTIN data surfaced. Home state is presumptively Maharashtra (per registered address in Mumbai) but this is inferred, not a confirmed GSTIN-level fact. No GSTIN, registration count, or per-state status could be verified from the permitted source list in this session.

Financials

• Standalone figures, audited, per available sources: FY2020-21, per TheCompanyCheck, — Revenue ₹253.56 Cr (+2.31% YoY)
• EBITDA/PAT not disclosed
• EPFO-reported employees: 10. Latest available, per Tofler, up to FY ending 31 Mar 2025, standalone, — Revenue band "₹500–750 Cr", exact figure paywalled behind Tofler Pro
• Net Worth ₹243.0 Cr, Equity Capital ₹20.0 Cr + Reserves ₹223.0 Cr
• Total Borrowings ₹0, debt-free per latest balance sheet.
• EBITDA and PAT for the latest FY were not obtainable from free-tier sources.
• Figures across sources are not perfectly reconciled, different snapshot years, — flagged as a partial/range picture rather than a single confirmed FY snapshot.

Funding History

• Not applicable in the venture-funding sense — this is a founder/promoter-owned private company, not VC/PE-funded.
• Origin: the Kolkata IPL franchise was acquired in the IPL's inaugural February 2008 player/team auction by a consortium fronted by Shah Rukh Khan, via Red Chillies Entertainment, together with Juhi Chawla and Jay Mehta, for a reported USD 75.09 million, ≈ ₹2.98 billion at the time.
• No subsequent institutional funding rounds identified.
• Source: Wikipedia, Kolkata Knight Riders
• Corroborating detail not independently re-verified via a primary filing this session.

Shareholding

• Partial / single-source only — not registry-confirmed.
• Per Wikipedia, Kolkata Knight Riders article: Shah Rukh Khan ~55% and "Mehta Group", Jay Mehta/Juhi Chawla side, ~45%.
• No MCA shareholding-pattern filing or second independent source was available in this session to corroborate the exact percentages
• Treat as indicative, not confirmed. Tofler's shareholders page for this CIN returned no disclosed shareholder register, locked/paywalled.

Loans & Charges

• Confirmed, Tofler + TheCompanyCheck: No open/current charges as of latest filings — long-term and short-term, per Tofler balance sheet data through FY2025
• 1 Cr: — both since satisfied/closed, consistent with the current zero-borrowings position

Related Parties

• Partial.
• Promoter-side related entities, per public/Wikipedia sourcing, not independently verified via a corporate filing this session: Red Chillies Entertainment Pvt Ltd, Shah Rukh Khan's media/production company — co-promoter. "Mehta Group", Jay Mehta / Juhi Chawla side, — co-promoter grouping, name not further broken into specific legal entities in sources reviewed.
• No related-party transaction schedule or group-company list was obtainable from Tofler/Falconebiz/TheCompanyCheck free tiers in this session.

Credit Ratings

• None found.
• No CRISIL, ICRA, CARE, India Ratings or other public credit rating could be located for Knight Riders Sports Private Limited.
• This is consistent with the company's reported debt-free (₹0 borrowings) capital structure — private companies with no rated debt instruments typically have no public credit rating on file.

Legal & Compliance

• Partial, source: Indiankanoon.org search for "Knight Riders Sports Private Limited"; ~126 total hits reported, key matters extracted: 1) Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd vs Adjudicating Authority (PMLA) — Calcutta High Court, WPA No.
• 4845 of 2021, PMLA/money-laundering-proceedings challenge; hearings 17 Mar 2021, 9 Apr 2021, and a later 2026 listing.
• 2) Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd vs Special Director of Enforcement — Bombay High Court, FEMA Appeal No.
• 14 of 2019, FEMA matter; hearing 16 Oct 2019, later listed 14 Nov 2025.
• 3) Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd vs Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax — Bombay High Court, Writ Petition No.
• 26348 of 2025, income-tax matter; 2 Sep 2025, further listed 20 Jul 2026.
• 4) Knight Riders Sports P.
• Ltd, Mumbai vs ACIT Central Circle-29 — ITAT Mumbai, ITA No.
• 1307/Mum/2013, AY 2009-10 (29 Dec 2017).
• Note: none of these confirm an adverse final finding against the company from the summaries retrieved — they are procedural/appeal-stage listings
• Full case outcomes were not read in detail and should be verified before any editorial characterization.

Competitive Landscape

• Other IPL, Indian Premier League, team-owning entities, i.e. direct sector peers, all similarly-scaled private franchise-holding companies; no public financial benchmarking done: Mumbai Indians — owned by Reliance Industries group, large-cap parent, most valuable IPL franchise.
• Chennai Super Kings — owned by Chennai Super Kings Cricket Ltd, part of India Cements/Srinivasan family, only IPL team with a listed parent-adjacent structure — CSK Ltd is listed on NSE Emerge.
• Royal Challengers Bengaluru — owned by United Spirits/Diageo group.
• Delhi Capitals — owned by GMR Group and JSW Group, joint promoters.
• Sunrisers Hyderabad — owned by Sun TV Network/Kalanithi Maran family.
• Punjab Kings — owned by a consortium incl.
• Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia, Mohit Burman.
• Gujarat Titans — owned by CVC Capital Partners, private-equity-backed, atypical vs KKR's founder-owned structure.
• Scale tag: all are comparably sized, multi-hundred-crore annual revenue, IPL central-revenue-share driven, with Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings generally cited as the largest by brand value.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

Tofler (tofler.in) — identity, capital, directors, financials/balance sheet, charges, shareholders page. Falconebiz (falconebiz.com) — identity, directors (incl. CEO DIN), NIC/business-activity description. TheCompanyCheck (thecompanycheck.com) — identity, directors, FY21 revenue, charges (Yes Bank/BMW satisfied charges), website. kkr.in (official site) — domain confirmation, logo asset (site CSS: /static-assets/images/kkr-logo.png), business/roster context. Indiankanoon.org — legal case docket metadata. Wikipedia (Kolkata Knight Riders article) — ownership/shareholding %, 2008 acquisition price, sponsorship history, brand valuation. KnowYourGST / MastersIndia — attempted for GSTIN, returned no usable data (404/500).