Preity Zinta approaches court to stop one of four owners to sell his shares in Punjab Kings

Add as a preferred source on Google

All is not well at Punjab Kings as Preity Zinta has approached the High Court in Chandigarh, seeking a restraining order from one of the four owners, who is looking to sell his share in the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise.

Preity Zinta holds a 23 percent shareholding in the franchise through KPH Dream Cricket Private Limited, and is looking to stop co-owner Mohit Burman from selling his shares to a different party.

Notably, Mohit Burman holds 48 percent stake - the highest among the four owners. Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia have 23 percent shares each, and the remaining six percent shares belong to Karan Paul.

As per a Cricbuzz report, Zinta has approached the court after being made aware about Burman's reported plans to sell 11.5 percent of his stake to a US-based firm called Tomales Bay Capital L.P. However, Burman has denied the reports.

"I don't have any plans to sell my shares," Burman told Cricbuzz.

As per the internal arrangements among the owners, a co-owner looking to sell his share or part of it will first have to offer it to the other co-owners first and look out for a different party only after refusals from them. Also, the offer to sell the stake cannot be open-ended and it is always time bound. The seller can only wait only for a certain period of time for the partners before looking elsewhere.

Reports have suggested that Preity Zinta had to approach the court due to allegations that Burman is attempting to sell the shares to a third party, despite her timely exercise to show interest in buying the share.

As per Cricbuzz, Zinta has highlighted Article 19 of the association's bylaws, which pertains to the existing directors' right of first refusal (ROFR). The Bollywood star alleged in the court that after initially offering to sell the stake to fellow directors, Burman has backed out but continues to discuss a deal with the US company.

The reported worth of a successful IPL franchise is somewhere between Rs 5,300 crore to Rs 5,800 crore. That means that 11.5 percent of the share would cost around Rs 540-600 crore. If the sale takes place it would need the approval of BCCI, who is entitled to receive five percent of the transaction value.