Yorkshire have become the first team to sell their entire stake in a Hundred team.
The Sun Group, owners of Indian Premier League side Sunrisers Hyderabad, have paid just over £100m for a 100% stake in Northern Superchargers, who are based at Yorkshire’s home Headingley.
Superchargers are the sixth team to secure the investment, with the Sun Group the first to take full ownership of a franchise.
Last week Surrey negotiated a £60m price with the owners of Mumbai Indians for a 49% stake in the Oval Invincibles, while keeping the 51% given to them by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
Warwickshire agreed a 49% sale of Birmingham Phoenix to Birmingham City owners Knighthead Capital for £40m and Glamorgan sold the same stake in Welsh Fire to IT entrepreneur Sanjay Govil for £40m.
A price of £145m for 49% of Lord’s-based London Spirit was agreed between MCC and a Silicon Valley consortium led by Nikesh Arora, while Lancashire became the first county to sell part of their share when agreeing a deal for 70% of the Originals with the owners of Lucknow Super Giants for around £81m.
Nottinghamshire are also set to sell a 49% stake in Trent Rockets.
Billionaire Greek shipping magnate Evangelos Marinakis, who owns Nottingham Forest, was linked with a bid for the Rockets last year.
However, a source close to the deal said Marinakis did not follow up on his initial interest in the Trent Bridge-based franchise.
Nottinghamshire have not publicly courted bids from the IPL, but at least one unnamed team are said to be interested.
The six sales so far come to a total of around £466m, the majority of which will be split among the 18 first-class counties, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and recreational game.
It means value of the six teams in their entirety comes to around £740m.
Yorkshire’s sale comes after chair Colin Graves said the club, which is owned by members, must become a private structure in order to survive a financial crisis.
It owes almost £15m to the Graves family trust.
All deals now enter an eight-week exclusivity period in order to finalise the partnerships.
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