.
The consortium – led by Nikesh Arora, chief executive of Palo Alto Networks – has agreed the deal for 49% of Spirit, meaning the whole franchise was valued at around £300m.
They are thought to have beaten competition from the Glazer family, co-owners of Manchester United, Todd Boehly, a shareholder in Chelsea, and Indian Premier League side Lucknow Super Giants.
The fee demonstrates the lure of Spirit’s base Lord’s, the home of cricket.
This was the third in a series of auctions to sell stakes in the eight Hundred teams. Internally, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had valued all eight teams combined at a minimum of £350m.
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), owners of Lord’s, opted to keep all of the 51% share it was gifted by the ECB. Both the MCC and ECB declined to comment.
The auction of the Spirit takes the total value of sales to date to about £255m. Welsh Fire were set to be the fourth team auctioned on Friday, but that has been pushed back because the Spirit sale lasted so long. The remaining four auctions will take place from next week onwards.
On Thursday, a 49% share in Oval Invincibles was sold to the owners of Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians for around £60m.
A same-sized stake in Birmingham Phoenix then went to Knighthead Capital, the owners of Birmingham City Football Club, for about £40m.
Like the MCC, both Surrey and Warwickshire, hosts of the Invincibles and Phoenix respectively, opted to retain their 51% shares.
For each of the deals, there will now be an eight-week exclusivity partnership to finalise the details.
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