Blackburn Rovers owners the Venky’s: Net Worth, Business Interests, Rovers plans and more

Making his money in the steel industry, Walker took full control of Rovers in January 1991, a year-and-a-half before the Premier League came to fruition, and he set out on bankrolling the club as well as rebuilding Ewood Park and constructing state-of-the-art training facilities.

Four-and-a-half years later, Blackburn won the Premier League and Walker’s dream was achieved, but in 2000 he passed away untimely, leaving the club at the time in uncertain hands.

For the next 10 years though, Walker’s family continued to run Rovers through a trust – that was until 2010 when they sold up to Indian company V H Group – commonly known now as the Venky’s – after the family trust stopped funding the club two years prior and put them up for sale.

The V H Group are chaired by Anuradha Desai and Balaji Rao and Venkatesh Rao are also directors of the company, and whilst the Venky’s are still at Blackburn to this very day, their tenure at Rovers has been controversial to say the very least.

As of the year 2022, The Mirror reported the V H Group to be worth a whopping £1.56 billion, which suggests that their businesses have been running fine and they are very wealthy people.

The club cost the Rao family £43 million – £20 million of that accounting for writing off debt – but Rovers has not been a profit-driver for their businesses.

Rovers posted a significant pre-tax loss in the Venky’s first year in charge of £18.6 million, and up until March 2022, their total losses as owners of Blackburn totalled a whopping £184 million, per LancsLive.

The Venky’s do make their money elsewhere though – namely in the poultry business in India.

Their base is in Pune and that is where the club’s owners remain, rarely making the trip to Ewood Park nowadays and leaving the day-to-day running in the control of CEO Steve Waggott.

According to Statista, the V H Group made 42.34 billion rupees (£408.8 million) worth of revenue in 2023, which is down from 44 billion rupees (£424.8 million) from the financial year prior, and a before tax profit of around 7 billion rupees (£67.6 million), per the official accounts.

Business therefore in their home country is going well for the Venky’s, but it can’t really be said for what is happening in England

Little is known about what the future holds for the Venky’s at Ewood Park, but what we do know is that head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson did not have a transfer budget this summer.

Reports suggested that changing tax laws in India on overseas investments led to Tomasson’s transfer budget being cut, meaning he needed player sales to facilitate transfer fees being paid – that came through Ash Phillips and Thomas Kaminski both leaving.

More controversy has arisen recently as reports in India have claimed that the Venky’s have had assets seized, relating to the purchase of a property in England in 2011.

This may not have a direct impact on Rovers as they are owned by a V H Group subsidary named Venkys London Ltd, and a statement issued by the club has claimed that it has received the necessary undertakings to fulfill all financial obligations for the foreseeable future.

So, whilst some Rovers fans still want the Venky’s out of the club after things spiralled badly following their takeover in 2010 and continued perceived poor management of the club, it looks as though their Indian owners are staying for the foreseeable future.