Preferred bidder deadline set as three more parties make moves on Sheffield Wednesday takeover
Another three interested parties have proceeded to the most advances stage of the process for the acquisition of Sheffield Wednesday, The Star understands, with a vital deadline set that will go some way to determining the club’s next ownership.
The latest developments mean the total number of parties to have offered £50m proof of funds to the administrators overseeing the sales process is at 10. After one interested party was given a tour of club facilities last week, The Star understands another group has today been shown around Hillsborough stadium and the club’s Middlewood Road training ground for a closer look at what they could be buying.
It was revealed last week that administrators at Begbies Traynor, appointed by outgoing owner Dejphon Chansiri late last month, had set suitors a soft deadline of November 21 for their offers to buy the club. The Star understands the process will then be subject to a two-week negotiation period, at which point the intention of the administrators is to select a preferred bidder on December 5.
The preferred bidder will then be subject to further due diligence and EFL vetting checks, with the signing of contracts to take place in due course. At the stage a preferred bidder is chosen it is likely they will become the next owners of the club - and they can choose to have their identities made public.
The process from there can take several weeks before the acquisition of the club is officially ratified and completed.
Those who have reached the stage of offering proof of funds have been vetted by the appointed administrators at Begbies Traynor and have been granted access to a second ‘data room’ that includes more sensitive information than those given access to primary data offered-out at the stage of signing a non-disclosure agreement.
Administrators have said they have been ‘pleasantly surprised’ by the quality of those to have come forward in the process, with some of those offering the ‘significant financial means’ that could stand to ‘revolutionise’ Wednesday.
In an update provided last week ahead of the three new parties offering proof of funds, joint administrator Kris Wigfield told the BBC: "We need them to satisfy us that they will make the club viable, and we need them to satisfy us that they will pass the EFL fit and proper test. But beyond that it is really who makes the best offer, not necessarily who would be the best custodian for the club.
"All of the seven interested parties that we've got at the moment are likely to significantly improve the situation, and a few of the parties have got significant financial means who would probably revolutionise the club."