{"id":583719,"date":"2025-11-21T01:44:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T01:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/583719\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T01:44:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T01:44:21","slug":"mike-ashley-among-sheffield-wednesday-takeover-contenders-as-d-day-arrives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/583719\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Ashley among Sheffield Wednesday takeover contenders as D-day arrives"},"content":{"rendered":"

A significant milestone in the battle to\u00a0take control of\u00a0Sheffield Wednesday<\/a> will be reached on Friday, with\u00a0would-be\u00a0buyers\u00a0are required\u00a0to\u00a0submit\u00a0their first bids to the club\u2019s administrator,\u00a0Begbies\u00a0Traynor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sources involved in the process have told The\u00a0i Paper that since 24 October when Wednesday were placed in administration<\/a>, informal negotiations have led to 11 interested parties providing proof of funds.<\/p>\n

At least two groups have travelled to Sheffield for a tour of Hillsborough, although how many will bid remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

One source claimed\u00a0that of the potential buyers who have been given access to the club\u2019s accounts and data room, three or four are likely to\u00a0emerge\u00a0as serious\u00a0contenders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those wishing to bid are\u00a0required\u00a0to\u00a0submit\u00a0a Letter of Intent \u2013 along with details of the source of their funding \u2013 to\u00a0Begbies\u00a0Traynor. Bids at this stage are not legally\u00a0binding,\u00a0so\u00a0there is an expectation that some will be artificially high.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the administrators,\u00a0Kris Wigfield, told a meeting of Wednesday\u2019s\u00a0Supporters Engagement Panel\u00a0earlier this month that a\u00a0reserve price\u00a0on the club\u00a0had been set at around\u00a0\u00a330m, although given the level of competition, they are hoping to end up with far more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Who are Wednesday\u2019s potential buyers? <\/p>\n

Expected bidders at this stage include former Newcastle owner Mike Ashley<\/a>, American billionaire John McEvoy, who holds stakes in Denver-based Major League Baseball franchise Colorado Rockies and National Hockey League side Nashville Predators, and an Indonesian group. <\/p>\n

\"AHillsborough has been handed over to the administrators (Photo: PA)<\/p>\n

The i Paper has been told that another Middle Eastern consortium who were working with a London-based advisory firm have withdrawn from the process, primarily due to the anticipated competitiveness of the auction, as well as concern about Wednesday\u2019s ongoing running costs. <\/p>\n

While the sale price\u00a0will include settling Wednesday\u2019s debts, with the \u00a362.5m owed to\u00a0Dejphon\u00a0Chansiri<\/a>\u00a0reduced to \u00a315.6m due to the EFL\u2019s football creditors rule which entitle football creditors to 25p\u00a0in the pound\u00a0immediately\u00a0or 35p over three years,\u00a0other costs are considerable. <\/p>\n

With\u00a0Henrik Pedersen\u2019s side on minus-four points at the bottom of the Championship, relegation to League One has been priced in meaning further losses are inevitable. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s the asking price? <\/p>\n

Tens of millions of pounds of investment will be required to renovate Hillsborough, which\u00a0was hit with the temporary close of the North Stand by Sheffield City Council at the start of the season due to safety concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a result, one source who has been involved in talks over a bid forecast that the real cost of buying Wednesday and keeping the club a going concern<\/a> for the next three years would reach \u00a3100m. <\/p>\n

Unlike the purchase of Charlton Athletic by American group Global Football Partners two years ago, Wednesday\u2019s ground will be included in the takeover due to Chansiri\u2019s apparent willingness to walk away from a further \u00a354m of debt. <\/p>\n

Having transferred the ownership of Hillsborough to a separate company, Sheffield 3, five years ago, Chansiri handed it over to the administrators with the rest of the club last month. While around \u00a38m in secured debt is owed to New Avenue Projects, who hold a charge over the stadium, Chansiri\u2019s stadium debt is not secured and has been effectively written off.<\/p>\n

How the Owls are surviving <\/p>\n

With an anonymous benefactor having provided a \u00a31m interest-free loan to the club this week, which must be repaid on the completion of the sale or by 31 January, Wednesday\u2019s short-term financial position is secure. <\/p>\n

\t\tYour next read<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\"Article <\/a><\/p>\n

Having been paid late in five months out of seven up to September, the club\u2019s staff and players have been told they will receive their wages on time in November and December. <\/p>\n

After receiving offers\u00a0tomorrow,\u00a0Begbies\u00a0Traynor will spend the next fortnight negotiating with all the bidders,\u00a0with the aim of\u00a0conferring preferred bidder status and taking receipt of a deposit by 5\u00a0December, when exclusive negotiations will begin.\u00a0<\/strong>While the administrators have cautioned fans against expecting a quick sale, there is genuine hope that new owners could be in place early in the New Year.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A significant milestone in the battle to\u00a0take control of\u00a0Sheffield Wednesday will be reached on Friday, with\u00a0would-be\u00a0buyers\u00a0are required\u00a0to\u00a0submit\u00a0their first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,9030,393,4884,1620,10381,6924,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-583719","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-championship","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-sheffield","13":"tag-sheffield-wednesday-fc","14":"tag-sports-news","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}