Sheffield Wednesday takeover: Finance expert reveals ‘preferred bidder’ update
Sheffield Wednesday are still weeks away from a takeover after 11 parties expressed their interest in buying the Championship club.
That is according to football finance expert Dr Dan Plumley, who has exclusively explained to Football Insider the position Sheffield Wednesday are currently in.
Plumley previously told Football Insider that Sheffield Wednesday would “highly likely” be sold after the club were put into administration.
Dejphon Chansiri’s ownership of Sheffield Wednesday came to an end when the club were placed into administration, whilst they were also deducted 12 points in the Championship table.
Sheffield Wednesday latest explained
John Textor is one businessman interested in taking over Sheffield Wednesday and speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Plumley explained the current predicament the club faces before a full takeover can be completed.
“We’ve seen that there’s going be a two-week negotiating period and this deadline of Friday the fifth of December for preferred bidding status. So we’re a couple of weeks away from that,” Plumley said.
“And then if you kind of roll that through, it will take a little bit of time for a full takeover to go through because the due diligence has got to be done, and they’ve got past the owners and directors test and everything.
“In terms of what the administrators will be looking for, they have to try and get the highest value for the creditors. You may have heard this thing around that they have to accept the biggest bid on the table.
“Now there is some kind of flexibility within that, that the biggest bid on the table might not necessarily be the biggest bid overall in terms of long term infrastructure and what they want to do with that club moving forward.”
Interested parties could ‘fade away’ amid ‘negotiation’ stage
Plumley went on to explain what will be the main priority for Sheffield Wednesday‘s administrators in the coming days.
“So it is tricky because the administrators have got to get value out of the deal, but they’re also trying to preserve the best interest of the club moving forward,” Plumley said.
“And, of course, within that, you’ve got to do a deal with the old chairman and owner because he’s one of the major creditors.
“So it gets a little bit tricky, but I think what will happen from here on in is some of those parties will probably fade away, because they’re probably the ones that have got the proof of funds to a certain value but haven’t got the big money to really take it forward and and that’s what the administrators will be looking at.
“But with administration, you know, it will come down to whether they’ll have to put their bids on the table. And if the administrators think that the highest bid is not necessarily the best bid, they might go back to a couple and potentially say can you increase your bid?
“So it becomes a negotiation, but we’re a couple of weeks away from that in terms of when we’ll know that preferred business status.“