Wigan Athletic have announced their holding company, International Entertainment Corporation (IEC), have entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The Latics have announced that the club’s current holding company, who possess a majority shareholder position at the DW Stadium, have made an agreement at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange which sees IEC enter a Memorandum of Understanding with Next Leader Limited (NLL), where Stanley Choi (IEC’s majority shareholder) is the limited partner of.

What this means for the club now is that they are in a period of due diligence which will last around a month before anything concrete is confirmed between the two parties.

The overall intention of this agreement is that NLL will take over the club from IEC as the majority stakeholders, as they intend to purchase all of the issued share capital at the club, meaning Choi can run the club totally without the interference of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange going forward.

The current owners have been at the helm for just over a year after they took over from the Whelan family in November 2018, ending the Whelans' 23-year stay at the club. In that time, IEC have overseen the club looking to consolidate their Championship status, as they narrowly staved off relegation last season.

The ‘takeover’ would be due to take place after a month’s due diligence and would move towards completion just before the January transfer window.

The Verdict

It is yet to be seen whether this move is totally positive for the club, but what it outlines is that Stanley Choi can control the club as he wishes without the interference or sending of regular information to the Stock Exchange.

This statement, albeit very complicated, helps bring clarity to this aspect of the club going forward, to help bring more stability off the pitch while the players battle for it on the pitch.