West Brom: Company owned by chairman Guochuan Lai misses deadline to repay £4.95m loan

Guochuan Lai took over from Jeremy Peace as West Bromwich Albion owner in 2016

A £4.95m loan owed to West Bromwich Albion by a company owned by chairman Guochuan Lai has not been paid before Saturday's deadline.

Lai's company Wisdom Smart Corporation Limited took out the loan from the club during the coronavirus pandemic.

He had said he would return the money, along with an interest payment of £50,000, by 31 December.

A club statement said Lai had assured the club's board that the money would be repaid "early in the new year".

Chief executive Ron Gourlay had assured fans on 23 December that the loan would be repaid in time to be used by the Baggies in the January window.

The loan, listed in Albion's accounts to June 2021, was originally due to be repaid in September but was then delayed until Saturday's deadline.

The statement comes just three days after the Baggies agreed a £20m loan from US investment group MSD Holdings to finance the club's "general business operations".

Gourlay previously said that the club are investigating an earlier loan in 2014, reportedly to the tune of £3.7m, which happened two years before Lai bought the then-Premier League club from former owner Jeremy Peace in 2016.

The club said Gourlay, who confirmed he had authorised an independent investigation, also gave an assurance that "no money will leave the club in the same way" while he is Albion CEO.