Rangers First update

[rbr 1,256]

I would encourage anyone not already a member to join now

The below will be being emailed to all members shortly.

 

We encourage all Rangers Fans world wide to now participate in at http://www.rangersfirst.org'>http://www.rangersfirst.org

 

We are the People and this is our time.

 

Dear members

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> As you will have gathered the Club issued an Open Offer today regarding the issue of 19,864,918 new Ordinary Shares in Rangers International Football Club PLC.

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> The full details of that issue can be found here:

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> http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exch ... d=12066370

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> We would ask that you have a read of it all.

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> Rangers First was set up to collectively buy as many shares in the PLC as it could, with the hope of at least reaching 5% ownership which in a PLC is significant as it would allow Rangers First to hold any PLC board to account via the calling of a General meeting.

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> Rangers First can confirm that it has already written to both Graham Wallace and the NOMAD (Daniel Stewart & Company PLC, who has confirmed reciept) that it is in a position to “invest beyond our pro-rated pre-emption rights” and that Rangers First would “wish to be added to any Excess Application Facility for the purchase of additional shares”

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> Upon reflection on todays statement the Rangers First steering group has concluded that it is most appropriate to continue on our policy of buying shares and will as we indicated in our letter seek to take up as many as possible.

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> However as is made clear in the Clubs own statement there are severe risks if this share issue is not taken up and this will not be the last share issue and so we presume these same risks will also attach as concerns to the further share offers to follow.

 

Rangers First is set up as a democratic organisation and so the Steering Group wish to put the democratic process into action and have our members confirm by vote that they are happy for Rangers First Steering Group to continue its share purchase policy and take up as many shares as it can in this share issue.

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> All members will be sent a vote in the next few hours which will be open over the weekend.

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> This is another chance for Rangers Fans to take a significant stake and have significantly more influence at our Club. From the statement this will be the first of a number of equity raises so now is the time to sign up, get you family, home and abroad signed up, get those you go to and watch the game with signed…..get every Bear you have ever known to sign up to Rangers First

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> http://www.rangersfirst.org

 

Please consider taking out a Life membership of Rangers First for £500 (this can be passed to your children one day) or joining for a monthly fee of as little as £5 per month (U16 free)

 

Selling all the 1872 life membership would raise enough for Rangers First to buy over 5% of the Club and reach our Stage 1

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> We are the People and this is our Time!

[Tannochsidebear 2,405]

It is time (long past time if we are being honest!) that we must put aside all our minor (and not so minor) differences and between us buy as many shares as possible in our club. Only by buying the current board out will we be able to move our club out of the grubber. The time for waiting for Mr King (or any other) coming to buy us out and run us properly has come and gone.

 

If after almost a decade of being available to purchase, no Rangers-minded professional has come forward to buy us, it is time we realised it is not going to happen.

 

Only by buying a big enough slice of the pie ourselves can we collectively safeguard our club.

 

There are a couple of things I dont like about Rangers First ( and Buy Rangers for that matter), and a few more things I am uncertain of, but the time for wait and see has come and gone and I believe we now have to embrace these share purchase vehicles and try to get a foothold into our club as a collective fan base. I will today be signing up to both Share Purchase vehicles, Buy Rangers & Rangers First, and I would hope that everyone who can afford to do so, does so and is able to put aside the personalities, mistakes & politics that have been made and just does their bit to try to save our club. It may well be money for nothing if we go bust again, but I can at least say I tried (albeit probably too late) to do my bit.

 

Of course fans can also just buy a chunk of shares on the open market if they desire to do so independently.

[Zappa 0]

Sorry to be negative (and it's not that I have anything against RF!), but with today's share offer news and the worrying financial realities it highlights at the club, I wouldn't touch shares in RIFC plc with a bargepole!

[Tannochsidebear 2,405]

The thing is Zappa, we just cannot just sit back and watch this horror show without trying to do something. It might end up being too little too late, but the more we get at least trying to do a little, it can add up to a lot.

 

My biggest gripes with both RF & BR is the total lack of push for these vehicles since they were set up. I am quite sure I could do a straw poll on my bus and less than half of what should be easy targets given they are actually match-going fans would know anything about them. The fans forums dont reach anywhere near as many match-going Rangers fans as some would think.

[Zappa 0]

The thing is Zappa, we just cannot just sit back and watch this horror show without trying to do something. It might end up being too little too late, but the more we get at least trying to do a little, it can add up to a lot.

 

I agree that something needs to be done, but I'm not convinced in any way that buying shares in this current holding company is a sensible course of action when it could potentially be put into administration before Xmas.

 

For the fans who bought in at the IPO it was a very risky investment and for most it was probably done as an emotional investment, but the risks have grown considerably and at this stage it would be madness unless we could collectively acquire a controlling interest, but that simply isn't possible without the financial backing of a big hitter like Dave King or someone of similar wealth.

[Tannochsidebear 2,405]

The numbers stack up quite quickly if everyone takes part. Take the last home attendance of 30,000. If everyone there took out a £10pm subscription, there would be enough to buy all the upcoming available shares in about a year. Now not everyone that goes along to a match (pensioners, kids etc) will have £10 a month to spare, but we have not touched the fans who are currently disenfranchised enough to not attend but clearly dont want the club to fail. Also take into account bears who for whatever reason (work, geographical) cannot attend but want to support the club.

 

Look at the numbers of fans signed up to similar schemes run by smaller clubs. As a percentage of their fanbase they do pretty well in getting the emotional message across to their fans that this is required to keep their club going. We as Rangers fans have been to used to being the big club for too long that it is always somebody elses job to bail us out, not ourselves.

 

Fans did sign up in huge numbers for the IPO despite the warning signs being there already that Green was not quite the messiah but was indeed a very naughty boy. That needs to be the similar types of numbers and more for us to save our club. We cannot afford to be picky or to say it is a bad investment. It is not an investment, it is a contribution towards saving our club. When the club was in admin the fans done amazing things to raise money, both through the RFFF and directly to the club, pumping millions into the club in a few short months.

 

If we had been more astute or got the right messages right from that period, and taking the above example, we could have around £8M to invest in the club by now, all by guys like you and me signing up for a DD for a tenner a month or so. If we are to continue to claim to be a huge club with a huge fanbase, it is time we stepped up and proved it, as we may not get another chance if we wait and see.

[johnnyk 158]

The thing is IMO I don't think many of our fans really trust any fans group because there are so many and all with the usual 'we are the best option' slogan, they will never come together even at a time like this.

 

I gave quite a decent donation (for me anyway) to the Rangers fighting fans fund when that came out, has that even been used, it looks like I wasted quite a lot of money donating that trying to help the club or so I thought!

 

This could be the way forward if everyone was on board but it's not going to happen just now, I can't see 30,000 fans subscribing or anywhere near that figure, can you honestly?

 

If we had a trustable head figure/figures that have also put substantial funds forward then it might be possible but until then I can't see it ever taking off at present or even in the near future.

[Zappa 0]

The numbers stack up quite quickly if everyone takes part. Take the last home attendance of 30,000. If everyone there took out a £10pm subscription, there would be enough to buy all the upcoming available shares in about a year. Now not everyone that goes along to a match (pensioners, kids etc) will have £10 a month to spare, but we have not touched the fans who are currently disenfranchised enough to not attend but clearly dont want the club to fail. Also take into account bears who for whatever reason (work, geographical) cannot attend but want to support the club.

 

Look at the numbers of fans signed up to similar schemes run by smaller clubs. As a percentage of their fanbase they do pretty well in getting the emotional message across to their fans that this is required to keep their club going. We as Rangers fans have been to used to being the big club for too long that it is always somebody elses job to bail us out, not ourselves.

 

Fans did sign up in huge numbers for the IPO despite the warning signs being there already that Green was not quite the messiah but was indeed a very naughty boy. That needs to be the similar types of numbers and more for us to save our club. We cannot afford to be picky or to say it is a bad investment. It is not an investment, it is a contribution towards saving our club. When the club was in admin the fans done amazing things to raise money, both through the RFFF and directly to the club, pumping millions into the club in a few short months.

 

If we had been more astute or got the right messages right from that period, and taking the above example, we could have around £8M to invest in the club by now, all by guys like you and me signing up for a DD for a tenner a month or so. If we are to continue to claim to be a huge club with a huge fanbase, it is time we stepped up and proved it, as we may not get another chance if we wait and see.

 

I agree with a lot of what you're saying TB, but we need to deal in the reality of the here and now, not in ifs or what ifs.

 

The reality is that almost 20 million shares are set to be issued on top of the 65.8 million already issued, so that will be approximately 85.8 million shares.

 

If 30,000 fans each gave Rangers First a tenner tomorrow that would raise £300,000 which would only be enough to buy 1.5 million of the 20 million new shares.

 

There isn't any way to buy a large number of these new shares via a tenner a month direct debit.

 

Regarding similar schemes run by smaller clubs, they are often run by the clubs themselves and by people running the clubs who are trusted fans of the club, not by independent fan groups or organisations. At the very least, I'm pretty sure that most of the successful trust & society schemes at smaller clubs will actually be endorsed by the club, if not run by it.

[Rangersitis 0]

Sorry to be negative (and it's not that I have anything against RF!), but with today's share offer news and the worrying financial realities it highlights at the club, I wouldn't touch shares in RIFC plc with a bargepole!

 

Agreed. Talk about poor timing!

[Hildy 0]

The thing is IMO I don't think many of our fans really trust any fans group because there are so many and all with the usual 'we are the best option' slogan, they will never come together even at a time like this.

 

I gave quite a decent donation (for me anyway) to the Rangers fighting fans fund when that came out, has that even been used, it looks like I wasted quite a lot of money donating that trying to help the club or so I thought!

 

This could be the way forward if everyone was on board but it's not going to happen just now, I can't see 30,000 fans subscribing or anywhere near that figure, can you honestly?

 

If we had a trustable head figure/figures that have also put substantial funds forward then it might be possible but until then I can't see it ever taking off at present or even in the near future.

There is definitely a problem. Too many groups turn people off all of them because messages are mixed and ordinary punters don't understand why there is duplication.

 

The RFFF was a bad idea, but well-intentioned fans like yourself were swept along thinking they were doing something useful when really they were just stockpiling money that had no chance of diverting Rangers from its awful fate. It came in useful in the fight to retain titles but that was more accident than design.

 

You have paid your dues and I can well understand a reluctance to hand over more money to another fan group. Handing over money indefinitely every month is something that should only be entered into after long and careful consideration.