Mike Ashley edges closer to Rangers takeover...

[ian1964 10,761]

...after forcing out Philip Nash with emergency loan offer.

 

By Roddy Forsyth

 

10:36PM BST 24 Oct 2014

 

Newcastle United owner tightens "vice-like grip" on Scottish Championship club as finance director resigns over prospect of working with the Sports Direct tycoon.

 

Mike Ashley tightened his grip on Rangers and claimed his first victim on the club’s plc board with the resignation of finance director Philip Nash – a departure that could clear the way for the Newcastle United owner to rename Ibrox after his Sports Direct brand, perhaps as soon as next month, The Telegraph can reveal.

 

Nash had also approached Brian Kennedy, owner of the Sale Sharks rugby union club, to provide backup emergency funding to see Rangers through to the end of the season if necessary. Kennedy tabled an offer of just over £3 million late on Friday, compared to a similar £2 million offer from Ashley, although the details remain unclear.

 

Nash’s decision to quit the Rangers plc board was revealed in a statement on the club’s official website.

 

Nash’s departure was the latest development in the battle for control of Rangers between Ashley and Dave King, the former Ibrox director, who flew into Glasgow from his base in South Africa on Oct 14 to meet the plc board. King’s proposed takeover consisted of a £16 million package, half from him and the rest from other wealthy Rangers supporters including Paul Murray and George Letham.

 

As King confirmed on Thursday, he had been willing to co-operate with a board proposal that the investment be provided as a mixture of loan funding and equity, with guarantees were to protect existing shareholders’ investments from over-dilution. King was willing to do so in return for two seats on the plc board and the right to choose the chair of the board.

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For his proposal to succeed, King required 75 per cent shareholder approval, a target he could not reach without the co-operation of Sandy Easdale, chairman of Rangers’ football board, who – with his own stock and as proxy for others – controls 26 per cent of existing shares.

 

However, Ashley’s subsequent offer of emergency funding confirmed the belief that Easdale would not ensure the reduction of his own influence at Ibrox by accepting King’s package.

 

Ashley had already targeted Nash and Rangers’ chief executive, Graham Wallace, because they had blocked his attempt to provide emergency funding last month in return for the rights to the club’s trademark and crest.

 

The pair believed that the package, said to be worth up to £10 million but with only £2 million offered up front, was not good value for the surrender of such assets.

 

Ashley’s response was to call for an extraordinary meeting to have Wallace and Nash removed from their posts. It can also be revealed that although Ashley bought the naming rights for Ibrox for £1 from Charles Green in 2012, Nash negotiated an additional clause with him earlier this year to the effect that they would not be activated this season.

 

If, however, Ashley succeeds in getting two of his own people on to the plc board, the clause can be scrapped. It is understood that Ashley was prepared to keep Nash in place as finance director, but not as a board member.

 

Nash – in the belief that the Ashley deal would do little more than keep the lights on at Ibrox – chose to quit. In a further twist, Rangers’ accounts to June 30, 2014, are expected to reveal that Nash had reduced operating losses from £14.4 million in the 2013 accounts to under £9 million.

 

The accounts, as The Telegraph revealed on Thursday, are ready to be sent to Deloitte, the club’s auditors, in the next two weeks, but cannot be signed off until there is proof that Rangers can be run as a going concern for the rest of the season.

 

King, meanwhile, responded to news of Ashley’s latest offer with a defiant statement to the effect that it was the duty of the plc board to recommend acceptance of the proposal of greatest benefit to Rangers as a business.

 

The statement read: “I have been asked to make a personal comment on the rumour that the Rangers board is considering a loan from Mr Ashley. I don’t see the offer of a short-term loan by Mr Ashley affecting me in any way. Our offer is for a long-term permanent solution that can take the club forward and unite the fans and the board for the first time in many years.

 

“The board is in the final stages of reviewing our offer and I expect a definitive answer early next week. Frankly, it doesn’t seem possible that the board can do anything other than recommend it to shareholders given the dire financial circumstances and the fact that no other long term solution is on offer. Mr Ashley’s involvement (and recently announced continued commitment) with Newcastle precludes him from making a similar offer of long-term permanent equity.

 

“What Mr Ashley can do is attempt to increase his vice-like grip on the Rangers brand by improving his retail position as a condition for supplying short-term debt to tide the club over until our permanent funding is in place. But I know that there are other investors also willing to provide bridging finance.

 

“The board will therefore not have to accept punitive terms even if Ashley attempts to oppose them. We must remember that the board is ethically and legally bound to act in the best interest of the company and all shareholders.

 

“Ashley cannot expect preferential treatment and will not get it. I am confident that Graham Wallace and Philip Nash have enough integrity and commercial experience to do the right thing.”

 

That, though, was before the news of Nash’s departure. In response to Nash’s resignation, King told The Telegraph: “It reinforces the need for a change at the club to get a proper board with good governance.”

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/rangers/11186814/Mike-Ashley-edges-closer-to-Rangers-takeover-after-forcing-out-Philip-Nash-with-emergency-loan-offer.html

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

Can't be bothered reading this. No disrespect to you Ian.

[TheWee BlueDevil 0]

Roddy Forsyth's patronising guff has always given me worms.

[Rangersitis 0]

roddy forsyth's patronising guff has always given me worms.

 

Sorted.

Edited October 24, 2014 by Rangersitis

[TheWee BlueDevil 0]

That's Toxic Roddy's article, friend.

 

Sorry dude, I did try to edit, see above - I think!!

 

Maybe all this turmoil has bumped me into another dimension. Who knows?

 

It's all still rank rotten in this dimension by the way!

[Bearman 9]

Newcastle United owner tightens "vice-like grip"...

 

Ahh reporting at it's best, I stopped buying newspapers when they went up to 2d

[ian1964 10,761]

Newcastle United owner tightens "vice-like grip"...

 

Ahh reporting at it's best, I stopped buying newspapers when they went up to 2d

 

Maybe you would be surprised at the amount of people who still buy the rags?

[ian1964 10,761]

Lifted from FF:

 

Haven't seen the amount of Ashley's loan offer posted elsewhere, but surely the wigs have a fiduciary duty to go for a better offer than this.

 

Charles Paterson on Sky Sports reports..........

 

"I understand that Ashley's (Emergency Loan) offer is in the region of two to three million pounds, with the caveat of taking Board Room control.

 

That money should take Rangers through to around Easter time and sources close to Mike Ashley have told Sky this evening that Rangers are in severe financial difficulties and require his immediate financial help."

Edited October 24, 2014 by ian1964
Wrong thread

[Bearman 9]

Maybe you would be surprised at the amount of people who still buy the rags?

 

I am surprised.

[ian1964 10,761]

I am surprised.

 

Aye me too!