DAVE King has insisted his consortium has won the battle to take over Rangers and will oust the current board at a extraordinary general meeting to be held in the coming weeks.

 

The former Ibrox director said it will take an investment of around £25 million to take the club back to normality.

The South Africa-based businessman owns 14 percent of Rangers and has called for an EGM to oust current directors David Somers, Derek Llambias, James Easdale and Barry Leach and appoint himself, fellow former director Paul Murray and former Tennent's managing director John Gilligan. The board has until Friday to announce when the EGM will be held.

The club's fractured ownership has resulted in a fight for control between King's group and the existing board supported by minority shareholder Mike Ashley, the Sports Direct tycoon who has lent a total of £13m to the current regime and secured lengthy and lucrative retail contracts on his company's behalf.

Both sides have expressed confidence of winning the shareholders' vote, with the majority of supporters backing King.

He claimed the result was no longer in doubt. "We have enough support," he said. "I am absolutely certain that we have more than 50 percent even if every single shareholder votes, which is unlikely. So I think we are well over 50 percent. We will win.

"When I was over here in November my initial thinking was £16 million would be enough to stabilise and get back to an even footing. Since then, though, I have heard that there are other areas that require investment. I have heard that the maintenance at Ibrox is virtually non-existent, that the scouting is non-existent. So I would imagine that £16m figure, it will be north of that. If I was to say a figure, I would say £25million."

King invested £20m which was wiped out when oldco Rangers was liquidated in 2012 but he said he was prepared to commit heavily again. "If I put £40million into Rangers my family is not going to starve. It is something I am choosing to do and I think it is the right thing to do."

Ashley, who owns Newcastle United, has control of Rangers' retail operation and is owed £2m by the club with a further £5m loan facility expected to be activated soon. But King said he was confident he could do business with him.

"I certainly don't see Ashley being a complication in this process, whatsoever. If he has advanced money to the club presumably he would like to get it back. He can get it back, we just refinance it in friendly hands and he gets his money back. The debt itself really doesn't give him undue influence, the club can afford to refinance a debt. Ashley is a commercial guy and he is someone who I think one can do business with.

"It has got to be in his interests for us to succeed because the fans are disconnected. He needs the fans to come back and be sitting there and start buying retail. He is a commercial guy and he doesn't need a dispute. Quite frankly the only possible way to analyse what is in Mike Ashley's interest is based on one thing that we know for sure: he is a businessman and his real interest is in Sports Direct."

King claimed that Rangers' stock exchange Nominated Advisor (Nomad), Paul Shackleton had offered him a deal which would mean the current board remaining, King being allowed two board appointments and two other independents coming on board. "I assume he didn't expect me to agree. I think he wasn't surprised by my short, sharp response."