RANGERS chairman Dave King is being forced to make an offer to buy remaining club shares worth £11 million after the Takeover Panel ruled he and others acted together to force their way into the Ibrox boardroom.
A panel appeal has decided that a formal takeover should have been triggered after a group led by Mr King secured more than 30 per cent of the voting rights in Rangers.
That meant under the code of takeovers and mergers, they should make a cash offer to all other shareholders at the highest price paid in the 12 months before the offer was announced.
The group – which includes Park's Motor Group founder Douglas Park, Rangers Supporters Trust and Rangers First member George Taylor and Rangers fan George Letham – has denied that they had acted 'in concert' to purchase shares in Rangers on December 31 2014 and 2 January 2015, at a time when a board said to be allied to Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley was in place.
The Takeover Appeal Board (TAB) has said that " the case for concluding that... Mr Letham and Mr King, at least, were acting in concert in purchasing the relevant shares becomes overwhelming".
It has now decided that an obligation should be imposed on Mr King to make an offer for all the issued shares in Rangers not owned by him, Mr Letham, Mr Taylor and Mr Park at 20p a share by April 2017.
According to JP Jenkins, which operates the platform in which Rangers equity is traded, the share price is at 27.5p.
Mr King said an original panel committee had "fundamentally misinterpreted" what had occurred at Rangers and that his motivation was to "work together with supporters groups to restore proper standards of corporate governance of Rangers".
But the appeal findings said: "We understand the point made by Mr King about his motivation regarding the supporters of the Rangers football club and the control of Rangers. However, personal motives or reasons for gaining control of a company are not relevant when considering whether parties were acting in concert."
The appeal had heard that an original hearing committee blamed delays in an initial ruling on the case were "very substantially attributable to a lack of co-operation" by Mr King, which the Rangers chairman said was "unfounded and patently incorrect".
The panel had said a considerable length of time had passed between the start of investigations in 2015 and its initial ruling on 7 June 2016.
The appeal board said: "Over the last two years Mr King has had ample opportunity to disclose documents and to provide other evidence to rebut any deeming, presumption or inference from the evidence that he was acting in concert with Messrs Letham, Taylor and Park. He has not done so."
Panel papers show the the South Africa-based businessman in turn criticised the handling of the investigations describing them as "sloppy and protracted" and alleged that they had acted in an "arbitrary and ill-mannered manner."
Mr King said in a statement: " I do not agree with TAB’s much delayed ruling nor follow its logic and I shall take the appropriate time to reflect upon it and consider the best course of action for myself, Rangers International Football Club and its shareholders. My view on one individual not being able to exert undue influence on Rangers is already well known."
He said the complaint to the Takeover Panel was made by RIFC’s former chairman, David Somers, as part of "the old Board’s efforts to preserve their positions without regard to what was best for Rangers Football Club, its supporters and shareholders"
Mr King added:"Today’s decision by TAB is part of the price I have had to pay for being determined to rescue Rangers Football Club from its previous regime and the drastic consequences of their actions. I do so willingly.
"It is my belief that the TAB has not understood the true nature of what occurred at Rangers and the tremendous role that the activism of supporters played in ensuring regime change. I am only one of a vast number of Rangers supporters and shareholders who fought to rescue our Club. The Rangers Football Club should never have become caught up in a takeover struggle. Those who placed it in that position bear a heavy responsibility."
Mr King said he did not believe that there is any substantial group of RIFC shareholders that would be willing to sell its shares in at the price at. He felt it does not represent a fair price for RIFC’s shares.
"I cannot see how making an offer that is doomed to fail can benefit RIFC’s shareholders.," he said.
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