A WIDE-RANGING review of operations at Rangers FC has been launched after chairman Dave King was forced to bid £11 million for 70 per cent of the club's shares.
The Ibrox chief had been trying to stave off pressure to buy the shares fearing the heavy financial toll it would place on the South African businessman.
The bid being made by Mr King's South African-based Laird Investments (Proprietary) Limited comes after a court agreed that he and others acted together to force their way into the Ibrox boardroom three years ago.
The offer explains that Laird, which could ultimately control the club, is to work "collaboratively" with the management and board of Rangers International Football Club plc to "review strategic options" including "licensing agreements, funding requirements and the management and board composition".
READ MORE: Dave King faces being ordered to pay £11million to complete his takeover of Rangers
It comes as unaudited accounts for the last six months of 2017, shows pre-tax losses widening from £278,000 to £991,000.
Jack Irvine, PR adviser to Sandy Easdale, the fourth biggest single shareholder in the club said the McGill's bus tycoon was "highly likely" to take up the offer. It had not yet been received.
The panel originally decided that a formal takeover should have been triggered after the Three Bears 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.
Despite a long fight, Mr King has now relented to make an offer for 70 per cent of the club's shares at 20p a share.
READ MORE: Rangers chairman Dave King not "a poor innocent businessman", court hears
The current Rangers International Football Club plc share price with the JP Jenkins, which operates the platform in which Rangers equity is traded, is 7.5p more. It means shareholders, in theory, would get more money for their shares by simply using the trading platform, but only if there is a buyer.
Mr Irvine said: Nobody with the slightest financial acumen thinks the shares are worth 27 or even 20p. That’s why many shareholders are tempted to bite King’s hand off."
The offer arrived exactly 30 days after Mr King was given a 30-day deadline to make the offer after his latest court defeat over the case.
The offer document explains that Laird "recognises the importance of the management team and employees of RIFC’s operating company to the future success" and that Mr King's company "intends to ensure that the existing statutory employment rights, including any pension rights, of the management and employees of RIFC’s operating company will be fully safeguarded".
It said: "Laird does not consider that its strategic plans for RIFC will have repercussions on the continued employment of the employees of RIFC or its subsidiary companies...or on the location of RIFC...
"Laird commits to work as quickly as possible towards any change to the strategy, management structure or tangible/intangible asset utilisation if it becomes apparent changes are necessary. If any material changes are necessary, Laird will work with RIFC to inform RIFC Shareholders in a timely manner..."
The offer document says the bid would be funded "using the receipt of dividends to be declared on April 4 amounting to £13,074,842.90.
"The dividends will be ring fenced for the purposes of the offer," Laird says.
During one hearing in October, Mr King's advocate Lord Davidson of Glen Clova QC argued that the Rangers chief "is penniless" adding: "Any order wouldn't secure compliance. It won't. It is pointless."
The takeover group – which included Park's Motor Group founder Douglas Park, Rangers Supporters Trust and Rangers First member George Taylor and Rangers fan George Letham – had always 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.
READ MORE: Dave King makes £10.8m Rangers share offer over 'forced takeover
But the Takeover Appeal Board (TAB) last year 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".
In December Lord Bannatyne ruled in favour of the Takeover Panel that Mr King acted in concert with other shareholders when he bought a controlling stake in 2015.
But Mr King argued that a judge went "too far" in ordering him to make a mandatory offer at a price of 20p a share.
Lord Carloway on March 1 announced that a fresh appeal would be refused.
Lord Bannatyne in a previous hearing said that Mr King's argument that he did not have the funds to make the offer was "irrelevant".
The judge said: "When the respondent (Mr King) acting in concert bought shares in Rangers which took them over the 30% shareholding the respondent was aware that the purchase of such a shareholding would mean that a mandatory offer would be required."
Mr King had argued he had no control over trusts which held assets for his family but the judge decided he had had effective control.
Mr King previously told the panel committee that it 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".
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".
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