Craig Whyte's offer to buy Rangers Football Club seemed to be a "viable proposition", a court has heard.
Jurors also heard that Whyte told club chiefs he would use his own money to fund the acquisition.
Former Rangers owner Whyte is on trial at the High Court in Glasgow, where he is accused of acquiring the club fraudulently in May 2011.
Whyte faces two charges relating to the purchase of Rangers, one of fraud and another under the Companies Act. He denies both allegations.
Read more: Walter Smith and Ally McCoist give evidence in Craig Whyte trial
Donald McIntyre, 58, Rangers' finance director at the time in question, told the second day of evidence in the trial that he believed the board was informed in November or December of 2010 that Whyte "had in interest in acquiring the club".
This appeared to be different from other previous expressions of interest, the court heard.
"It seemed a more viable proposition," Mr McIntyre told the court.
Asked what he would be looking for in a potential purchaser, Mr McIntyre said: "We would be looking for someone with the wherewithal and financial background to take the club forward. That was crucial."
He told how an independent committee was formed to look at Whyte's proposed offer and to ensure minority shareholders were treated fairly.
The court heard Whyte ultimately bought the club's majority shareholding for £1.
Read more: Walter Smith and Ally McCoist give evidence in Craig Whyte trial
The purchaser would also have to pay £18 million to Lloyds Bank, a creditor of Rangers, and a further £9.5 million for a "small tax case" and for buying players, the court heard.
The witness said he first met Whyte at a solicitors' office in Glasgow in March 2011.
Several other board members were present at the gathering to "find out a bit more about Mr Whyte".
The way the purchase was to be funded came up at that meeting, the jury heard.
Read more: Walter Smith and Ally McCoist give evidence in Craig Whyte trial
Mr McIntyre said: "At the meeting I think the question was asked, where the funds were coming from. I believe Mr Whyte said that the money was coming from himself."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article