RANGERS could still be saved and sold at a bargain price, the financial analyst who plotted the 1994 takeover of Celtic said last night.
The Ibrox club's move into administration has intens-ified fears about its future but David Low, who helped Fergus McCann oust the Parkhead board, said he believes Rangers have a future beyond the current crisis.
Duff and Phelps, a London-based company, were appointed as administrators yesterday, triggering a clause that means the 6807 fans who bought debentures in the club deck at Ibrox in 1990, at prices ranging from £1000 to £1650, are due their money back.
The issue document for the Rangers bond states that ''the debenture shall immediately become repayable at par without interest'' if ''any administrator or receiver is appointed to the undertaking of the company or any of its property or assets''.
It means fans could now be invited to a creditors' meeting as administrators seek to draw up a company voluntary arrangement to settle debts, at least in part.
Low said the move into administration was ''inev-itable'', but added: ''It is possible to save Rangers. It is possible because the club is so big and has so many fans, so many stakeholders. There are so many people who want it to survive.''
Low, who devised the system whereby McCann bought shares in Celtic in his takeover, said Rangers could attract a buyer at the right price.
''Rangers could reasonably be valued at £48m using Celtic as a yardstick. The total market capitalisation of Celtic is £41m plus it has a debt of about £7m, thus giving it an enterprise value of £48m,'' he said. ''A clean Rangers, that is a Rangers cleared of debt, would be of interest to buyers. If a price of £25m was placed on it, there would be a lot of interest''
Low, who was part of movement that swept away a discredited board at Celtic, was withering about the leadership at Rangers.
''All this slagging between former directors and current directors is pathetic," he said. "All the previous directors, to different degrees and over differing lengths of time, are responsible for creating this problem. It is therefore a bit rich for those people to start slagging Craig Whyte off.''
Low believed, however, that Whyte would find it difficult to continue as owner. ''His reputation is in tatters,'' he said.
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