Malcolm Murray has warned Blue Pitch Holdings and Margarita Holdings that if they do not reveal the identities of the beneficial holders of their shares in Rangers International Football Club they could lose their voting rights for the forthcoming annual meeting.
Herald Sport understands that December 18 is the most likely date for the agm to be held, at Ibrox, and Murray also questioned why it could not be sooner, pointing out that failure to hold it "would be a criminal offence and the shares would be suspended".
During an interview on Talksport yesterday, Murray pressed for the agm to be officially called as quickly as possible, since a wealthy Rangers fan has offered to pay for the event to be hosted anywhere in the city. Ibrox Stadium cannot be used until late December due to the football schedule. Murray is one of the four nominees - along with Paul Murray, Scott Murdoch and Alex Wilson - who have been put forward by the institutional shareholders, many of whom have grown concerned at the way the club is being run.
"Three weeks ago the highest commercial judge in the land ordered what remains of the current board to put the nominations of the four of us - Paul Murray, Alex Wilson and Scott Murdoch - on [to the agm] and if they didn't it was illegal," Murray, the former Rangers chairman, said. "We're now three weeks on and it has still not been done. Nobody understands why. It seems obfuscation and wasting time. Major shareholders have complained to both the Stock Exchange [and] to Daniel Stewart, the Nomad. Many of them have had no answer. The paperwork was all done for the agm, there's no reason for the hold up.
"In terms of institutions, we know the major shareholders. They're very shy, retiring people, but you've got Hargreave Hale, Artemis, River and Mercantile, Miton, Kames Capital, these are all big institutions, Laxey Partners. The original shareholders that Charles Green brought in were, I was told, wealthy Arabs who are quite secretive about their identity. I've met their representative many times over the last few months. He seemed to be quite reasonable up until Charles Green left then became very aggressive and supported the changes on the board that saw me and Phil Cartmell leave and [James] Easdale coming on.
"We demanded to know who they are; we've not been told, all we've got is the nominee name. And remember these nominee names can change beneficial owner, so if they won't tell us, the institutions can demand to know who they are. Then ultimately, if they don't tell us, those shares won't get a vote. If there's nothing to hide, why on earth won't we be told? We just don't get it."
Fans are becoming increasingly angered by the delay in holding the agm and the way the club is being run. Protests continue at games, and are likely to become intensified after Dave King revealed last week that "certain influential shareholders are unwilling to compromise". King, who is almost unanimously backed by the Rangers fan base, had been trying to broker a consensus deal between the institutional shareholders and those represented by James and Sandy Easdale, who own 5% of RIFC between them but also hold the proxies for Blue Pitch and Margarita, as well as having an agreement to buy Green's shares when his lock-in ends next month. King praised Sandy Easdale and Paul Murray for their approach to the negotiations, and was later fully supported by the group backed by the institutional shareholders.
RIFC currently have two directors - the non-executive James Easdale and Brian Stockbridge, the finance director - and no chief executive. A advert for the post was placed in the Financial Times last week, although the normal course of events is for the board's governance committee to seek and ratify candidates using a corporate headhunter firm. The shareholders behind Murray, who are backed by Jim McColl, have Christian Purslow, former Liverpool managing director, lined up to be interim chief executive, and a similar candidate for the finance director role.
"We have been saying for weeks the [agm] needs to be held as quickly as possible but now it is going to drag on again," said Andy Kerr, the Rangers Supporters Assembly president. "It's not helpful and the frustrating aspect is that the club was preparing for an October 24 meeting so why is it taking so long? All this will do is create more angst and uncertainty."
Malcolm Murray also said that he does not believe Mike Ashley, whose Sports Direct company struck a retail agreement with Rangers last year, is likely to increase his stake, since the Newcastle United owner is restricted to holding less than 10% unless he sells the English club. "But Mike Ashley is an eccentric, fast-moving guy," Murray added. "I don't think he will, but the retail side of Rangers has not performed as well as we would have liked it to and I'd rather that he concentrated on getting that right."
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