BRIAN STOCKBRIDGE, the Rangers finance director, has revealed that the club will only have around £1m of its cash reserves left by April.
The figure does not take into account revenue that will be generated by Rangers Retail, and it is at the time of year when clubs are traditionally at the low point of their financial cycle, just before season tickets are put on sale, but the projection emphasises the tight margins the club is operating within.
Stockbridge revealed that April next year would be the low point for Rangers' cash balance - which the annual accounts last week revealed was £11m at June this year - during a question-and-answer session with representatives of the club's three main supporters groups.
The meeting was also attended by Craig Mather, the chief executive, and addressed a number of issues, including the £5.6m costs associated with bringing investment in through selling shares, the remuneration packages of the executives and the forthcoming annual meeting.
"[In] April next year, we will have over a million plus; we will also have an optional unsecured facility provided should we need it," said Stockbridge. "[Rangers Retail] figures are ahead of budget. I can't give price sensitive information, but we and Sports Direct are absolutely happy with the results this year. We will extract profit by dividend whenever we want.
"[The] pre-IPO fees are high, [it was a] large cost to secure the club - at time of acquisition there was no licence to play football and it was risky private investment and that attracts high costs. [The] fees paid were commensurate with normal legal and professional fees but the other costs were high. I came in on 14th June by which time these costs were already fixed."
Stockbridge was also asked about share capital return payments to investors such as Eurovestech and Alan Mackenzie. "There were no illegal returns of capital," Stockbridge said. The finance director also admitted that "with hindsight, I should have been rewarded for financial performance not football", after receiving a 100% bonus of £200,000 for Rangers winning last season's Third Division title. He has now "voluntarily agreed to remove" that bonus payment.
A Court of Session hearing on Monday will judge whether or not shareholders seeking the appointments of Paul Murray, Malcolm Murray, Scott Murdoch and Alex Wilson to the board will be allowed to include those nominations in the annual meeting's order of business. The current board had blocked those nominations after claiming they were not made validly, which Mather defended, before confirming that he would like to see the return of Dave King, the former Rangers director who has also offered to provide investment.
"I'm not against [new directors being nominated] but we have to do things legally and properly," said Mather. "I'm happy to add to the dynamic on the board. Dave King rang me and I was happy to meet and talk. [King] is not part of any team or conspiracy - he's an individual who cares about Rangers. We had two days of very positive discussions with him and working with the existing team."
The two executives also pledged to clarify one of the resolutions contained in the order of business for the annual meeting, with Resolution 9 seeming to allow directors and employees to make a loan which would then be converted into equity at a nominal value of 1p per share, essentially meaning that for an investment of £66,000, they could receive 6.6m shares.
We will pass that on to our lawyers," Stockbridge said, "and look at having that reworded as that is not what is intended by this resolution."
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