Article Taxonomy: Administration

Administrators Duff & Phelps now have to subject two bids for Rangers to a process of due diligence. Sale Sharks owner Brian Kennedy came together with the Blue Knights consortium to mount a joint bid. The merit of this is that Kennedy has more financial resources while the Blue Knights have more knowledge of the club.

Following the sanctions imposed on Rangers by the Scottish Football Association (SFA), ‘Gers manager Ally McCoist suggested in some desperation that they might as well start all over again in the third division (fourth tier) of the league.

The Scottish Football Association (SFA) have fined Rangers £160,000 and imposed a transfer embargo on them for the next twelve months which means they can only sign players under the age of 18.   This comes at a time when the administrators have still not been able to name a preferred bidder and American truck tycoon Bill Miller has made it clear that his offer is reliant on no nasty surprises.

The Singapore-based consortium led by Bill Ng had emerged as the likely preferred bidder for Rangers. But now Ng has withdrawn his bid.   He is not satisfied that the Rangers shares can be delivered in a form and time frame that would permit him to pursue his preferred option of taking Rangers out of administration through a company voluntary arrangement.

The Blue Knights consortium have looked likely to be named as the preferred bidders for Rangers.   But they have now ‘stepped back’ from the bidding process and it looks likely that preferred bidder status will go Bill Ng’s Singapore-based consortium.

Ticketus were part of the Blue Knights consortium but had been unwilling to contribute to the required £500,000 ‘exclusivity fee’.   It then emerged that they had been in discussions with the Bill Ng consortium who had made them a substantially better offer.

The administrators of Rangers, Duff and Phelps, have had to delay naming a preferred bidder for Rangers after the Scottish Premier League announced proposal new rule changes which will be discussed on April 30th.

Under the proposals harsh additional penalties would be applied to any ‘newco’ such as might be formed if Rangers was liquidated.   A club in this position would have ten points deducted for the following two seasons and would also have its payments from the SPL slashed by 75 per cent.

Hougang United chairman Bill Ng has emerged as one of the key figures behind the Singapore bid to take over Rangers.   He is a director at private equity firm Financial Frontiers and has been a Rangers fan for more than a decade.    He took over Hougang United two years ago.

Administrators Duff and Phelps have estimated the potential total debts of Rangers at £134m.   This includes £93m owed to Revenue & Customs, although that sum would reduce substantially if the tax tribunal ruling on employee benefit schemes found in the club’s favour.   The next biggest debt is to Ticketus who are owed £26.7m, although they are part of the Blue Knights consortium.   £2.3m is owed to twelve football clubs with Hearts owed the biggest amount (£800,000).