Rangers International Football
Club PLC announced to the London Stock Exchange on the 21st of November 2013
that Laxey Partners Ltd had now become majority shareholders at Ibrox, possessing 7,578,672
shares at 11.64% voting rights of the company.
Colin Kingsnorth is the main
perpetrator behind this, given he is the head of Laxey, and he had this to say
on his company’s purchase:
“I want to support stability, so I
think that means supporting all current directors. Shareholder worries are the
use of cash, transparency and corporate governance. The recent appointments
seem to address that.”
This acquisition could be seen as
many by a game changer in the long-running battle for power of the Ibrox
boardroom. Given Kingsnorth has publicly backed the existing board, that simply
means the most powerful shareholder is opposing Paul Murray and his group.
Kingsnorth does not even know who
he purchased the shares from, given they were freely availably on the stock
exchange, but that level of shareholding was only known to be owned by Blue
Pitch and Margarita combined. Whoever, or whatever those two holding companies
were, they appear to be a thing of the past. They were known to be ‘entwined’
with Charles Green, and given up till now he
had a lot of shares and had agreed to sell them, it is entirely feasible he
(along with BP and Margarita) indirectly sold them to Laxey.
Ultimately though what does this
mean for the Rangers AGM vote?
Quite simply the tug-of-war could
now finally have a clear favourite. Despite what many Rangers fans would appear
to want, the largest shareholder has shown their cards and Paul Murray’s clout
appears to be reducing by the day. The vote will of course be telling, and
cannot really be predicted, but this move is the first real shift of momentum
one way or the other.
My previous entry showed Murray had the most
fractional majority of 53% (needing 51%), but this move by Laxey could easily
swing it 10 or even 20% back to the current board.
A reputable company with a fully
named boss and legitimate operations appears to be the guillotine in Murray’s dreams. By
backing the existing board the clearest signal has been made in support of
them.
Rangers today also announced to
the stock exchange the appointment of David Somers on a permanent basis as
non-executive chairman. With the other appointments of non-exec director
Crighton and new CEO Graham Wallace, the boardroom really does seem quite
complete.
It does not account for the
desperately needed extra income, but the hope there is once the AGM vote is
complete, investors will be able to finance given the company’s new-found
stability. No one will invest while the flux and turmoil of the present
situation exists.
But at least Rangers have a
fully-fledged board now, and a majority shareholder who appears to be kosher.