It's like putting together a Meccano kit

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The new owner of Rangers Football Club is close to appointing advisers to kick off a swift return to the London stock market.

I understand that the consortium led by Charles Green, which took control of the Scottish outfit in a cut-price £5.5m deal to acquire its assets in June, is poised to hire Cenkos Securities, the broking firm, to handle the flotation.

Cenkos is one of a number of brokers which have held talks with Mr Green’s consortium in recent weeks, and it remains possible that another firm will be appointed if an agreement cannot be reached, according to insiders.

The listing is likely to see the newly-reconstituted Rangers, which began the season in the bottom tier of Scottish professional football, listed on the junior AIM market before the end of the year.

People close to the situation said that it could seek to raise as much as £20m, part of which is likely to be used to fund the acquisitions of new players.

Details of how supporters and investors will be able to acquire shares in the company, called The Rangers Football Club, will not be available for several weeks, insiders say.

Rangers' takeover and subsequent demotion to the Scottish Third Division capped an astonishing fall from grace for one of the biggest names in British sport.

The club's liquidation following the fiasco of the ownership of Craig Whyte culminated in a series of bitter contract disputes with star players, and the tax man.

Since the deal Mr Green, a former chief executive of Sheffield United, has struck a merchandising joint venture with Mike Ashley, the tycoon who owns Newcastle United and who may acquire a stake in Rangers as part of a stock market listing.

Mr Green believes that despite its recent travails, Rangers has considerable international potential as a sporting and leisure brand.

If Rangers successfully floats with a valuation of around £30m, that could augur well for the prospective valuation of the club’s 'Old Firm' rivals, Celtic, which is also listed on AIM.

There have been few new stock market flotations of major British football clubs in recent years, with Manchester United’s recent listing in New York being a rare example.

http://news.sky.com/story/981908/exclusive-rangers-plots-stock-market-return

 

BAD NEWS MECCANO DALEK

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THE latest saviour of Rangers, Charles Green, suggests that some of the members of his syndicate of overseas investors will come from the Middle East as well as Singapore and Malaysia – perhaps the rich Gulf state of Qatar.

Green certainly knows a little about Qatar, as he was a onetime reported "deputy chairman" of Panceltica Holdings, a Jersey-registered but Qatar-based construction company that had a short and, for investors, unhappy life on the AIM market. Although not listed as a director of the Jersey parent, Green, then living in Dubai, was very much involved in the promotion of Panceltica.

Panceltica was floated in March 2008 with a placing of 10m shares at 100p, providing a market capitalisation of £230m. It was touting a new technology using lightweight, steel-framed buildings to build houses and apartments. "It's like putting together a Meccano kit," Green told the Daily Telegraph. Clearly there were some missing pieces.

By June 2009 problems with its main contract for low-cost housing in Qatar – which was on behalf of its major local shareholder, the government-linked Barwa Real Estate – had delayed the accounts and threatened the survival of Panceltica. A month later Barwa terminated the contract. In August, the Qatar subsidiary went into liquidation and Panceltica shareholders were told there would be nothing for them. The shares were delisted. Panceltica and two Jersey subsidiaries were wound up in 2010.

Rangers shareholders and fans will be hoping that the Green-backed company voluntary arrangement to be sent out to creditors this week has much better luck.

 

For the first time in my life I wish I had more Dr Who patter