THE Rangers fan who loaned his club £1m of emergency cash last night said he is “disgusted” by Brain Stockbridge’s golden handshake share deal.
Record Sport revealed yesterday that former financial director Stockbridge will pay just £7000 for around £215,000 worth of shares as part of an agreement with the board when he was booted out of Ibrox in January.
Now wealthy fan George Letham – still out of pocket four months after bailing the club out of a financial crisis in February – has accused the current regime of misleading shareholders about Stockbridge’s penny share option at December’s agm. At that meeting, Letham asked specifically about Stockbridge’s entitlement to share options worth up to £500,000. In a statement supplied to Record Sport last night, Letham described the board’s failure to disclose the full details of that deal as “indefensible”. He said: “I am disgusted by the news that the share options granted to Brian Stockbridge were at an exercise price of one pence and feel that myself and all other shareholders present at the agm were misled by the response to my question.
“The response to it from Stockbridge and David Somers meant I left the agm comforted that my shares were not going to be diluted to the benefit of Stockbridge.
“I think it is indefensible that company representatives and advisers present at the agm did not seek to clarify the position especially when shareholders were voting on a resolution to give authority to grant share options of up to 6.6m shares to directors and employees.” The Union of Fans also hit out and questioned whether Charles Green had a similar agreement on his shares. Their statement read: “If ever fans required a reminder of the reasons for our campaign to secure our club’s home, it is the recent windfall received by Stockbridge, who has been handed shares worth around £215,000 for which he has paid just over £7000. “It is the current board’s position he was contractually entitled to these shares and so it was outwith their control. We reject this entirely ... the windfall is an absolute disgrace.
“Charles Green had a clause in his contract which entitled him to 1,028,571 shares. Can the board confirm whether this option was also allowed to remain following Mr Green’s contract termination? “If so, can we expect a further windfall in the near future for Mr Green on top of the small fortune he has already bled from the club?”
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