RANGERSâ administrators were last night losing patience with the Blue Knights as it emerged that the latest conditional bid lodged by the Paul Murray-led consortium would amount to just £5 million in cash going to creditors â who could be owed up to £120m. The Knights, who have submitted a joint bid with Brian Kennedy, have been told to increase their offer as time runs out to prevent the club from going into liquidation. As it stands, the only offer for the Ibrox club considered credible by the clubâs administrators Duff & Phelps appears to be the £11.2m conditional bid of the American tow-truck tycoon Bill Miller. His plan was yesterday labelled âa newco with a CVA [Company Voluntary Arrangement] as a side routeâ by administrator David Whitehouse, who described it as âalmost thereâ in terms of conditions being removed. Whitehouse, meanwhile, criticised the rubbishing of Millerâs bid by the rival consortium. There are fears that liquidation could edge closer if the US businessman is scared off by the negative press his buyout plan has attracted, while the efforts of the Knights, for whom Sale Sharks rugby club owner Kennedy has become an ally, have been praised. âWeâve had two bids and we continue to discuss them with both parties,â Whitehouse said. âThe Blue Knights bid needs to be increased so that it is more value to creditors. They need to increase it significantly. Bill Millerâs position is clear. The Blue Knights position is not clear. âWe are in detailed discussions with the Blue Knights to see if their offer can be increased to a level which will be acceptable to creditors. We would encourage both bidders to focus on finalising their bids in terms of deliverability rather than seeking to discredit the other. We only have two bids and therefore it is important that the removal of one of those does not make liquidation actually more likely. We are not in a position of supporting one over the other. Bill Miller has made it very clear that he values the support of the Rangers fans tremendously. He sees the fans as his customers in support of his bid. We would encourage the fansâ groups, therefore, to embrace both bids at this stage to keep alive the prospects of a successful outcome.â Those prospects should become clearer in a matter of days, according to Whitehouse, who accepted that âpeople would be fed up with hearingâ of possible end-points to the bidding process. But this has been the case only because Duff & Phelps have received no bid that accounts for owner Craig Whyteâs 85.3 per cent shareholding, no âquantumâ offer that makes a CVA seem genuinely deliverable and no word about the timescale for a decision of the tax tribunal that could land Rangers with a £60m bill for the use of an Employee Benefit Trust scheme. Millerâs bid, meanwhile, is believed to be predicated on receiving âcomfortâ from the Scottish Premier League that its investigation into non-disclosure of payments relating to the use of EBTs from 1998 to 2010 will not bring the ultimate sanction. Yet the SPL is in no position to provide that. Equally, with the Knightsâ offer conditional on Whyteâs shareholding being obtained, the clubâs administrators are in no position to provide that. Add to that the fact the money to run the club will run out by the end of next month, with all players returning to their full salaries at the start of June. The Knights are understood to be low-balling because they doubt Miller will deliver the £11.2m promised after he failed to gain control of Sheffield Wednesday and Tranmere when he came up short on terms originally offered. The portents are not good but, for Whitehouse, the focus is on naming a preferred bidder. âThis really is the last minute,â he said. âBill Miller is basically there in terms of his bid and we would expect to know by Monday or Tuesday whether weâre dealing with Bill Miller or not and whether weâre dealing with the Blue Knights or not. Both parties need approval from the football authorities, otherwise it makes a mockery of the business plan. âThere is no reason, in our view, why these bids should drag on into the later part of next week. If the successful bidder goes down the stand-alone CVA route they can be in control of the club before the start of next season. If itâs a newco with a CVA on a side route then they can take control by 11 May.â And if it is a newco, the old Rangers timeline will effectively end.
Administrator David Whitehouse expects a revised bid for Rangers from the Blue Knights as its current offer would be "a challenge for creditors to accept".
How much help do these idiots need? The administrators are bending over backwards to accommodate the BKs and yet they're the ones getting it in the neck from the mutant hordes. Brian Kennedy said two weeks ago he'd doubled his bid to double figures, ie. £10m, and that was rejected. So what do he and the BKs do? Get together and put in a bid of £5m!! And apparently in real terms it's only worth £1.5m (something to do with £3.5m of it coming from placement money from the SPL and money owed to them from other clubs). They're taking the piss!
It is not easy for Rangers or people that ever had or likely to have dealings with Rangers to obey the law and do what is right. Rangers have historically done it their way and threatened to walk away if not getting their own way. That's why this is all so difficult for Rangers and potential buyers. The administrators are of course to blame for most of what is happening. I have felt that instead of putting the creditors first these administrators, on the biding of the Scottish Government and Campbell Og have put the club first. Motherwell lost 17 staff members (mostly players) within a week. Portsmouth has already lost 50 staff members. Rangers less than 10. All these idiots seem to do is draw their unbelievable salary and enter meaningless appeals on behalf of the huns. Rangers are suppose to pay for all this, but who loses out the creditors including Celtic.
