This morning’s stock market announcement that Rangers International received a £5m emergency loan from our pal Mike Ashley, with terms agreed (pending diligence) on a further £5m available if needed, will see the club through the next week.
£3m of that £5m will go straight back to Ashley, to repay the loans he issued the club last year, leaving £2m, which will cover this week’s wages, with little left over (last year’s average monthly expenses was £2.75m).
The club can sell players this week, but as that is unlikely to generate significant funds, it looks like additional funding will be needed before next month’s wages – and significantly – before the proposed EGM.
In return for what is little more than an additional three week’s money, Ashley gets a floating charge over ALL the club’s assets. Despite how many headlines portray this story, that includes Ibrox Stadium.
Issuing a floating charge over assets is a normal piece of business for a football club, but this is not a normal football club. Floating charges are usually issued to banks, not predatory retailers, and they are seldom issued when the club is weeks away from running out of money.
A fixed charge has been granted over Murray Park, Edmiston House, Albion Car Park and, crucially, the club’s trademarks. In the event of a default, all these assets become the property of Sports Direct.
For reasons which are hard to fathom, Ibrox became some totem not to be tampered with, allowing Ashley to grab hold of enormous assets with relatively little concern. Should they default, consider this:
You want to sell tickets with ‘your’ crest or badge, pay me. You want to sell programmes, own a web site, do a shirt deal with someone else in the future, display the crest on the stadium wall, pay me.
The fact that Ibrox is subject to a floating, not fixed, charge, means that in theory the board could grant someone else a fixed charge over that asset, if they act before the floating charge becomes actionable. However, with Ashley now able to load the board with another two appointments, that possibility is not credible. If you have the floating charge, and you have the board, you don’t need a fixed charge.
There are other kicks to the nether regions. The club has given Sports Direct another 26% of Rangers Retail, bringing their total holding to 76%, for the duration of the initial loan. This is not hugely significant, but it could be in lieu of fees and interest, which are not being charged.
More interestingly for a club completing short-term funding requirements, they have agreed to pass their shirt sponsorship proceeds to Rangers Retail from 2017, until all these borrowings are repaid. With all the other rights Ashley is likely to assume in the coming months, this seems unnecessary. He has the board, has inserted the conditions he wants in these loans and has the fixed and floating charges required to do pretty much anything. Apart from rubbing people’s faces in the faeces, this additional ‘benefit’ appears superfluous.
What’s the takeaway message in all of this?
Despite the press briefings which were slavishly reported as news earlier this month, Ashley is not about to roll over, no matter how ample his frame. He doesn’t care about anything you care about. He cannot be bribed, blackmailed or coerced. He will react badly to people trying to manipulate him. Very badly.
He has control of the boardroom and Rangers International will need him before he needs it, and before any EGM is held. This is his new baseline, the next round of ‘assistance’ will tighten his grip on the all-important income streams.
It’s an impossible situation for the fans. Learn to live with the guy you’ve failed to box into a corner, while he exacts compensation for the trouble he’s been put to, or continue to resent him.
558 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
Psycho away to bed then… So um I, was a hard shift the night…
Ayrshire is Green and White
HH
I just loved this introduction about sevco from 90 minute cynic
when internet bampots can use such descrititive and apt language it makes you wonder why do the MSM even try? but anyway enjoy the intro below
The Dictionary describes a farce as “A light dramatic work in which highly improbable plot situations, exaggerated characters, and often slapstick elements are used for humorous effect” the word usually describes plays, films and perhaps incidents that occur in everyday life that are slightly beyond the norm however, since David Murray decided to abandon ship and hand over the reigns of the club playing out of Ibrox to Craig Whyte what we have witnessed is beyond farce, events have unfolded that could not have been written in the wildest imagination of the most ardent anti Rangers fans. If you had locked up the members of The Goons, Monty Python and Saturday Night Live in a room threw in Laurel and Hardy, the cast of the Carry on Films and Keith Lemon for good measure then told them to come up with the most absurd situations they could imagine they would not have come close to writing any of the incidents that have been attributed to Rangers over the past few years.
I would like to see a banner at the LC semi that said
SMARTEN UP BEARS – WALK AWAY
Or on the other hand a banner that said
DONT WALK AWAY BEARS
Hellish spray on the m9 this morning. Take care Timdom commuters. And the rest of you of course!
HH jamesgang
With a sincere apology to Pete St John.
In an empty Broomloan stand
I heard an old man crying
Michael you have smuggled us away
For we stole Queen Lizzie’s tax
While Sir David dined the hacks
Now the Sports Direct vans park in Copeland Road
Green grew the grass of Ibrox Park
Where once you watched the mighty Rangers play
You had Laudrup on the wing, Paul Gascoigne was your King
But a beggar’s bowl is all you’ve left today
Outside in Edmiston
I heard a fat man sobbing
“This big hoose, now open it must stay
Against the Fenians and the Crown
We must stand, never back down
We must beg and brawl and bawl with dignity”
Green grew the grass of Ibrox Park
Where once you watched the mighty Rangers play
You had Laudrup on the wing, Paul Gascoigne was your King
But a beggar’s bowl is all you’ve left today
By a lonely listed wall
We’ll watch the last brick falling
Broomloan, Copeland, Govan gone away
Sure you’ll wait and hope and pray
That your club comes back some day
Until then we’ll shop where once you used to play
Green grew the grass of Ibrox Park
Where once you watched the mighty Rangers play
You had Laudrup on the wing, Paul Gascoigne was your King
But a beggar’s bowl is all you’ve left today
Margaret McGill 0142
Disgraceful post.
Good morning friends from a sleety wet and very blustery East KIlbride. But only 4 more sleeps till Ronny guides us to his first final.
Now The People have two choices:
They either Do Walking Away from the Big House never to return while the current regime is in place or they can simply surrender.
Beautiful words from Philmac. Irony!
rhetorical
06:20 on
28 January, 2015
With a sincere apology to Pete St John.
Excellent.
Hardly any posts since ACGR at 00.43 – everyone is still looking up their dictionaries.
Good old Tom Boyd tells it like it is.
By Joe McHugh– 28 January 2015 03:00 AM
Former Celtic skipper Tom Boyd knows a thing or two about Glasgow derbies- and believes that Sunday’s League Cup semi-final will be something very different.
Boyd’s first ever taste of an Old Firm clash was in 1992 when goals from Charlie Nicholas and Gerry Creaney gave Liam Brady’s side a comfortable 2-0 win at Ibrox.
That success was fleeting with Celtic having to wait until 1998 to lift the title- stopping Rangers from winning a tenth consecutive title with Walter Smith able to match English sides in the transfer market and able to call upon talents like Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup.
HOSTILITIES
The timeline for the fixture came to a halt in 2012 when the financial madness of Rangers sent the club into liquidation with a consortium led by Charles Green gaining SFA membership and starting life in the bottom tier of the game.
Scottish football without the titanic and often brutal Old Firm clashes was something that many couldn’t imagine or accept but on Sunday both sets of supporters will be out in force at Hampden with a curious nation holding it’s breath in anticipation of hostilities.
After watching Rangers rack up silverware through unsustainable overdrafts and illegal tax schemes the demise of the club was greeted with joy from most Celtic fans.
While a number of Hoops supporters admit to missing the intensity of the derby match those that suffered through the nineties see karma every day as their former rivals struggle from scandal to crisis loan with little prospect of a return to the high living days.
Boyd knows the sensitivities of the both clubs well but steers clear of the misty eyed view that Sunday’s battle is a continuation of the landmark fixtures that he was involved in for over a decade.
“I don’t know what most people think but my opinion is that they are a new club,” he stated about in answer to the status of the club from Ibrox. “A lot of people believe it’s a continuation of the game, I’d imagine that the atmosphere will be very much the same as previously but you can’t compare the teams to the way that it was. The new Rangers are a Championship team, previously they had internationalists so the game isn’t going to be the same.
“A lot of former players miss the actual match, that fixture was where players were judged and that’s something that is no longer there because of the situation with the new Rangers and the problems they find themselves in.
STRONG
“There are some Celtic supporters who go along with the continuation opinion, they want that game back, it’s something that they miss. In Scottish football they feel that Celtic need a challenge, that fixture provided it but I can’t see the same with this match on Sunday.”
http://www.herald.ie/sport/soccer/new-firm-but-old-foes-celtic-and-rangers-get-ready-to-rumble-in-cup-clash-30943268.html
As Jobo is busy with his weather reports, let me update you on Inter tickets. Only 32 left and almost all of them are up in the 417-419 areas.
JJ
What about the creditors Mr Donohoe
Mike Ashley could be called to parliament to to be grilled on his dealings at Rangers.
A Scots MP raised concerns and hit out at the Sports Direct tycoon’s involvement in the Ibrox club during a debate at Westmister.
Calls have now been made for Ashley, who this week struck a £10m loan deal with Rangers, to be summoned to the House of Commons to be questioned by MPs.
Brian Donohoe, MP for Central Ayrshire, used parliamentary privilege at the Scottish Affairs Committee to question whether Ashley is “a fit and proper” person to be involved in Rangers.
This is from STV news site
Hrvatski Jim
I once received a letter from my Mother saying: I am so aware,as I write, that my son is an English teacher that I keep looking up spellings in the Dictionary. In fact, I had to look up `dictionary`.
A fine sense of humour had my mother 0:-)
JJ
glasgowdave, if those are direct quotes from Tommy Boyd then good on the young chap for his honesty.
I knew I liked that lad from the first day he pumped the deid heids right up until he almost spanked me at the sclaffbaw.
His honesty is refreshing.
Maggie McGill, you need a break or some time with a head shrink, your earlier post is bang out of order ya auld slut.
HH
ACGR
BT & I posted last night that Tom Boyd and Tosh McKinlay would never be asked the continuation myth question by smsm. They both deal in the truth too much. Tom has not let us down.
Your 5 copies of the statement are in the post. Enjoy bud.
DD you are a true Celtic gent. Like Tommy Boyd, I knew you wouldn’t let me down.
HH
Jungle Jim Hot Smoked kipper, you have messages re a lunch invite before the snow arrives.
Unleash wee Jamesey on the hun.
Something up with the blog.
I could not get in via normal channels and have only managed to gain access through an email from Celtic News Now.
Any clues about what is happening?
Not computer literate but something about domain.
EC67
A few transfer rumours this morning, only 5 days to go. Markus Henriksen, AZ’s Norweigan midfielder (we were after him a couple of years ago) and Kenny Otigba, Herenveen’s Nigerian born centre half. Source KDS.
Charis Mavrias, Sunderland’s Greek winger. Source, local press on Wearside
From BBC Gossip
Former Rangers forward Nacho Navo has hit out at the Ibrox board after, he says, being told he won’t be allowed to train at Murray Park. (Scottish Sun)
…presumably they asked him if he had experience of driving a forklift truck?
Some objectionable language used here last night from a serial offender and I believe he/she received a warning only yesterday. In my opinion, the blog is being sullied by this and I wish some people would desist.
There is something wrong with the blog definitely…
new article posted.
No idea how i got on the blog but the regular channels aint working?
£bron is a certain future shopping mall. Big Mick knows that there is no chance of consistent revenue from that dispicable brand called sevco. The land is the gold, the stadium is a shit pit. Roll on the new shopping centre for the wife, more free time for me. Hh