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.
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Hugh
I have the same issue from my works PC but that’s Internet Explorer
How are the ol’ Newcastle loanee wonder kids bedding in ahead of the league cup semi??
danso_1888
It doesn’t matter if Kenny Dalglish thinks that the are the same club or not.
Why don’t the MSM address the points made within the statement?
Indeed has anyone seen this done anywhere since Sunday?
Plenty of people will say they are a new club and others will say otherwise. What matters is the actual position and for that all the MSM have to do is ask some legal experts – even Donald Findlay said they are a new club.
Kenny Dalgliesh – a superb player by the standards of his era. Credit to him. Celtic were lucky Rangers didn’t want him.
He’s no Celtic legend in my eyes tho. He’s more of a Liverpool legend and Hun wannabe. He worked for them after he retired from playing. He inflicted Barnes on us.
He is a miserable faced Celtic hater.
No hero to me.
CultsBhoy
Sorry but KD is a legend in every sense of the word. He virtually won us 7IAR by himself when we done the 9.
As winning captains said, it doesnt matter what Kenny thinks, but dont try and tone down what he done for us while playing in the hoops.
Yeah Kenny,
Would you have said that if your press conference was down the gallowgate, ,?
And I did see him play,
broke my heart when he went to Liverpool,
ripped my heart out when he stood outside Ibrox and declared his allegiance to Murrays scouting regime. .
Is there any specific reason why the advert text is not available online beyond the odd photograph of a newspaper page?
Would have thought the copyright would belong to the authors.
Natknow and the huddle. Appears to only do it when I try to access CQN?
highfibre says:
January 27, 2015 at 4:48 pm
3 0 i
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CQN are quite simply wrong about the floating charge.
Though a floating charge is normally over all the assets of a company, this does not need to be the case. It could include a clause excluding certain assets. It could include a clause preventing the sale of certain assets. I could include a clause preventing the company from granting a fixed security over certain assets.
Mike Ashley does not work like a spiv. When he parks his tanks in your car park, he likes you to be able to count them and realise you are hopelessly out-gunned. Directors of his companies are not known for their incompetence in making untrue statements to the stock exchange.
When the company directors (placed there by Ashley) say that the floating charge specifically excludes Ibrox, then the floating charge will include a clause to that effect.
As can be seen in particular by the Rangers Retail deal, Ashley does not rely on standard forms of security, but will write each one to suit his exact requirements.
Again, in the event of a default, Ashley does not simply get the properties. He has to go through the courts in order to do so. If the company goes into administration, it is unlikely that he will be granted immediate title to the properties. Instead the Administrators will be given a chance to sell the entire company as a going concern. If they succeed, he will get all of his money back (ideally with contracts intact). If they fail, he will get the assets.
What he can do immediately in the event of a default is to liquidate or do pretty much whatever he wants with Rangers Retail (the 75% shareholding is required for a MVL).
CQN do themselves no favours by being so wildly inaccurate on something like this, if they want credibility on the OCNC arguments.
CultsBhoy
Sorry 500K? – you don’t qualify. The real ( he’s a bomb scare ) mob would drive him to the Airport themselves, for free.
My celebration for Sunday. Goal to the ‘tic! All players run to Celtic half. 6 players lie end to end and two players either side at right angles a third of the way down. Craig Gordon then lies on top arms outstretched and feet crossed.
GIRUT
HH
King kenny he was, but that was a while ago. Whoever spelt out the word psychopath for him if a fan dan
HH
I can see that Ashley has done everybody up like a kipper – and that the 3 Bears and King look like a bit lame.
But one thing I don’t really get is what’s in it for the Easdales?
Do they just see Ashley as the last hope of getting any return on their investment?
Winning Captains….i have not saw one sevco fan challange any of the points in the Herald ad…not one…so a great job done by you guys….on another note…Novo has been banned from Murray park for joining a fans group..
This days going along nicely…
Kenny Dalglish and Neil lennon getting a kicking on
CQN, FFS……..not sure I belong on here any more.
Greetings From Ashley Park
#therealboss…….:)
I think their at it, 3M for Celtic, Nigeria international, tell them to bolt.
Hugh
It will be a problem with CQN rather than your setup. Most likely will correct itself
bawsman
16:55 on 27 January, 2015
highfibre says:
January 27, 2015 at 4:48 pm
3 0 i
——-
An interesting read in its own right.
And equally interesting to see CQN referred to as a sinner entity as opposed to the diverse, argumentative, start a fight in an empty phone box forum that we all know it to be!
HH jamesgang
Sid
Ronny has said that he wants to keep his best players. Efe comes into that category. Hope he stays with us for the rest of his career. Good player and great professional athlete. 3 million is a nonsense bid, if true.
moonbeams wd. wee oscar’s our bhoy and kano’s our mhan. the vow – critically rebuked by 45% of this fine nation.
16:29 on 27 January, 2015
Just being pedantic but…
both clubs were not visited by the police.
Celtic were paid a visit.
Police still trying to determine whom they should visit to speak to players of Rangers company.
MWD said AYE
Was the purpose of the visit how to celebrate goals in a non inflammatory way. Why is there a need to visit the other mob?
The 88 derby
Celtic 1888 v sevco 5088
(As another poster said)
The only ways the meeja in Scotland can deal with the facts of the Advert is to ignore them and ask leading questions of former players/managers. They know what has seen the light of day in the Sunday Herald is the truth. They can’t refute anything.
They simply ignore the real story, as they have done since Green gave them the out that he had bought the assets and the history of the deid team. Puerile but serves their purpose: appease and appeal to the hordes who frequent Ibrox. That has been the default position in Scotland for ever and a day.
They will be preparing their “one’s as bad as the other” headlines at this minute, wringing their hands at the violence, to which they are complicit.
Burgas Bhoy
Read my post. I fully acknowledge KDs contribution to Celtic as a player.
I just don’t think he’s behaved in a manner deserving of ‘legend’ since he departed.
Name another Celtic Legend who would work for the Huns and accuse Celtic fans of being psychopathic??
Yeah – I’m struggling too…
Didn’t know Mike Ashley and DD were friends. Makes MA’s £30k donation to St. Luke’s RC Church restoration fund seem a bit more worrying…..
if you are a hun.
We are very quick to denigrate Celtic legends for failing to have the same mind set as the fans.
Kenny Dalglish has said nothing wrong.
I have read his statement. He says he disagrees with the sentiments of the ad (well, so do many Celtic fans). He says he cannot explain why the ad writers think the way they do just as he cannot understand why psychopaths behave as they do. He is not saying that the ad writers are psychopaths; you would have to cross the road to take offence and arrive at that conclusion.
Kenny is saying that, among the many things he does not understand, are the motivations of the ad writers and the motivations of psychopaths. If given more time, Kenny could have told us about his lack of knowledge and understanding of quantum physics, English Grammar and, more relevantly, the administrative practices and history of modern Scottish Football. Kenny left the Scottish scene, in spirit, 38 years ago. He came back, bodily, for a brief spell 16 years ago to macro-manage John Barnes.
He is spectacularly under-informed about the issues which pre-occupy some of us.
Kenny was as good a footballer as Larsson and McStay, and arguably better. He proved to have some very fine human qualities as manager of Liverpool during and after Hillsborough. But he knows nothing of which he speaks to the Scottish Press today; he is just reminding us of how he saw it as a player and manager and how he continues to see it through this nostalgic lens.
Still a legend for me.
Cultsbhoy
Name a Rangers legned who would work for us and accuse Sevco fans of being psychopathic? # consequences.
banner for Sunday
WE WILL KEEP LIVING THE DREAM
WHILE YOU KEEP LIVING THE LIE
Cmon the hoops
I notice KD getting a wee bit stick from a poster this afternoon for giving us John Barnes as a manager for me that is unfair. John Barnes was doing ok up and until Henk. broke his leg if that had happened halfway through MONS first season would he have done as well ? We lost our World class striker and results went to pot not surprisingly and John Barnes was canned. H.H.
cultsbhoy
What time does your radio show start tonight?
Sftb
Kenny D was my hero as a child. And I won’t give him anything like the stick that some others have. And I think your attempt to distance himself from the unfortunate choice of analogy is spirited, skilful but ultimately I aint buying it mate!
HH jamesgang
Setanta Ireland showing the Celts v Sevco semi final. Just up on twitter.
https://twitter.com/setantasports/status/560052483888648193
Hx2
Just got the Herald advert in the post courtesy of leftclicktic
well done to all involved
HH
ps anyone heard from Partizan?
fergusslayedtheblues @17:43
chant for Sunday
“YOU’VE HAD MORE MANAGERS THAN TROPHIES!”
BGX
How did that fat slob get on at Westminster today?
Kenny was peerless as a Celtic player and captain.
However, he never, almost single handed, won seven of our nine.
I reckon he was only in the team for the last two, perhaps three of them.
He was King Kenny before he left Celtic Park.
Good evening friends. 5 more sleeps until we qualify for our first (of many) finals under Ronny.
Rogue leader. Wee minger.
Bhoys I sincerely hope you both are right , and he constantly fill his boots off them .
Apparently, CNN at 10:30 tonight, Sports Report. Filmed in Bar 67 before the Motherwell game last week about the death of a certain team. Starring the inimitable Franny, should be interesting -:)))
Bawsman 1655.
Interesting and chimes with my own earlier post here:-
REPOST ALERT…
“the long wait is over
14:10 on 27 January, 2015
Paul good piece but not sure I agree with your view that Ibrox falls within the ambit of the FC.
I did post something similar last week about how a FC if it crystallises would normally cover Ibrox as an asset free from a fixed charge ,but the official statement says this:-
“The Facility is to be secured by (1) a floating charge over the Club’s assets and (2) fixed charges over Murray Park, Edmiston House, Albion Car Park, and the Club’s registered trademarks. None of the security that is being given to SD covers Ibrox Stadium, which is specifically excluded and remains in the full ownership of the Club, free from any security. ”
Note that it says , specifically , ” None of the security ” and “free from any security”.
Subclauses (1) and (2) refer to charges and not security. “Secured” is used at the start of the sentence.
On a literal meaning therefore Ibrox is not part of the FC and could very well be specifically excluded from the ambit of the FC if the deed itself makes that clear. It could also be covered, possibly , by a back letter to that effect but I think that’s less likely.
Can I ask – what makes you sure that Ibrox is not specifically excluded as the official statement states?
Tlwio”
This was debated around a bit earlier but with respect to others with a different view I think Paul is wrong on this one.
HH