Laxey Partners

[chilledbear 16]

A firm investing in Rangers has announced it will vote in favour of removing directors as it has increased its stake in the club.

 

Laxey Partners Limited, which purchased a further one million shares in Rangers International Football Club plc last Thursday, confirmed it would back the stance taken by supporters' groups at a proposed general meeting.

 

The Isle of Man-registered hedge fund now has a 6.53% stake in the company after purchasing the shares for around £410,000.

 

On Monday, Laxey Partners stated that it would vote in line with Rangers Supporters Association, Assembly and Trust in calling for the removal of directors.

 

Institutional investors in Rangers International submitted a requisition calling for the general meeting to remove chief executive Craig Mather, financial director Brian Stockbridge and director Bryan Smart from their roles.

 

The motion calling for the meeting is also demanding the appointment of former Rangers director Paul Murray and ex-PricewaterhouseCoopers chief Frank Blin to the board.

 

Colin Kingsnorth, who is one of the founders of Laxey Partners, confirmed the firm's voting intentions. He told STV on Monday: "We are going to support the supporters’ clubs wish on votes which we believe is to change the board at the moment."

 

This came on the back of a joint statement from the three supporters groups who have challenged the board to remove former chief executive Charles Green from his role as a paid consultant at the club, as well as for it to confirm the legitimacy of the requisition notice and to fix a date for the general meeting.

 

The supporters' groups are calling on all fan shareholders to either vote in favour of or proxy their votes in favour of the proposed removal of the three Rangers office bearers to be replaced by Mr Murray and Mr Blin.

 

Should the general meeting go ahead, the requisition notice requires at least 51% of all votes cast in order for it to pass. Fans invested £5.2m at 70p-per-share to buy an 11.4% stake in Rangers International last year and their votes could have a major say in whether the boardroom changes take place.

 

On Tuesday, the Rangers board is scheduled to discuss the future of Mr Green, who stated in media interviews following his return that questions should be asked over the future of the club’s manager Ally McCoist should they fail to win either the Scottish or League cups this season.

 

Laxey, which is led by Mr Kingsworth and fellow investment banker Andrew Pegge, is believed to have paid £1m for one million shares as an initial investor in the newco Rangers last October.

 

As part of that deal, it guaranteed its shareholding would not be diluted. In December, when Rangers International Football Club plc was floated on the stock market, its initial share price was 70p, which was lower than the firm’s initial payment-per-share. Mr Green has agreed to transfer a chunk of his 7.7% shareholding in the company to Laxey.

 

In a previous announcement to the London Stock Exchange, Rangers confirmed 714,285 shares owned by Mr Green would be transferred to Laxey in December this year, when his 12 month lock-in agreement over selling his shares expires. Laxey’s current stake of 6.53% does not include these further shares.

 

When Mr Green’s share are transferred to Laxey, it will have a 7.6% stake in Rangers, while the Yorkshireman’s shareholding would represent 6.69% of voting rights in the company. This would make Laxey one of the largest single shareholders in Rangers International, behind investment managers Hargreave Hale, which has a 7.71% stake.

 

Mr Green purchased five million shares in Rangers at knock-down price of 1p each as part of an agreement entered into on October 31 last year. This came days after the deal with Laxey, which was dated October 19, 2012.

 

http://t.co/ke3WrbwXHe

[Guest SBG]

Well, that news in a breath of fresh air.. if its true! (hard to trust anyone these days)

[der Berliner 3,290]

Institutional investors in Rangers International submitted a requisition calling for the general meeting to remove chief executive Craig Mather, financial director Brian Stockbridge and director Bryan Smart from their roles.

 

Unless I am mistaken, they want to remove these people from their roles as directors. This would be a first that McColl and Co. demand that Mather is removed as CEO. Lazy journalism, I assume?

[stewarty 1,878]

Well that is certainly an encouraging statement from Laxey. In this case it seems that the motives of supporterx and institutional investors are aligned.