Bluedell 5,329 Posted May 14, 2014 Share Posted May 14, 2014 “If you’re prepared to accept mediocrity because our owners are greedy fair enough. Me, I intend to do everything I can to root them out.” A quote from Gunslinger. So what are we doing as a support to root out the directors? I believe the answer is “Not a lot”. Let’s look at the two lots of people a majority of the fans want rid of – the Shareholders and the Directors. 1. The Shareholders There are 2 main ways that the shareholders can get to go or to lose control: a) Someone buys their shares – there is currently nobody who wants to buy their shares. Dave King has said he won’t do it. There are 2 fans’ vehicles for purchasing shares, both of whom are a long way away from getting enough cash to make a meaningful investment. They also both have the dilemma of raising cash and then deciding whether to use the cash to pay existing shareholders and therefore not a penny goes to the club, as happened recently with BuyRangers, or wait until there’s a share issue at some future point. They also run the risk of their shareholding being diluted. Let’s say they get 1% of the shares and then there’s a rights issue. They could find that their 1% has been reduced to 0.5% or even lower. Perhaps it needs yet another calamity like an administration to change the mindsets of the fans to fan ownership as they have consistently shown that a vast majority are not there yet. b) There’s a share issue of some sort, which dilutes their control in the way mentioned above. However what happens if they are the ones to put in the cash? They could increase their shareholding percentage. Dave King has said that he would be willing to invest, but only under certain circumstances. Are the current shareholders likely to structure an issue that sees them losing control to King? Very unlikely. Is King willing to invest that level of cash and not have a level of control? Very Unlikely. All of King’s actions seem to be aimed towards trying to force the existing shareholders and directors out without him having to spend any cash in doing so. He has built up a degree of animosity between him and the board and as such he has made it less likely that the board will turn round and make it easy for him to get control. The existing shareholders generally want an exit strategy and nobody is offering them one and they aren’t going to effectively have their shareholding become worthless. 2. The Directors Most Rangers fans are not impressed by the current Board, but nobody has offered any alternative since the Paul Murray faction got voted down at the AGM. Nobody has set out any level of vision for the future and King suffers from this criticism more than most. He has not set out detailed plans or any level of alternative. King set up his Ibrox 1972 Ltd company, asking for the club to give it security over its biggest assets. Does anyone seriously expect a quoted PLC to give security of its main assets to a third party company that apparently doesn’t have a season ticket holder or Rangers shareholder on its board or as a shareholder? There is no connection between this company and the club. As it stands, there’s no connection between the ownership and control of Ibrox 1972 Ltd and the support either. It’s almost as if King has come up with a vehicle that makes it impossible for the club to grant security, not that they would do it anyway. Perhaps that’s what King is hoping for? Many fans are not buying season tickets, partly due their opposition to the board and partly due to the fare on the park. For the fans who fall into the former category, is them withholding season ticket cash really going to chase out the directors? I really don’t think so. Why should it? Are the really just going to resign and walk away or are they going to carry on running the company in whatever financial situation it Is in? I would argue that it is the latter and they will continue run the club as best they can, with the lower income and therefore lower quality on the park. Many are there to do a job (presumably to the best of their ability) and less season tickets makes it more challenging but it is not a reason for them to resign from their job. Are the shareholders going to insist on a change of board due to lower season tickets? Unlikely, given that the gave the directors a vote of confidence at the AGM even after the club had spent the £22m from the share issue in 9 months. If they still retain the shareholders’ support after that then season ticket holder revolt isn’t going to make much difference. There is also the situation where Sandy Easdale controls the votes of over 26% of the shares and it means that he only needs 24% of other shares to get his way in most matters. The fans who are not renewing their season tickets have my admiration for the sacrifice that they are making and I understand their frustration as they want to do something and not renewing is something. However it doesn’t mean that what they are doing will result in a change or will make any difference to the positions of the directors. Even if the season ticket boycott did force a change in directors, would it change the overall way that the club is being run? Again, very unlikely. So what is the best hope for a change? We can only hope that Dave King has a change in heart and does decide to buy out the existing shareholders because otherwise I just don’t see a way out of this mess as we fans appear to be powerless against shareholders and directors who have no interest in engaging with the support and taking actions to keep them onside. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,121 Posted May 14, 2014 Share Posted May 14, 2014 Not much to challenge there - we really are in a very difficult situation. What I would say is that if only say 15000 fans renew that is a clear no vote of confidence in the current board and ownership. If I was a director I'd find it very difficult to consider my position tenable under such circumstances. Of course, some may feel they deserve the time to change people's minds so back to square one we go. Horrible times for fans... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RANGERRAB 3,252 Posted May 14, 2014 Share Posted May 14, 2014 All of King’s actions seem to be aimed towards trying to force the existing shareholders and directors out without him having to spend any cash in doing so. He has built up a degree of animosity between him and the board and as such he has made it less likely that the board will turn round and make it easy for him to get control until this gets resolved one way or the other we cannot move on......... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,121 Posted May 14, 2014 Share Posted May 14, 2014 PS: Zappa may want to publish this to the site later on (or I can do it tomorrow am)... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluedell 5,329 Posted May 14, 2014 Author Share Posted May 14, 2014 Usual commission rates apply.... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,121 Posted May 14, 2014 Share Posted May 14, 2014 Usual commission rates apply.... I'll buy you drink* at the next GN dinner... * How much is tap water nowadays in posh Glasgow restaurants? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Berliner 3,217 Posted May 14, 2014 Share Posted May 14, 2014 The way I see it right now is ... that there is an impasse between the current board (CB) and King. There is not much the CB can do against the campaign run by the supporters groups and King, they spilled the facts on the previous regime and said how they want to change for a better future. Whether people believe that or not is up to them. AFAIK, the CB can't hand out new shares (as stated in the review), unless it proves the club's stability to the stockmarket (maybe my reading on that is not without error though). Thus, King barks up the wrong tree at this moment and time. The CB has stated all along that it will not give Ibrox or Auchenhowie as a security, be that to a credit facility or indeed that King company. The pendulum swings both ways and rightly so. (I'm not even sure if they can do that business-wise anyway, the deals with Laxey/Letham and Easdale were essentially in-house and did not include either asset.) The CB needs to survive the summer, possibly by drawing the loans given by Letham and Easdale. As cash might be a rare commodity still, they may pay both with shares instead of money - and both parties have already agreed to that in the loan deal. Unless King and Co. come up with some decent plan for the future and/or something changes until the season starts, I reckon that quite a few Bears will simply give up on these party politics and (up to now) hollow words by King and go to Ibrox on a pay at the gate ratio - as they want to see their team play. Sure, thousands may stay away, but how do we know at which point the club will run smoothly? 30k every other week? We officially averaged 42k this season and with better opposition I doubt that supporters will stay away for long. (And granted, some will stay away over x-mas et al, as usual.) Once they get till October or November and make clear that they know what they are doing, the CB might be able to make another open-to-all share issue, where King might get his will at last. The thing is, we don't know just now and hardly anyone can really predict what is going to happen. *Who can say whether Ashley won't decide to snap up 40m of the 43m "in-house" shares at 24p ... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrahimHemdani 1 Posted May 14, 2014 Share Posted May 14, 2014 A very good, dispassionate analysis of the current situation. 1 (a) RF have said that they would hold back part of their investment so as to avoid a dilution but at the moment I doubt they have £50,000 in total to invest probably more like £20,000 - £30,000; so pretty meaningless. The initial uptake was good but it seems to have stalled over the past month or so. BR would need £100,000+ to avoid dilution of their 0.86% and I doubt they have more than £20,000 quite possibly a lot less based on a maximum of 200 people paying in monthly since December. I agree that it would take a major disaster to get significant additional numbers into either scheme. 1 (b) "All of King’s actions seem to be aimed towards trying to force the existing shareholders and directors out without him having to spend any cash in doing so He has built up a degree of animosity between him and the board and as such he has made it less likely that the board will turn round and make it easy for him to get control." A very important point that is oft overlooked. In fact it will increase the Investor's/Board's resolve not to allow him to achieve his objective or gain any form of control. IMHO the existing investors will take up all their rights to avoid any dilution. If possible one of them or a "friendly" new investor or institution will underwrite the issue so as to avoid King even being able to pick up the scraps. (I say that without knowing the rules about how these things are structured.) King COULD invest through BR or RF or both and it is possible that discussions have taken place behind the scenes. The silence on this from RF in particular may be telling or it may just indicate that there is nothing to tell. 2. "Does anyone seriously expect a quoted PLC to give security of its main assets to a third party company that apparently doesn’t have a season ticket holder or Rangers shareholder on its board or as a shareholder? There is no connection between this company and the club. As it stands, there’s no connection between the ownership and control of Ibrox 1972 Ltd and the support either. It’s almost as if King has come up with a vehicle that makes it impossible for the club to grant security, not that they would do it anyway. Perhaps that’s what King is hoping for?" Answer to your first question is - YES, GS! I agree with your conclusion and am sure that even if King was serious his lawyers would have told him that he was in no position to tell Rangers how or to whom they could sell ST's and on what terms. Much more knowledgeable people that me have described the whole scheme as preposterous. Again I have said as often as I could that the existing directors will do their best to return the Club to it's former glories with whatever resources the fans give them and they can raise in a rights issue; fans not renewing just makes it all the harder for them to rise above the mediocrity that GS and others complain about. I have a very good source and I mentioned somewhere in the disappeared "Amoruso" thread that the directors are out of touch with the views of ordinary fans. They just "don't get it". They are trying to run the Club as an ordinary business and aren't taking account of the fact that a any football Club is no ordinary business; far less one with the history and fan base of The Rangers. I am reminded of the story about one potential Middle Eastern investor in 2010 who pulled out when he discovered that it was Glasgow Rangers not Queens Park Rangers in which he was being invited to invest. Where we differ is in your conclusion. I hope that Mr King realises the truth of what you say, withdraws his scheme, encourages fans to buy ST's, possibly invests himself through BR or RF (unlikely due to OMOV) or even buys a large block of ST's himself. Me, I've renewed and will be applying for a transfer. May even join you in the comfy seats; if you are not in the Directors Box. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrahimHemdani 1 Posted May 14, 2014 Share Posted May 14, 2014 I'll buy you drink* at the next GN dinner... * How much is tap water nowadays in posh Glasgow restaurants? It's free in Malaga Tapas! Can I take that as a firm commitment to attend? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,121 Posted May 14, 2014 Share Posted May 14, 2014 The question was rhetorical and hopefully I can make it.... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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