Dave King hits back at David Somers

[ian1964 10,378]

THE South African-based businessman brands Ibrox chairman "disingenuous" after being accused of failing to provide proof of funds.

 

DAVE KING has tonight hit back at David Somers’ claims he failed to prove he had the finance to invest in Rangers – and accused the Ibrox chairman of being "disingenuous".

 

Somers had earlier today insisted the South African-based businessman couldn’t provide proof of funds and that made it impossible for the board to accept King’s offer of investment last month.

 

A proposal from King's consortium was considered along with another from former Blue Knight Brian Kennedy before Ibrox directors instead accepted a £2million loan from shareholder Mike Ashley last month.

 

And in an interview with Sky Sports News, Somers said: "We had three people offering us funds and I felt it was very important we do proper due diligence on all three.

 

"In the past Rangers has perhaps done deals it wouldn't have done if it had done proper due diligence.

 

"Where (the King offer) fell down was really at stage one. When I said to all three of these people 'would you show me proof of funds?' two showed me proof of funds. The consortium did not.

 

"The second question for the consortium was, 'I know there are eight of you, I only know three of you. Can I please have the other five names?' And the message I was getting all the time was 'if you agree to do deal, if you persuade 75 per cent of shareholders, then we'll show you funds and you can have the other names'.

 

"When I said to all three of these people 'would you show me proof of funds?' two showed me proof of funds. The consortium did not.

 

"It wasn't meeting the due diligence requirements – they were simple questions. I cannot go to shareholders when I don't know all the names, I can't check the names out and I can't put my hand on my heart and say, 'these guys have the money'.

 

"In the end we had to move on to stage two which left two providers.

 

"Then it was a simple case of which provider was offering the lowest interest rate – Mike Ashley was offering zero interest which is difficult to beat – and which provider wanted least security. 
Again Mike Ashley only wanted a small amount relative to the other deal.

 

"Once we got to that stage it was a no-brainer which one we were going with."

 

But King has claimed Sandy Easdale - chairman of Rangers' football board - agreed proof of funds and individual identities could be provided once the backing of shareholders was confirmed.

 

He insisted Somers was "being disingenuous with his comments".

 

A statement from King read: "We had private discussions with both (former chief executive) Graham Wallace and Sandy Easdale in which we told them that we would immediately provide proof of funding and details of the full make-up of the consortium following confirmation from Sandy Easdale that the shareholders whom he represents were prepared to support the terms of our investment proposal in principle.

 

"Sandy Easdale agreed to proceed on this basis. Unfortunately he was not then able to provide the confirmation we asked for. There was no possibility of proceeding any further without the support of Sandy Easdale's group who had the power to block our proposed investment."

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/rangers-war-words-breaks-out-4650192?

[True_Ger_1872 2]

Back to the old Statement and Counter-Statement I see......

 

This hasn't worked in any positive way until now - and I cannot see this time being any different. It doesn't do anyone any good.

[Hildy 0]

Back to the old Statement and Counter-Statement I see......

 

This hasn't worked in any positive way until now - and I cannot see this time being any different. It doesn't do anyone any good.

It's communication.

 

It's better than no statements at all.

 

We may not be happy with things as they stand, and we may believe that things could have been done better, but I'd far rather have statements being traded publicly than nothing at all.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

The other 5 probably couldn't be bothered being attacked by Merlin and toxic.

[Zappa 0]

Dave King had very little choice other than to release a statement, especially when it's a stick-on that Somers was indeed "being disingenuous with his comments".

 

Since immediately after he was appointed David Somers has shown virtually nothing but contempt for the people who've had the Club's best interests at heart.

 

It took Somers all of about 5 minutes after his appointment a year ago to start bad mouthing Jim McColl & co and judging by his collection of embarrassing statements, his MO seems quite clear.