Having joined fellow Glasgow rival club Celtic on the joining the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in 2012, Rangers has returned to the public market to secure capital.
The club has outlined plans to raise up to £4 million through the issue of new ordinary shares at 20p each, as it continues to rebuild following a relegation to the bottom tier of Scottish football.
Back in 2012 financial troubles meant that the club entered insolvency and was only granted membership of the Scottish Football League, meaning it would then need to win three promotions to rejoin the Scottish Premiership.
Despite playing in a 51,000-seater stadium and having 36,000 season ticket holders, Glasgow-based Rangers entered administration in February 2012 with reported debts of £134 million.
The board has released a statement saying that it has produced a developed and approved ‘strategic plan’ to return Rangers to the top of the domestic game within three seasons, and then be competitive in the European UEFA competition. This feat, it says, will require ‘continued investment’ in the playing squad over the coming three years.
Fundraising between the ranges of £20 million and £30 million will be carried out over this period, with the first tranche set to provide working capital and part repayment to creditors George Letham and Alexander Easdale.
Towards the end of 2012 Rangers fans were given the opportunity to partake in a ‘Buy Rangers’ scheme – set up in the hope that the club could be taken over.
Shares were available at a fixed price of £125, with the maximum amount fans can invest standing at £20,000. Once fans’ investments have been collected, The Rangers Supporters Trust would then buy a block of shares on behalf of all investors when the AIM listing was completed.
The move to raise new funds comes after a failed attempt to entice potential and existing investors to contribute to a £10 million issuing earlier in the summer.
‘The funding will be used to allow the company to start implementing the strategy to re-build and re-establish Rangers as a stable, sustainable and successful business to deliver both shareholder value and footballing success,’ a statement says.
