LONDON (Alliance News) - Rangers International Football Club PLC on Monday said it has secured a GBP1.5 million loan from a trio of shareholders and said it has ceased the process of satisfying conditions for the draw down of the second tranche of its loan agreement with SportsDirect.com Retail Ltd, an arm of FTSE 100-listed Sports Direct International PLC.
Rangers said it has agreed a GBP1.5 million loan deal with Douglas Park, George Letham and George Taylor, the trio known as the Three Bears. The three hold a combined 19.5% stake in the company.
The club said the proceeds for the loan will be used for working capital and are being made available until December 31, 2015, providing it time to put in place long-term funding arrangements.
In addition, Rangers said it has stopped satisfying the conditions required for the drawdown of the second GBP5 million tranche of the GBP10 million loan provided to the company by Sports Direct, the sporting goods retailer controlled by Mike Ashley, a prominent shareholder in Rangers.
Earlier this month, Rangers shareholders voted to remove Chief Executive Derek Llambias and Finance Director Barry Leach from the board of the company. Both are long-time associates of Mike Ashley.
They were ousted as a result of an extraordinary general meeting called by Dave King, the majority shareholder in the club, who tabled the proposals as part of the battle for control at the top of the club between Ashley and a series of shareholders seeking to oppose him. Ashley had taken effective control of the club in 2014 when he provided a series of rescue loans totalling GBP3 million to keep the club afloat.
That was then followed in January by the loan deal with SportsDirect.com, under which Rangers would be loaned GBP10 million in two tranches, with the first to be used to repay the loans owed to Ashley's MASH Holdings Ltd investment vehicle.
Rangers did not provide any further information on the status of its deal with Sports Direct, which also involved transferring an equity stake in the Rangers Retail Ltd business for the duration of the facility and which allotted Sports Direct the right to appoint two directors to the Rangers board.
Shares in Rangers are currently suspended.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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