Shares in Aim-quoted Rangers Int'l Football Club "were cancelled after it failed to find a nominated stock market adviser or nomad to replace WH Ireland, which quit a month ago," according to Katie Burgess of the FINANCIAL TIMES. The cancellation on Tuesday marked the end of Scottish Championship side Rangers' "turbulent two years as a publicly quoted company on the Alternative Investment Market, during which it has been through multiple boardroom shake-ups and four nominated advisers." The club admitted that "failings in corporate governance" had "resulted in AIM [supervisors] receiving more complaints about the company than any other company on its exchange over the last year." The most recent nominated adviser, WH Ireland, quit last month, "a few days before a meeting" called by Dave King to "oust the board and wrest control of Rangers from Mike Ashley, founder of Sports Direct" and owner of EPL side Newcastle United. King won about 85% of votes cast at the meeting. However, his appointment as a director and chairman of Rangers "has yet to be ratified by Scottish football authorities." The board has failed to replace WH Ireland with a new nomad within the month, "which is the deadline set by Aim." As a result, Rangers' shares have been canceled. The club is "now in talks about joining ISDX, an alternative share trading market." Meanwhile, it has made arrangements to "allow shareholders access to a matched bargain trading facility with JP Jenkins, another share trading platform for unquoted businesses" (FT, 4/7).
COURT CLEARS KING: In London, Michael Grant reported King applied pressure on the Scottish FA to declare him "fit and proper" on Tuesday after being given "legal approval to join the Rangers board." The Court of Session gave King legal clearance to become an Ibrox director "after he had applied to serve on the board" of Rangers Int'l Football Club plc. The South Africa-based businessman was the "architect of the regime change delivered by an extraordinary general meeting of Rangers shareholders on March 6." But the previous board had "tried to stall him by raising a legal provision." That approval was granted on Tuesday. Both the court and the SFA "must be satisfied about King given his previous involvement on a board before Rangers were liquidated," and because of his conviction for 41 tax offenses in South Africa in '13. The SFA could "still block his ascension to the Rangers board if it does not consider him a fit and proper person." There reportedly has been communication between the SFA and King's representatives "but so far he has not put his name on Rangers' official return" (LONDON TIMES, 4/8).
