Scottish Championship side Rangers "have frozen out a bunch of mystery investors" after they refused to tell the club who owns their shares, according to Gary Ralston of the Scotland DAILY RECORD. Chair Dave King has neutered 10.4% of the club's shareholding, "owned by four parties as part of the umbrella group Beaufort Nominees." In total, Beaufort Nominees owned 21% of the club and its proxies "were controlled by Sandy Easdale," who controlled an additional 5% of his own stock. Beaufort Nominees was the group that "consistently voted with Charles Green and the previous board against the changes many Rangers fans wanted" before King eventually swept to power in March. The move was "part of the transparency promised by King and although the four groups will not be allowed to participate in any future share offering," it was not the reason behind the clarification sought (DAILY RECORD, 7/29). The BBC reported club directors are "trying to identify" who owns the 4 million shares held by Blue Pitch Holdings, the 700,000 held by Putney Holdings Ltd., the 2.6 million held by ATP Investments Ltd. and the 1.2 million held by Norne Anstalt. Fan groups have "regularly sought more information about the owners of the Blue Pitch shares and those of Margarita Holdings." Margarita Holdings is not listed in the company's shareholder register, but Blue Pitch and the other three groups "failed to respond when the directors sent the request for ownership information" under section 793 of the Companies Act 2006 (BBC, 7/29).
