Payout for Rangers chief
But pot for repaying Rangers creditors slashed by fees
RANGERS chairman Dave King stands to receive an initial £1.4 million next month as a creditor of the club’s liquidated operating company.
The South African businessman’s payout is due to him being registered as an unsecured creditor. He says he is owed £20m for his investment in the club 14 years ago.
Liquidator BDO has confirmed it is to provide an interim £10m payout to Rangers creditors by the end of next month, providing around six to seven pence in every pound owed.
It has further emerged that the payout pot to creditors in the liquidation of The Rangers Football Club plc has been reduced by one-third because of liquidator, legal and other administrative fees.
Nearly £11m has been paid out to accountants, lawyers and other administrative staff since BDO carried out the liquidation in October 2012, leaving £18m for creditors.
BDO papers show that £5.4m of the £6.2m costs of the liquidation incurred over the six months to the end of April were legal fees relating to the settlement of a claim against London-based Collyer Bristow, the solicitors involved in the controversial takeover of the club by Craig Whyte.
The liquidators banked £24m for Rangers creditors.
BDO said the fees went to London-based legal firm Stephen- son Harwood as “it had been necessary to instruct” the company on a “no win, no charge” conditional fee arrangement basis.
The arrangement meant that Stephenson Harwood was entitled to its costs plus an extra 75 to 100 per cent to “compensate them for the risk they would not get paid if the litigation failed”.
According to details revealed in an updated set of BDO accounts over the liquidation, the £10m payout will leave nearly £9m remaining in the creditors’ pot to pay off HM Revenue & Customs if it wins an appeal over the so-called big tax case.
The Rangers chairman and other creditors could end up having an even greater slice of the creditors’ cake if HMRC fails to convince courts that the oldco was liable for £46.2m plus charges over the use of Employment Benefit Trust loans to pay players and managers.
It was confirmed that £72m of the £94.4m owed to HMRC relies on the outcome of that appeal, which is due to start on July 7.
Its failure to win that would cut the debts owed from around £160m to £96.8m.
When Mr King ploughed money into the club, a new share issue had been made to improve the playing squad and develop a strong youth policy through a new academy.
Of that, £20m was described as new money from Mr King, invested through his Ben Nevis Holdings firm. As part of the changes Mr King became a non-executive director at Ibrox. Some of the new cash 14 years ago went towards lowering the club’s then £40m debt.
His claim places him third on the list of the biggest unsecured creditors of the liquidated Rangers firm, which was renamed RFC 2012 plc.
Mr King’s claim comes amid allegations he has made on the basis of non-disclosure by former Rangers owner Sir David Murray over the club’s true financial position in 2000 when he made the investment.
Sir David has previously insisted no financial information was withheld from Mr King and that during his time as chairman he had not made any complaints.
The 14-year-old rights issue involved Murray Sports, which was controlled by Mr Murray, taking up rights through its RFC Investment Holdings subsidiary to the tune of £32.3m.