Dave King: American takeover of Rangers almost certain

Dave King says the deal for an American consortium to take over Rangers has more than a “90% chance” of being completed, and it could happen next month.

Health tycoon Andrew Cavenagh and Paraag Marathe,who leads the financial side of NFL team San Francisco 49ers, are aiming to take at least a 51% controlling stake in the club and travelled to Glasgow to tour Ibrox last week as they close in on a deal.

Rangers’ single largest shareholder and the club’s former chairman holds just under 13% of its shares.

He has only occasionally commented from the sidelines since stepping down as chairman five years ago.

He believes the potential new ownership has the financial backing and the plan in place to improve the club’s fortunes after a spell that has seen rivals Celtic dominate the domestic competitions.

King said in a radio interview that talks about selling his shares to Cavenagh and the 49ers had been ongoing for six months but that the deal was now entering the final stages.

“The position as I see it now is that there’s a 90% probability that it will happen,” the businessman told TalkSport.

“You know, these discussions are been going on for a long time.

“About six months ago was the first time I chatted to Andrew to see if there was a basis of getting a deal done that would work for both parties and along the way with any negotiations like these, there were times where it was probably touch and go.

“If you ask me where we are now in terms of legals being signed, in terms of the type of conditions precedent that still has to be fulfilled, I would certainly put it at above 90% right now.”

The Scot, who is based in South Africa, said that finding the right people to take the club forward was “a legacy issue” for him and that he wouldn’t sell his shares to someone who he didn’t feel had the financial muscle to improve the club substantially. King said that it was clear the existing Ibrox hierarchy wasn’t capable or willing to put in the funds needed and that made him keen to talk to interested parties.

“I did make a statement, I think probably around about last September or October, where the club was clearly in trouble, operationally, and financially, and at that time, I kind of made an open offer, you to come back, maybe spend two years to try and get the operational issues back on track, get the funding back on track, and in that time to try and find new new potential owners who could take the club forward

“I think it was clear both within inside the club and outside the club, that directors had investment fatigue. And you certainly can’t keep running a club like Rangers with a kind of a cap-in-hand approach to funding every time you need a million quid or two. That wasn’t sustainable.

And I think the fact that Rangers had fallen so far behind following [the 55th league title], I just felt the gap was too big to bridge, just looking at local investment from the directors.

“So I started a project at that time to see if I could try and find someone who I could bring in, who was substantial, who could take the club forward and make sure it didn’t only have a football plan, but there was a financial plan behind it as well. Someone with deeper pockets, someone with sustainability in terms of funding.”

King revealed that it was former Ibrox director Paul Murray who had introduced him to the Americans and said that they were “the real deal”.

He revealed that as talks progressed, and after seeing proof that the investors could cover the “substantial figure” he believed it would take to not only buy the club but fund the rebuild over the next two years, he helped put together the plan to get the deal to the level of a takeover.

“I gave them an estimate as to what I thought was required, which was fairly substantial,” he said. “We managed to get a meeting of minds on that, where through this combination of existing shareholders, selling their shares, plus a rights issue to put money into the club, then I feel that they’ve made the right level of commitment.

“I’m comfortable enough to say to support us as a supporter, I strongly support this investment into the club.”

King now feels that things are on track to be completed by the middle of next month and acknowledged that the work will then have to begin quickly to revamp the squad, and appoint a manager, ahead of the new season.

“There are still a few things to be done,” he explained. “There’s a conditions precedent. There’s approval from various leagues, the SFA, the SPFL etc.

“There’s still some conditions pressing that need done to get the deal across the line, and yes, they will be looking at what they will what they have to do because they will have to hit the ground running quite quickly,. There’s Champions League qualifiers coming up.

“Let’s say that this deal realistically happens, say mid-June. I think May’s not possible.

“Let’s say mid-June is realistic.”