Rangers takeover: Bill Miller made fortune by rescuing troubled firms

A DRIVEN businessman with a proven track record for turning around ailing companies, Bill Miller, 65, is an unlikely participant in the Rangers saga and his motivation for bidding has been something of a mystery.

Born in Detroit, – America’s Motor City – he abandoned early ambitions to work for Ford for a degree at the University of Michigan, earning an MBA in engineering, before entering the business world.

His role was to turn around troubled units and subsidiaries, a task that led him to the belief that “the big companies weren’t geared toward the shareholders”. He said: “They were geared toward a bureaucracy.”

Moving on to set up his empire, Miller Industries, he bought Holmes, a bankrupt company that had once held a 75 per cent share of the US tow-truck industry, and two other well-known names, Challenger and Century.

He stripped the companies back and added European subsidiaries – a risky strategy. But, as of last year, Mr Miller enjoyed annual sales of £255 million, some £35m of which came from outside the US.

He has been described as someone who guards his privacy and is not concerned with the trappings of wealth and publicity.

But those who know him, say that Mr Miller’s love of sport and his ability to turn around a company made the project of rescuing the Ibrox club seem a worthwhile pursuit.