Rangers takeover: Blue Knights and Kennedy try ‘final roll of the dice’

THE Blue Knights/Brian Kennedy consortium have redoubled their efforts to bring the process of selecting a preferred bidder for Rangers to a head with a new revised offer for the Ibrox club, which was re-submitted today following another intense round of talks over the weekend.

• Brian Kennedy’s spokesman confirms ‘revised bid’

• Duff and Phelps advised that previous £5m offer was not acceptable

• Bill Miller bid provisionally acceptable to administrators

Although sources close to the bid were reluctant to reveal exact details of the new offer, it has been described as being “worth everyone’s while” following criticism that the original bid, submitted on Friday and reported to be worth £5 million, was too low to be commercially acceptable to creditors.

The offer has also been described as a “final roll of the dice” on the part of both Murray and Kennedy, with the pair having been involved in on and off talks to buy the club – working at first independently of each other – since soon after Rangers were placed in administration, ten weeks ago.

“They [the Blue Knights/Kennedy] can only bid what they can bid,” said the source. “We are the closing stage of this sage. Decisions have to be made.”

A spokesman for Duff & Phelps, the Ibrox club’s administrators, today confirmed that a renewed offer had been received from the Blue Knights and Kennedy, but he

would not reveal whether it was a significantly higher one than the bid received at the end of last week.

A spokesman for Kennedy had earlier said that “Brian Kennedy has asked me to advise you all that a revised bid has been submitted to the administrators”. Kennedy, the owner of Sale Sharks, has been working over the weekend with Murray to put together a new bid, and one which won’t now be revised further. Kennedy had described himself as a reluctant bidder in the first place for Rangers, but had got involved in the race to buy the Ibrox club out of a sense of duty. Kennedy grew up in Edinburgh as a fan of Hibernian.

The Blue Knights, led by Murray, were set to be named preferred bidders two weeks previously but former partners Ticketus would not pay the exclusivity fee. This appeared to leave the way clear for the American tycoon Bill Miller, whose bid to buy the club is hinged on a guarantee of no further sanctions being placed on the club by the Scottish Premier League.

Both offers currently on the table are subject to conditions, something which is being blamed for the delay in naming a preferred bidder. Rangers’ administrators have launched an appeal against a £160,000 fine and 12-month transfer embargo imposed on the club last week by the Scottish Football Association.

Miller has been in talks with the SPL and SFA, while representatives from the Ibrox club’s administrators were at Hampden earlier today to attend an SPL general meeting, where it was unanimously agreed to postpone a vote on proposed new financial fair play proposals until next Monday.

Joint-administrator David Whitehouse said Miller’s £11.2million bid, which involves transferring the club’s assets to a new company, was acceptable and claimed there could be clarity early this week over whether the American could proceed. He added that Miller could theoretically take control before the end of the season. However, following Sunday’s Old Firm defeat to Celtic, Rangers manager Ally McCoist admitted that liquidation “looks more of a possibility now than it ever has”.