Rangers’ wise man from east Stuart Gibson will first have to cover losses

It was easy to be dazzled by the figures reported to be set to flow into Rangers’ coffers courtesy of an impending major investment by successful Japan-based businessman Stuart Gibson.

Dave King will be stepping down as Rangers chairman but is not selling his shares and will still be involved in the Ibrox club. Picture: Rob Casey/SNS

The Paisley-born founder and co-CEO of Pan-Asian real estate development and investment vehicle e-Shang Redwood [ESR] is preparing a £20 million buy-in to the Ibrox club, with further funding expected to follow.

Such a sum might seem to offer the potential to give Rangers a real uplift in their bid to move closer to title and trophy monopolising rivals Celtic. Yet, the harsh reality is that £20m is a figure that, on current projections, would merely cover the losses that can be expected at Ibrox for the current season and the next to follow… whenever the global coronavirus pandemic allows for these campaigns to end and begin.

Rangers upped the ante with an £11m outlay on the transfer fees for Ryan Kent and Filip Helander last summer as Celtic embarked on a quest for their ninth straight title.

They did so in full knowledge that their accounts for the year ending June 2019 would show losses of £11m. The structural deficits in the Ibrox club’s finances since Dave King’s 2015 takeover – and those which resulted in oldco Rangers’ plunge into liquidation in 2012 – have forever been downplayed by the South Africa-based major shareholder and chairman as debts which board members have been ready and able to cover. King has done so through his family firm, New Oasis Asset Limited. Yet, as he announced he would step down as chairman at the club’s last agm, the 64-year-old, who controls 25.58 per cent, intimated the firm would not be in a position to sink any more into the club.

He said then that a new round of funding would be put in place. Gibson, courted by Rangers director George Taylor – based in Hong Kong where ESR is headquartered – will now become the club’s kingmaker by providing that funding. What Gibson won’t become, it would seem, is a King shaker.

While a good news story, it was peculiar that King’s first reaction to the reports of vital investment was to disabuse anyone of the notion he would be departing the scene.

It was initially reported King would sell up as Gibson moved in but, in a statement through the Press Association, the outgoing Rangers chairman stated otherwise.“I am not selling any shares,” King said. “As I said at the agm, we will raise new funds. No existing shareholders are selling.”

It must be said the background information thus far obtainable on Gibson, who is described as lifelong Rangers supporter with over 30 years business experience in the Far East, has been refreshingly transparent. His company website details the history and many acquisitions of ESR, which is reported to manage £1.5 billion of assets. The one Gibson interview unearthed, given last year, suggests a straightforward character – not a description that could be applied to some at the Ibrox helm over recent times.

“I’ve faced enormous challenges in Japan,” Gibson said. “We had the financial crisis in 2007 and we had only just recovered from that when we were hit with the 2011 earthquake in Japan.

“I’ve been through a lot here. I’ve been managing assets valued at £250 million for the past ten years and we employ staff around the world.”

He might not have been through anything like Rangers, though.