Glasgow's Rangers International Football Club plc confirmed on Monday, Jan. 5, that it has received a takeover approach from Phoenix Suns basketball team owner Robert Sarver, which adds a new dimension to the cash-strapped football club's struggle to secure its future after its 2012 bankruptcy filing. Rangers' statement gave no detail about the bid, but British Broadcasting Corp. earlier reported that Sarver offered £18 million ($27.6 million) just after Christmas for a controlling stake and pledged to invest another £15 million. A Rangers' spokesman declined to elaborate on the club's short statement, which noted that Sarver had until 5 p.m. London time on Feb. 2 to show his hand under U.K. takeover rules. The bid proposal intensifies a battle for control at Rangers that has drawn in an array of high-profile business figures from Scotland's largest city and beyond. It puts Sarver head to head with Sports Direct International plc founder and Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley, who late last year secured the appointment of ally Derek Llambias, first as non-executive director and then as CEO, after agreeing to provide Rangers with £3 million in emergency funding and arranging the ouster of former CEO Graham Wallace and co-director Philip Nash. Ashley's Mash Holdings Ltd. last year built a stake of about 8.9% in Rangers but was barred by the Scottish Football Association on Dec. 24 from lifting its stake to 29.9% because of restrictions on the ownership of more than one soccer club. Year-end share buying by businessmen Douglas Park, George Letham and George Taylor, who together own about 19% of the shares; and by former Rangers director Dave King, who recently acquired 14.6% through a family trust, mean the U.S. investor will likely have to work with them if he is to attain the 75% shareholder backing for the issue of new shares which he would need. Sky Sports reported that Sarver has already held talks with Park, Letham and Taylor, whose group is known as the Three Bears. Rangers' one-time leading shareholder, Isle of Man-based activist investor Laxey Partners Ltd., recently exited the investment with the sale of more than 16% of the club to the Three Bears consortium. As well as owning the Phoenix Suns and the Phoenix Mercury women's basketball team, Sarver is also chairman and CEO of Phoenix-based Western Alliance Bancorp. The Feb. 2 "put up or shut up" deadline would generally be extendible if Rangers itself asks the Takeover Panel for more time, and the clock would be re-set if another party emerges with an offer. Rangers also announced on Monday that shareholder and director Alexander Easdale has issued it a short-term loan of up to £500,000 to be used "for general working capital purposes over the next few days." Rangers' advisers are Adrian Hadden and Paul Shackleton at WH Ireland Ltd., which replaced Daniel Stewart & Co. about a month ago. Its legal advisers are Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP on English law, and DWF Biggard Baillie LLP on Scottish law. Rangers' shares were up close to 16% by early afternoon on the Alternative Investmetn Market in London on Monday. At the current price of 26 pence, the equity is worth £21.1 million. Rangers, which is associated with Protestantism and unionism in a city where sectarianism remains rife, filed for administration in February 2012 and was liquidated later that year. It currently sits at No. 2 behind Edinburgh-based Hearts in the second-ranked Scottish Championship.
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