REGULATORS have threatened to charge Rangers chairman Dave King with contempt of court over his failure to make a judge-ordered £11 million bid for the club's shares.

The Rangers chief has been told he is in breach of takeover rules by failing to make the bid and the Takeover Panel has now served him with contempt of court papers in South Africa where he lives.

It came after the Takeover Panel originally decided that a formal takeover should have been triggered after the Three Bears group led by Mr King secured more than 30 per cent of the voting rights in Rangers.

The regulator ordered Mr King to make the offer within 28 days and announced yesterday that his bid to get the deadline to make an offer extended had failed.

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The panel also revealed it had served contempt papers last month. The offence carries a possible term.

Rangers International Football Club plc said it understood the funds for the offer are available and that Mr King's Laird Investments (Proprietary) Limited was seeking approval from the government in South Africa, where his company is based, to transfer the necessary funds to the UK.

Lord Carloway also dismissed an appeal in March, forcing a bid for 70 per cent of the shares to be made, after agreeing that Mr King and others acted together to force their way into the Ibrox boardroom three years ago.

The panel said an initial share bid announcement by Mr King did not comply with the Takeover Code, as it was not supported by cleared funds.

Mr King's Laird firm had said in the March 29 announcement that the bid would be funded "using the receipt of dividends" amounting to £13,074,842.90 which was "to be declared on April 4".

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Mr King had gone through a lengthy battle through through the courts to stave off pressure to buy the shares, fearing the heavy financial toll it would place on him.

During an October hearing, Mr King's advocate, Lord Davidson of Glen Clova QC, argued that the Rangers chief was "penniless" adding: "Any order wouldn't secure compliance."

Under Takeover Code rules, a written offer to shareholders had to be made within 28 days of Laird making the bid announcement.