Rangers International Football Club plc revealed the move to the London Stock Exchange in a statement that contained details of the major shareholders, including Mike Ashley, the owner of Newcastle United and retail firm Sports Direct.

It is understood up to £17m, before expenses, has been raised already through investors.

The leading investment funds who have pledged to buy in include Hargreave Hale, Artemis Investment Management, Cazenove Capital Management and Legal and General Investment Management.

Their backing appears to be an endorsement of the business plan drawn up for the club by chief executive Charles Green, finance director Brian Stockbridge, and commercial director Imran Ahmad.

A further £10m of shares will be made available to fans, who can buy in at the minimum price of £500, or through the BuyRangers scheme run by the Rangers Supporters Trust. It will collect money, at a minimum buy-in of £125, and then purchase a block of shares with the capital raised.

Fans will have until December 17 to buy shares.

If there was no public take-up of shares, the largest single shareholder would be Mr Green, with an 8.67% stake.

Hargreave Hale, with 8.58%, and Artemis, with 7.43%, would make up the top three shareholders.

Mr Ashley, whose Sports Direct recently signed a retail agreement with Rangers, currently owns 8.98% of Rangers Football Club Ltd and his shareholding would be diluted to 5.2% after listing.

Meanwhile, two new non-executive directors have been appointed. They are Philip Cartnell, executive chairman of Corac, a research and development company, and Frederick Bryan Smart, a non-executive director at Greka Drilling Limited.

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