Rangers Supporters' Trust make 'decisive' share purchase to weaken Easdale Ibrox bloc

The Trust have splashed out £157,500 to snap up 450,000 shares from Beaufort Nominees, who hold the shares for the proxy block represented by controversial Light Blues director Sandy Easdale.

It is understood all the shares held by Beaufort are original investors Charles Green brought on board and would have voted for the current regime to stay in power.

With the make-or-break EGM now just days away, the shock move by the RST could prove decisive in ousting David Somers, Derek Llambias, Barry Leach and James Easdale from power.

Having boosted their shareholding to 2.12%, and increased their voting power to 3.8% after hundreds of supporters proxied their shares in recent days, the Trust are poised to play a major role at the shareholder summit as Dave King, Paul Murray and John Gilligan bid for power at Ibrox.

As revealed in SportTimes yesterday, key investors River and Mercantile have been tipped to also vote for the EGM resolutions that would force regime change and RST spokesman Chris Graham is delighted the Easdale block, which consists of around 26% of the shares in RIFC plc, has now been breached.

Graham said: "We have shifted our focus in recent weeks to gathering proxies, but also to targeting shareholders who we believe are aligned with the board, but may be willing to sell.

"Purchasing shares off the market only takes you so far and we wanted to try to make inroads into the opposition's holding as well. This purchase is the culmination of two weeks of hard work on that front. We are delighted to have secured what we believe will be over a 1% swing in favour of the nominee directors.

"None of this would have been possible without the fans who contribute to the RST and Buy Rangers. If they continue to join the RST in numbers and contribute to Buy Ranger,s then we will continue our efforts to reclaim our club.

"Whilst not being complacent, we believe this is a decisive purchase. We also believe it signals the start of the break-up of the shareholder group that has aligned itself with this board through Sandy Easdale.

"There are clear signs that they know their time is up. We urge fans to continue to proxy shares and, even more importantly, continue to join the RST. With the fans' help we can win this EGM and invest significant amounts directly into our club after the EGM."

King is bullish about his chances of removing the under-fire directors from power in the coming days, with this latest share purchase from the RST another major boost to his Ibrox ambitions.

The Trust are now the twelfth-largest investor in Rangers and will be joined by fellow-fan group Rangers First in voting against the board.

Supporters hope it is only a matter of time before the discredited regime is kicked out of their club, and former Ibrox hopeful Jim McColl has given his backing to the King bid.

He said: "The mismanagement of Rangers has been appalling and, if that was a normal public business, they would be sacked.

"There is uproar and hopefully they'll be sacked and I'll be tuning in to find exactly what happens in the EGM, but I'm absolutely supportive of what Dave King and the Three Bears are trying to do."

The board have continually sought to discredit King in recent weeks as they bid to cling to power, citing his dispute with the South African Revenue Service and claiming his move for power could be thwarted by the authorities.

But McColl has dismissed any fears over King's ability to assume the Ibrox throne should he be successful in toppling the regime next week.

The billionaire said: "I have no doubt he'll pass a fit and proper test - he's got the letter from the South African tax authorities and the equivalent of their Stock Exchange and their highest financial authorities that he's absolutely clear.

"There is no impediment to him in business and it's just scaremongering by those opposed to him. I know Dave King reasonably well and he's a very good businessman and passionate to a fault about Rangers."