DAVE KING, the Rangers chairman, has dismissed his ongoing battle with the Takeover Panel an ‘irrelevance’ as he pushes ahead with plans for an Ibrox share issue.

King was ordered to make an £11million offer to shareholders in Rangers International Football Club plc after being found to have breached ‘concert party’ rules during his rise to power in 2015.

Financial watchdogs at the Takeover Panel launched legal action after the South Africa-based businessman failed to provide ‘code-compliant’ proof he had the funds to complete the transaction.

Read more: Rangers Q&A: Dave King on Gerrard, transfer budgets and his Ibrox investment

King said: “They were placed into a trust account, proof of funds given to them. Then about two weeks ago the Takeover Panel approached me again and said they are unhappy now with the funds being held in South Africa and they would like them relocated into the UK to be held in a UK bank account in sterling.

“I said: ‘I am happy to do that’. But as you know I don’t have facilities in the UK, I would have to open a bank account, which I have agreed to do. I said: ‘That now requires an extension of the offer period’. I can’t get the money into the UK, open bank accounts, do the various KYC things you have to do with the banks in time to make the deadline.

“They didn’t grant the extension. That is where we are stuck right now. I have gone back to them and said: ‘I am going to take that under review because this is something you only asked for two weeks ago’.

“I am a South African resident, but my business interests are not in the UK therefore I do have to open bank accounts and that does take time. So that is really where we are right now. They have got proof of funds in Rands in South Africa, but they want it relocated to the UK. That is where we are at the moment.”

King was deemed to have acted ‘in concert’ with the Three Bears - Douglas Park, George Letham and George Taylor - as he removed the former Ibrox regime from power three years ago.

It was ruled that he must make an offer at 20p per share to his fellow investors.

Read more: Dave King: Rangers need just one title to turn the tables on Celtic

But the Gers chairman believes it is not an issue for his fellow directors and that nobody will accept his bid.

King said: “Nobody [on the board] has even discussed it. If it wasn’t for you guys, we wouldn’t be talking about this. It has got nothing to do with the football club and, quite frankly, it has nothing to do with most people but I am answering the questions because we are here.

“For me, it is an irrelevance quite frankly.

“I think pretty much [nobody will accept]. Nothing. The offer will not go through. It is not going to happen.

“There has to be a level of acceptance. It has no chance of being accepted.

“The offer is a technical thing that I have to do to comply with and I am doing my best to do it within the circumstances we have got.

“At the end of the day, it will mean nothing. It will not happen. It is a process we have to go through.

“It is going to have to be 50 per cent of the non-concert party shareholders so you need the Easdales, all the Beaufort Nominees, the Blue Pitches, the Margaritas, to sell at 20p and they are not going to do that.”

The battle with the Takeover Panel is not the only financial issue that King is dealing with at present as Rangers get set to launch a share issue ‘immediately’.

Read more: Rangers Q&A: Dave King on Gerrard, transfer budgets and his Ibrox investment

Some of the soft loans - totalling around £17million - from investors will be converted to equity as part of the deal, while Club 1872 are bidding to raise seven figures to allow them to potentially up their 10.71 per cent stake.

Rangers appointed Steven Gerrard as their manager last week and funds will be made available to him to add to his squad this summer.

King said:”We’re going one-for-one on this specific issue.

“We’ll be looking at just over £16m. Right now it’s £6m and £10 in loans but we might go £8m and £8m.

“If the player plan goes the other way we might do it the other way around.

“We’ve not yet made our final decision but it won’t be less than £6m new cash.”

Results for the 12 months to November 2017 showed RIFC plc made a loss of £6.7million for the year.

King confirmed that the business will continue to operate at a deficit as funds are injected to allow the Light Blues to challenge Celtic in the Premiership.

Glasgow-born King has pledged to continue backing his boyhood heroes and has played down the chances of new money coming into Ibrox.

He said: “At this stage there is nothing external other than existing shareholders and existing investors. We’re not talking to anyone new who’s not there already.”

Read more: Dave King: Rangers need just one title to turn the tables on Celtic

King previously ploughed £20million into Rangers during Sir David Murray’s Ibrox reign but left the board following the sale of the club to Craig Whyte.

When asked about the possibility of Murray returning and investing again, King said: “Zero percent would be a bit on the high side.It’s more than unlikely.”

Earlier this year, Rangers announced they had secured banking facilities for the first time since Whyte’s ill-fated tenure at Ibrox.

A £3million deal was struck with Close Brothers and the loan was secured against key assets Edmiston House and the Albion car park at Ibrox.

Supporters had questioned why Rangers required the facility whilst money was coming from wealthy supporters but King has hailed the deal as an important step forward for the Light Blues.

He said: “It’s our single greatest achievement. To me, the best thing we did was getting that Close facility.

“I think that was huge for this club, that we could go actually go out into the market place and finally get a third party to actually give us that facility.

“I think that was enormous for the normalisation of this club.”