Investment

[simplythebestest 2,145]

2 hours ago, LegendofCoop said:

Great gesture.....esprcially in the current climate!!  Scum fans now pouring over his finances as we speak trying to find any dirt on him. You know it's true!! 

HMRC

[southcoastbear 1,639]

Will this take King's block to below 25% then?

[LegendofCoop 17,273]

1 hour ago, simplythebestest said:

HMRC

One & the  same aint they??  

[DMax399 3,698]

Money coming into the club, especially in the current climate, can only be a positive thing.

[plymouthranger 3,867]

Have to say, the fact the likes of Latham, Park etc continue to invest in the club in this climate is fantastic. 
 

They must genuinely love the club, as it would be so easy to blame Covid and shirk any responsibility 

[Sweetheart 8,458]

6 hours ago, southcoastbear said:

Will this take King's block to below 25% then?

Unless King has invested also. 

[magic8ball 27,901]

19 hours ago, LegendofCoop said:

Great gesture.....esprcially in the current climate!!  Scum fans now pouring over his finances as we speak trying to find any dirt on him. You know it's true!! 

Imagine the fun they would have if they ever investigated Fritzel 

[LegendofCoop 17,273]

2 minutes ago, magic8ball said:

Imagine the fun they would have if they ever investigated Fritzel 

Or their own scummy entity.

[magic8ball 27,901]

1 hour ago, LegendofCoop said:

Or their own scummy entity.

Bastions of morality have nothing to hide .😉

[glasgow argyle 1,093]

On 09/10/2020 at 14:06, LochendBilly said:

Ill phil nae weans has just lost the plot even more.

Michael Stewart does not like this

[Bears r us 30,791]

Read this in the ED B & F section on Friday about Stuart Gibson investing that amount, and it is certainly good news.  

[BridgeIsBlue 66,606]

 

[BridgeIsBlue 66,606]

A sense of adventure and a shrewd business brain has taken Stuart Gibson from Paisley across the world. The Far East is home for Gibson today, but his bonds with Glasgow are now financial as well as emotional following his £5million investment in Rangers.

The co-founder and co-CEO of logistics platform ESR, Gibson became the fourth largest shareholder in his boyhood heroes this month when he secured an 8.27 per cent stake as part of a rights issue that raised £8million.

The launch of ESR on the markets in Hong Kong last year was worth around £1.3billion and now Gibson is the latest money man to join the strong Ibrox investor pool.

 

In an exclusive interview with Herald and Times Sport, he reveals the details and motivations behind the deal that has made him a key financial figure at Rangers.

COULD YOU TALK ME THROUGH THE TIMELINE OF YOUR INVOLVEMENT IN RANGERS? DID YOU GO TO THEM OR DID THEY APPROACH YOU?

SG: When we did our IPO in Hong Kong, the lead IPO investment bank was Morgan Stanley and the lead investment banker was George Taylor. We did a roadshow and that started in Asia, went through Europe and went to Boston, New York, Chicago, and in that 21 days you are basically having breakfast with these people, having lunch, having 20 meetings a day.

You have dinner at night and a drink in the bar before you go to bed and you are flying with them. It became a very accelerated and intense relationship. I knew who George was because of the Three Bears (George Taylor, George Letham and Douglas Park) background and knew who his father, Sir Teddy Taylor, was from back in the Thatcher era.

I had an idea who George was but in that three weeks that we spent on the road, you get to know somebody. I think George could sense that the IPO was going to actually work and that is when he started hinting and saying ‘would you like to be part of the future of the club?’ That is when the conversation started.

That was probably last July when we started it and we had a good IPO in the November. I said to him ‘yeah, put me down for £5million, just to see how I get on with the club and how the club gets on with me’.

 

The world fell off a cliff at the beginning of March, which was round about the time I was supposed to stump up the cash. It just wouldn’t have looked right, for a newly listed public company, for one of the founders and CEOs to be chucking money at a football club. I politely asked them if we could defer it until things normalise a bit and the club were very understanding.

I had signed a commitment to them and they said ‘sure, everyone is in the same boat, let us know when you are ready’. Things did start to normalise a couple of months later so I think by May I said ‘I will put in £1million now as a gesture of my faith going forward in this’ and they asked what the timeline was for the balance and the other £4million.

I said it was probably going to be closer to the third quarter. Things normalised, it was going well with the business. We had been having a great year but the public markets and share prices went down because people were taking money out of the market.

Things are more normal now so I felt confident enough with the way that things were going that I could go back and say ‘OK, I am ready to fulfil my commitment’ and that is what I did three or four weeks ago.

DO YOU SEE THE £5MILLION AS THE LIMIT OF YOUR INVESTMENT OR WILL THERE BE FURTHER MONEY COMING FROM YOU DOWN THE LINE?

 

SG: Probably there will be. There are a couple of factors involved there. One is my wife’s tolerance, to be quite honest! It is a strange conversation to have with a Japanese wife about why you want to put sums of money into a football club that she doesn’t know much about.

But she is very supportive, she has been to Ibrox with me four or five times in the last year and she has met everyone that she needs to meet at board level and in the club. We have always been treated really well. That is one factor.

But, to be honest, it is not really a case of me deciding ‘look guys, I want to step up and increase my shareholding’. It is when the club ask if I would be interested in a new share issue.

I couldn’t go to the club tomorrow and say ‘look, I want to double up and I want to own 15 or 16 per cent’. It doesn’t work like that, because for that to happen then someone has to sell. From what I know of the board, nobody wants to sell.

 

The board has been through its turmoil in the last ten years, but the board that we have in place now, there is nobody that is thinking now or will contemplate in the future selling. And that is very much the way that I feel as well. The board would have to have a meeting and decide they were going to have a new share issue and, depending on what they needed and when they needed it, then, yes, I would definitely consider it.

But it is not really for me to say ‘look, I want to double up’ because that is not on the table to be quite honest. It is what they need and when they need it and if I am in a position to help then I probably will.

 

IS A BOARD POSITION SOMETHING YOU WOULD LOOK FOR OR CONSIDER SO THAT YOU HAVE A SAY IN THE DECISION MAKING?

SG: I am just happy to get lunch in the Blue Room to be honest! It is very different from when I used to go and watch Rangers, trust me. I used to go in the father and son gate and my dad would be throwing me over.

I don’t think I am qualified, to be honest. It is a different universe for me. It is one thing being on the terraces, or in the stands nowadays, and roaring your heart out, but it is another thing sitting making commercial decisions and trying to be dispassionate about it as well.

I have met all the board, having lunch in the Blue Room or at various games. I met Dave King when I was over with the family for the Bayer Leverkusen game, which was the last flight I made to Scotland.

I met Dave on the night of the game and, by coincidence, we were on the same flight to London the next day. It was just family stuff, I had the twins with me at the time so there was no business. It was just a ‘welcome to the club’ kind of thing.

I have met Douglas Park, I have met Alastair Johnston and there is another shareholder in Hong Kong, Barry Scott, that I have met a few times, and Julian Woldhart.

 

To be honest, I am happy with the composition of the board. You have got some lifetime Rangers fans in there with their hearts in the right place and they will make sure that some of the atrocities that happened ten years ago will never happen again.

 

And you have got some fairly unemotional, completely objective business heads in there, like Julian, who want to see the club have commercial success. That has to translate into winning stuff on the pitch, which puts money on the balance sheet, which means we can put more money on the pitch.

I don’t think I can offer anything to be quite honest. I am going to take a few years to get to know the board a bit better and hopefully they will like me and we will continue to get along. With regards to joining the board, I just don’t feel qualified, to be honest.

Putting in some money shouldn’t buy you a seat at the table. I am not in the room and at the table. I obviously hear stuff through the two Georges (Taylor and Letham), who are great, great people, and if I ask a question they will give me an honest answer.

I just don’t feel qualified at the moment. As I said, we will see how it goes in the next few years.

HOW MUCH COMFORT DO YOU HAVE PUTTING YOUR MONEY INTO RANGERS TODAY GIVEN THE BOARD AND FINANCIAL STABILITY THEY NOW HAVE COMPARED TO A FEW YEARS AGO?

SG: For me personally, I just don’t see a scenario where I would ever sell the shares. If anything, I would increase my shareholding.

To step back a bit, coming from Paisley with a grandmother that grew up in the shadow of Ibrox, my own parents have passed away and as time goes on your family gets pared back and pared back. I remember my dad used to take me to the Rangers games and when I was a bit older I would go with my pals.

For me, I have got two six-year-old boys and they are starting to get the passion for Rangers. When I am gone, if they have still got a reason to go to Glasgow, I would have fulfilled my position as a father at least and kept that connection to Scotland.

I don’t see why else they would go to Scotland if they are going to be living in Japan or wherever they are going to be living. So, for me, it was important to ensure that continuity and that link to Glasgow and Rangers was there.

 

With the regards to how the board is, in the current situation, I am not close to the numbers but it is public information that they lost a wee bit of money last season, but they never sold anyone. The Scottish model is that you have to sell a couple of players to the Premier League to make some money, and hopefully you win domestic trophies along the road and get a run in Europe.

I am not close to the numbers, but Rangers should be having a good year financially for the 19/20 and 20/21 season. They haven’t sold anyone yet but they had a decent run in Europe and the season tickets were sold out in days, the full allocation of season tickets are gone.

Rangers are in that position where they can weather the storm because they have got that loyal fan base that will support their club and they bought season tickets when they knew they probably wouldn’t get to see the games. I think Rangers will be in pretty good stead in 2020 and 2021.

DO YOU SEE THE RANGERS MODEL AS MAKING MONEY FROM SUCCESS ON THE FIELD BUT WITH THERE ALWAYS BEING THE REQUIREMENT FOR EXTERNAL FINANCE?

SG: With Rangers and Celtic, it is always going to be an arms race and our wage bill is half of theirs. We have had a good run so far but I don’t want to get carried away. I would rather be pessimistic and be hugely surprised than be overly optimistic. We have had a good run in Europe and domestically.

They are not mugs in the East End of the city. They are in bad form right now, but they are not mugs. There is always going to be an arms race between Rangers and Celtic and you are always going to need more money.

The money from Scottish broadcasting hardly keeps the lights on and pays the salaries to be quite honest. If you want to get games in Europe, you are always going to have to take in money.

TOMORROW: Stuart Gibson’s boyhood love of Rangers and his journey from Scotland across the world as he lives his dream in the Far East

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/18815531.amp/?ref=twtrec&__twitter_impression=true

[simplythebestest 2,145]

18 minutes ago, BridgeIsBlue said:

A sense of adventure and a shrewd business brain has taken Stuart Gibson from Paisley across the world. The Far East is home for Gibson today, but his bonds with Glasgow are now financial as well as emotional following his £5million investment in Rangers.

The co-founder and co-CEO of logistics platform ESR, Gibson became the fourth largest shareholder in his boyhood heroes this month when he secured an 8.27 per cent stake as part of a rights issue that raised £8million.

The launch of ESR on the markets in Hong Kong last year was worth around £1.3billion and now Gibson is the latest money man to join the strong Ibrox investor pool.

 

In an exclusive interview with Herald and Times Sport, he reveals the details and motivations behind the deal that has made him a key financial figure at Rangers.

COULD YOU TALK ME THROUGH THE TIMELINE OF YOUR INVOLVEMENT IN RANGERS? DID YOU GO TO THEM OR DID THEY APPROACH YOU?

SG: When we did our IPO in Hong Kong, the lead IPO investment bank was Morgan Stanley and the lead investment banker was George Taylor. We did a roadshow and that started in Asia, went through Europe and went to Boston, New York, Chicago, and in that 21 days you are basically having breakfast with these people, having lunch, having 20 meetings a day.

You have dinner at night and a drink in the bar before you go to bed and you are flying with them. It became a very accelerated and intense relationship. I knew who George was because of the Three Bears (George Taylor, George Letham and Douglas Park) background and knew who his father, Sir Teddy Taylor, was from back in the Thatcher era.

I had an idea who George was but in that three weeks that we spent on the road, you get to know somebody. I think George could sense that the IPO was going to actually work and that is when he started hinting and saying ‘would you like to be part of the future of the club?’ That is when the conversation started.

That was probably last July when we started it and we had a good IPO in the November. I said to him ‘yeah, put me down for £5million, just to see how I get on with the club and how the club gets on with me’.

 

The world fell off a cliff at the beginning of March, which was round about the time I was supposed to stump up the cash. It just wouldn’t have looked right, for a newly listed public company, for one of the founders and CEOs to be chucking money at a football club. I politely asked them if we could defer it until things normalise a bit and the club were very understanding.

I had signed a commitment to them and they said ‘sure, everyone is in the same boat, let us know when you are ready’. Things did start to normalise a couple of months later so I think by May I said ‘I will put in £1million now as a gesture of my faith going forward in this’ and they asked what the timeline was for the balance and the other £4million.

I said it was probably going to be closer to the third quarter. Things normalised, it was going well with the business. We had been having a great year but the public markets and share prices went down because people were taking money out of the market.

Things are more normal now so I felt confident enough with the way that things were going that I could go back and say ‘OK, I am ready to fulfil my commitment’ and that is what I did three or four weeks ago.

DO YOU SEE THE £5MILLION AS THE LIMIT OF YOUR INVESTMENT OR WILL THERE BE FURTHER MONEY COMING FROM YOU DOWN THE LINE?

 

SG: Probably there will be. There are a couple of factors involved there. One is my wife’s tolerance, to be quite honest! It is a strange conversation to have with a Japanese wife about why you want to put sums of money into a football club that she doesn’t know much about.

But she is very supportive, she has been to Ibrox with me four or five times in the last year and she has met everyone that she needs to meet at board level and in the club. We have always been treated really well. That is one factor.

But, to be honest, it is not really a case of me deciding ‘look guys, I want to step up and increase my shareholding’. It is when the club ask if I would be interested in a new share issue.

I couldn’t go to the club tomorrow and say ‘look, I want to double up and I want to own 15 or 16 per cent’. It doesn’t work like that, because for that to happen then someone has to sell. From what I know of the board, nobody wants to sell.

 

The board has been through its turmoil in the last ten years, but the board that we have in place now, there is nobody that is thinking now or will contemplate in the future selling. And that is very much the way that I feel as well. The board would have to have a meeting and decide they were going to have a new share issue and, depending on what they needed and when they needed it, then, yes, I would definitely consider it.

But it is not really for me to say ‘look, I want to double up’ because that is not on the table to be quite honest. It is what they need and when they need it and if I am in a position to help then I probably will.

 

IS A BOARD POSITION SOMETHING YOU WOULD LOOK FOR OR CONSIDER SO THAT YOU HAVE A SAY IN THE DECISION MAKING?

SG: I am just happy to get lunch in the Blue Room to be honest! It is very different from when I used to go and watch Rangers, trust me. I used to go in the father and son gate and my dad would be throwing me over.

I don’t think I am qualified, to be honest. It is a different universe for me. It is one thing being on the terraces, or in the stands nowadays, and roaring your heart out, but it is another thing sitting making commercial decisions and trying to be dispassionate about it as well.

I have met all the board, having lunch in the Blue Room or at various games. I met Dave King when I was over with the family for the Bayer Leverkusen game, which was the last flight I made to Scotland.

I met Dave on the night of the game and, by coincidence, we were on the same flight to London the next day. It was just family stuff, I had the twins with me at the time so there was no business. It was just a ‘welcome to the club’ kind of thing.

I have met Douglas Park, I have met Alastair Johnston and there is another shareholder in Hong Kong, Barry Scott, that I have met a few times, and Julian Woldhart.

 

To be honest, I am happy with the composition of the board. You have got some lifetime Rangers fans in there with their hearts in the right place and they will make sure that some of the atrocities that happened ten years ago will never happen again.

 

And you have got some fairly unemotional, completely objective business heads in there, like Julian, who want to see the club have commercial success. That has to translate into winning stuff on the pitch, which puts money on the balance sheet, which means we can put more money on the pitch.

I don’t think I can offer anything to be quite honest. I am going to take a few years to get to know the board a bit better and hopefully they will like me and we will continue to get along. With regards to joining the board, I just don’t feel qualified, to be honest.

Putting in some money shouldn’t buy you a seat at the table. I am not in the room and at the table. I obviously hear stuff through the two Georges (Taylor and Letham), who are great, great people, and if I ask a question they will give me an honest answer.

I just don’t feel qualified at the moment. As I said, we will see how it goes in the next few years.

HOW MUCH COMFORT DO YOU HAVE PUTTING YOUR MONEY INTO RANGERS TODAY GIVEN THE BOARD AND FINANCIAL STABILITY THEY NOW HAVE COMPARED TO A FEW YEARS AGO?

SG: For me personally, I just don’t see a scenario where I would ever sell the shares. If anything, I would increase my shareholding.

To step back a bit, coming from Paisley with a grandmother that grew up in the shadow of Ibrox, my own parents have passed away and as time goes on your family gets pared back and pared back. I remember my dad used to take me to the Rangers games and when I was a bit older I would go with my pals.

For me, I have got two six-year-old boys and they are starting to get the passion for Rangers. When I am gone, if they have still got a reason to go to Glasgow, I would have fulfilled my position as a father at least and kept that connection to Scotland.

I don’t see why else they would go to Scotland if they are going to be living in Japan or wherever they are going to be living. So, for me, it was important to ensure that continuity and that link to Glasgow and Rangers was there.

 

With the regards to how the board is, in the current situation, I am not close to the numbers but it is public information that they lost a wee bit of money last season, but they never sold anyone. The Scottish model is that you have to sell a couple of players to the Premier League to make some money, and hopefully you win domestic trophies along the road and get a run in Europe.

I am not close to the numbers, but Rangers should be having a good year financially for the 19/20 and 20/21 season. They haven’t sold anyone yet but they had a decent run in Europe and the season tickets were sold out in days, the full allocation of season tickets are gone.

Rangers are in that position where they can weather the storm because they have got that loyal fan base that will support their club and they bought season tickets when they knew they probably wouldn’t get to see the games. I think Rangers will be in pretty good stead in 2020 and 2021.

DO YOU SEE THE RANGERS MODEL AS MAKING MONEY FROM SUCCESS ON THE FIELD BUT WITH THERE ALWAYS BEING THE REQUIREMENT FOR EXTERNAL FINANCE?

SG: With Rangers and Celtic, it is always going to be an arms race and our wage bill is half of theirs. We have had a good run so far but I don’t want to get carried away. I would rather be pessimistic and be hugely surprised than be overly optimistic. We have had a good run in Europe and domestically.

They are not mugs in the East End of the city. They are in bad form right now, but they are not mugs. There is always going to be an arms race between Rangers and Celtic and you are always going to need more money.

The money from Scottish broadcasting hardly keeps the lights on and pays the salaries to be quite honest. If you want to get games in Europe, you are always going to have to take in money.

TOMORROW: Stuart Gibson’s boyhood love of Rangers and his journey from Scotland across the world as he lives his dream in the Far East

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/18815531.amp/?ref=twtrec&__twitter_impression=true

Sounds like he's got a great attitude, and I love the fact he's trying to keep a family tie to Rangers with his two boys.

[stewaj3 1,446]

Well that article was refreshing. Didn't have any of the look at me stuff we've seen in the past.

Seems like a top guy.

[RFC55 108,802]

1 hour ago, BridgeIsBlue said:

A sense of adventure and a shrewd business brain has taken Stuart Gibson from Paisley across the world. The Far East is home for Gibson today, but his bonds with Glasgow are now financial as well as emotional following his £5million investment in Rangers.

The co-founder and co-CEO of logistics platform ESR, Gibson became the fourth largest shareholder in his boyhood heroes this month when he secured an 8.27 per cent stake as part of a rights issue that raised £8million.

The launch of ESR on the markets in Hong Kong last year was worth around £1.3billion and now Gibson is the latest money man to join the strong Ibrox investor pool.

 

In an exclusive interview with Herald and Times Sport, he reveals the details and motivations behind the deal that has made him a key financial figure at Rangers.

COULD YOU TALK ME THROUGH THE TIMELINE OF YOUR INVOLVEMENT IN RANGERS? DID YOU GO TO THEM OR DID THEY APPROACH YOU?

SG: When we did our IPO in Hong Kong, the lead IPO investment bank was Morgan Stanley and the lead investment banker was George Taylor. We did a roadshow and that started in Asia, went through Europe and went to Boston, New York, Chicago, and in that 21 days you are basically having breakfast with these people, having lunch, having 20 meetings a day.

You have dinner at night and a drink in the bar before you go to bed and you are flying with them. It became a very accelerated and intense relationship. I knew who George was because of the Three Bears (George Taylor, George Letham and Douglas Park) background and knew who his father, Sir Teddy Taylor, was from back in the Thatcher era.

I had an idea who George was but in that three weeks that we spent on the road, you get to know somebody. I think George could sense that the IPO was going to actually work and that is when he started hinting and saying ‘would you like to be part of the future of the club?’ That is when the conversation started.

That was probably last July when we started it and we had a good IPO in the November. I said to him ‘yeah, put me down for £5million, just to see how I get on with the club and how the club gets on with me’.

 

The world fell off a cliff at the beginning of March, which was round about the time I was supposed to stump up the cash. It just wouldn’t have looked right, for a newly listed public company, for one of the founders and CEOs to be chucking money at a football club. I politely asked them if we could defer it until things normalise a bit and the club were very understanding.

I had signed a commitment to them and they said ‘sure, everyone is in the same boat, let us know when you are ready’. Things did start to normalise a couple of months later so I think by May I said ‘I will put in £1million now as a gesture of my faith going forward in this’ and they asked what the timeline was for the balance and the other £4million.

I said it was probably going to be closer to the third quarter. Things normalised, it was going well with the business. We had been having a great year but the public markets and share prices went down because people were taking money out of the market.

Things are more normal now so I felt confident enough with the way that things were going that I could go back and say ‘OK, I am ready to fulfil my commitment’ and that is what I did three or four weeks ago.

DO YOU SEE THE £5MILLION AS THE LIMIT OF YOUR INVESTMENT OR WILL THERE BE FURTHER MONEY COMING FROM YOU DOWN THE LINE?

 

SG: Probably there will be. There are a couple of factors involved there. One is my wife’s tolerance, to be quite honest! It is a strange conversation to have with a Japanese wife about why you want to put sums of money into a football club that she doesn’t know much about.

But she is very supportive, she has been to Ibrox with me four or five times in the last year and she has met everyone that she needs to meet at board level and in the club. We have always been treated really well. That is one factor.

But, to be honest, it is not really a case of me deciding ‘look guys, I want to step up and increase my shareholding’. It is when the club ask if I would be interested in a new share issue.

I couldn’t go to the club tomorrow and say ‘look, I want to double up and I want to own 15 or 16 per cent’. It doesn’t work like that, because for that to happen then someone has to sell. From what I know of the board, nobody wants to sell.

 

The board has been through its turmoil in the last ten years, but the board that we have in place now, there is nobody that is thinking now or will contemplate in the future selling. And that is very much the way that I feel as well. The board would have to have a meeting and decide they were going to have a new share issue and, depending on what they needed and when they needed it, then, yes, I would definitely consider it.

But it is not really for me to say ‘look, I want to double up’ because that is not on the table to be quite honest. It is what they need and when they need it and if I am in a position to help then I probably will.

 

IS A BOARD POSITION SOMETHING YOU WOULD LOOK FOR OR CONSIDER SO THAT YOU HAVE A SAY IN THE DECISION MAKING?

SG: I am just happy to get lunch in the Blue Room to be honest! It is very different from when I used to go and watch Rangers, trust me. I used to go in the father and son gate and my dad would be throwing me over.

I don’t think I am qualified, to be honest. It is a different universe for me. It is one thing being on the terraces, or in the stands nowadays, and roaring your heart out, but it is another thing sitting making commercial decisions and trying to be dispassionate about it as well.

I have met all the board, having lunch in the Blue Room or at various games. I met Dave King when I was over with the family for the Bayer Leverkusen game, which was the last flight I made to Scotland.

I met Dave on the night of the game and, by coincidence, we were on the same flight to London the next day. It was just family stuff, I had the twins with me at the time so there was no business. It was just a ‘welcome to the club’ kind of thing.

I have met Douglas Park, I have met Alastair Johnston and there is another shareholder in Hong Kong, Barry Scott, that I have met a few times, and Julian Woldhart.

 

To be honest, I am happy with the composition of the board. You have got some lifetime Rangers fans in there with their hearts in the right place and they will make sure that some of the atrocities that happened ten years ago will never happen again.

 

And you have got some fairly unemotional, completely objective business heads in there, like Julian, who want to see the club have commercial success. That has to translate into winning stuff on the pitch, which puts money on the balance sheet, which means we can put more money on the pitch.

I don’t think I can offer anything to be quite honest. I am going to take a few years to get to know the board a bit better and hopefully they will like me and we will continue to get along. With regards to joining the board, I just don’t feel qualified, to be honest.

Putting in some money shouldn’t buy you a seat at the table. I am not in the room and at the table. I obviously hear stuff through the two Georges (Taylor and Letham), who are great, great people, and if I ask a question they will give me an honest answer.

I just don’t feel qualified at the moment. As I said, we will see how it goes in the next few years.

HOW MUCH COMFORT DO YOU HAVE PUTTING YOUR MONEY INTO RANGERS TODAY GIVEN THE BOARD AND FINANCIAL STABILITY THEY NOW HAVE COMPARED TO A FEW YEARS AGO?

SG: For me personally, I just don’t see a scenario where I would ever sell the shares. If anything, I would increase my shareholding.

To step back a bit, coming from Paisley with a grandmother that grew up in the shadow of Ibrox, my own parents have passed away and as time goes on your family gets pared back and pared back. I remember my dad used to take me to the Rangers games and when I was a bit older I would go with my pals.

For me, I have got two six-year-old boys and they are starting to get the passion for Rangers. When I am gone, if they have still got a reason to go to Glasgow, I would have fulfilled my position as a father at least and kept that connection to Scotland.

I don’t see why else they would go to Scotland if they are going to be living in Japan or wherever they are going to be living. So, for me, it was important to ensure that continuity and that link to Glasgow and Rangers was there.

 

With the regards to how the board is, in the current situation, I am not close to the numbers but it is public information that they lost a wee bit of money last season, but they never sold anyone. The Scottish model is that you have to sell a couple of players to the Premier League to make some money, and hopefully you win domestic trophies along the road and get a run in Europe.

I am not close to the numbers, but Rangers should be having a good year financially for the 19/20 and 20/21 season. They haven’t sold anyone yet but they had a decent run in Europe and the season tickets were sold out in days, the full allocation of season tickets are gone.

Rangers are in that position where they can weather the storm because they have got that loyal fan base that will support their club and they bought season tickets when they knew they probably wouldn’t get to see the games. I think Rangers will be in pretty good stead in 2020 and 2021.

DO YOU SEE THE RANGERS MODEL AS MAKING MONEY FROM SUCCESS ON THE FIELD BUT WITH THERE ALWAYS BEING THE REQUIREMENT FOR EXTERNAL FINANCE?

SG: With Rangers and Celtic, it is always going to be an arms race and our wage bill is half of theirs. We have had a good run so far but I don’t want to get carried away. I would rather be pessimistic and be hugely surprised than be overly optimistic. We have had a good run in Europe and domestically.

They are not mugs in the East End of the city. They are in bad form right now, but they are not mugs. There is always going to be an arms race between Rangers and Celtic and you are always going to need more money.

The money from Scottish broadcasting hardly keeps the lights on and pays the salaries to be quite honest. If you want to get games in Europe, you are always going to have to take in money.

TOMORROW: Stuart Gibson’s boyhood love of Rangers and his journey from Scotland across the world as he lives his dream in the Far East

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/18815531.amp/?ref=twtrec&__twitter_impression=true

Good post mate 

[Fergie_6 1,078]

Put me down for £5 million, just like that, class man

[BridgeIsBlue 66,606]

STUART GIBSON is determined to ensure Rangers enhance their presence in the Far East as he looks to use his Asian business influence to attract new money to Ibrox.

The Scottish entrepreneur became the fourth largest shareholder in RIFC plc earlier this month as he secured an 8.27 per cent stake as part of an £8million share issue.

In an exclusive interview with Herald and Times Sport, Gibson has detailed his involvement with his boyhood heroes and confirmed he would be willing to offer further cash to Rangers on top of the £5million he has already invested at Ibrox.

 

Gibson is co-founder and co-CEO of ESR, a logistics platform that raised around £1.3billion in its Initial Public Offering to shareholders in Hong Kong last year.

And the Paisley-born businessman is keen to tap into his contacts in the Far East to help grow the Rangers brand and attract fresh investors to the Ibrox top table.

Gibson told Herald and Times Sport: “If I think there is any angle that I can put to the club in terms of increasing their awareness or presence of Rangers in China, for example, because we are very Asia-centric, then I will do.

“If there is a way I can use my Asia background to bring investment or sponsorship, I would certainly put it to the board. I would do that now if the opportunity arises, either through sponsorship or potential investors.

 

"I think that is the only value that I could offer. I am not going to sit in the dressing room with Steven Gerrard on a Saturday morning and pick the team! That is not going to happen.

“I would like to think I can help. When you look at the Premier League matches and you look at the hoardings all around the pitch, whether it is Man City, United, Chelsea, Liverpool, there is a lot of Chinese advertising and Chinese money in the Premier League.

 

"Rangers are as big a club as any of these guys, certainly when it comes to filling stadiums at the very least. I think they are a highly undervalued club in that regard, and I think some Chinese sponsors would get that undervalued status of the club.

 

"I will make it a point to try and reach out to some Chinese or Asian money that might have an interest in football. That is probably what I can offer, to be honest, and maybe introduce them to new investors and sponsors.”

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/18815512.amp/?__twitter_impression=true

[STEPPS BOY 73,890]

It’s only right that he’s putting 5 million in after skipping into the games for years.

That should be us about even i reckon.

[ayrshireranger 8,053]

The future is bright, the future is orange. And red, white and blue. 

[KingKirk 25,632]

I think we will be under Asian ownership within the next few years. I really don't mind that as long as we still have 2 or 3 of the current board in place. 

[Prince George 601]

After reading that I am confident that the club have the right people at the helm. What a difference from a few years ago. Despite not winning a trophy yet getting Gerrard as manager has been the icing on the cake. We are only going in one direction and hopefully get 55 this year.

[Robmc1 4,741]

On 09/10/2020 at 16:08, LegendofCoop said:

Great gesture.....esprcially in the current climate!!  Scum fans now pouring over his finances as we speak trying to find any dirt on him. You know it's true!! 

Nothing surer...

[ayrshireranger 8,053]

From the Easdales to this man.....

Very impressed.

[TMB 14,167]

12 hours ago, KingKirk said:

I think we will be under Asian ownership within the next few years. I really don't mind that as long as we still have 2 or 3 of the current board in place. 

Asian ownership would be great.  All we’d need then is to get sponsorship from an energy drink and move the club to Northern Ireland.  Change the clubs name to Red Honda Ulster and we’re good to go.