Burnside consortium interested in Rangers

David Burnside, a prominent Ulster Unionist politician and a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, confirmed that a London based consortium he is leading is in the beginning stages of making an offer for Scottish Rangers.

"I know quite a lot of people in the City of London and a number of them have told me they would be interested (in buying Rangers) if the chance came up," said Burnside, the former MP for South Antrim.

Burnside said that his interest was kindled by remarks David Murray, owner of the club, made late last year that he would sell the club.

"It's not a "For Sale" sign per se, but obviously I don't want to do this forever," said Murray, who has owned the club for 19 years.

Burnside, who was once considered a possible successor to David Trimble as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, is ready to take Murray at his word.

"We would not be interested in anything hostile," said Burnside. "It would be up to David Murray to declare himself ready to sell, and as yet I have not spoken to him about it."

Burnside does not have a price in mind.

"It is too early to even talk about that," said Burnside. "It is only at a preliminary stage at the moment."

Last year, it was reported that Murray was prepared to sell his 90 percent share in Rangers for a figure between GBP 40 million and GBP 50 million, but that was before the club posted half-yearly losses of almost GBP 1.5 million for the six months ending December, 2006, compared with profits of GBP 6.1 million for the same period in 2005.

Murray has always insisted that he would only sell out to people with Rangers' best interests at heart, which led to conclusions that he would only let Scottish-based businessmen take over.

The involvement of an often-controversial Unionist politician in a bid to buy Rangers, which has been trying to put an end to the division in the club, will undoubtedly cause controversy, but Burnside, who is a lifelong Rangers and English Tottenham Hotspur fan insists he sees the club, first and foremost, as a viable business proposition.

"When you look at what is happening in England with Russian and even Icelandic oligarchs and venture capitalists buying up clubs, it seems that every Premiership club is being looked at, so why not Rangers?" asked Burnside.

"The club has a special appeal about it because of the merchandising and the very name of Glasgow Rangers which is internationally known."

Burnside rose to prominence with the right-wing unionist Vanguard Party in the 1970s, but is perhaps best known for his involvement with the so-called "dirty tricks" campaign in the early 1990s by British Airways against airline rivals Virgin.

He left his post as head of public affairs at British Airways shortly after the airline paid a large sum to Sir Richard Branson, owner of Virgin.

Burnside set up his own public relations company in London and expanded his business interests into airlines and publishing.

Both Murray and Burnside are 55 and while Murray is reported to be Scotland's fifth richest man with an estimated fortune of GBP 650 million, Burnside admits he does not have huge personal wealth and could not contemplate buying Rangers alone.

"I know a lot of people in private equity and venture capital firms in the City and it is those sort of people who are interested," said Burnside.

"I would not be involved if it was not the right calibre of people."

Burnside was adamant there was no connection between the Rangers bid and next Wednesday's elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly, in which he is looking to keep his seat.

"This has absolutely nothing to do with the election and I did not initiate the story being made public," said Burnside. "But when I was asked if I would be interested if a consortium was put together then I had to be truthful and say I was interested."

Burnside will not be at Rangers' match against Scottish Hibernian, and said that his attendance at the club's matches in recent years had become infrequent due to his political commitments in Northern Ireland.

"But I've been following them on the television and, yes, I know how many points they are behind Celtic," he said ruefully.

Speculation in financial circles was that a consortium led by Burnside, or any other private equity or venture capital investors, would probably "do a Romanov" and buy outright control of the club to put it back into private hands.

Burnside is known to be a close associate to David Montgomery, who is now chairman of the Mecom media group, but Montgomery denied any knowledge of his friend's interest in Rangers.

Last night, club sources confirmed that Rangers, which as a public limited company would have had to inform the Stock Exchange of such a development, had received no notification of a bid.

A club insider confirmed that Burnside, nor any other consortium, had contacted Murray.

"It's the first we've heard of it and you would have to be skeptical about a possible buyer when the first you learn of it is from a newspaper," said the source. "Is that the right way to do business?"

Murray said that Stock Exchange rules prevented him from making any comment whatsoever on the story.

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.