Rangers shares cancelled after failure to find nomad

Shares in Aim-quoted Rangers International Football Club were cancelled after it failed to find a nominated stock market adviser or nomad to replace WH Ireland, which quit a month ago.

The cancellation on Tuesday marks the end of Rangers' turbulent two years as a publicly quoted company on the Alternative Investment Market, during which it has been through multiple boardroom shake-ups and four nominated advisers.

The Glasgow club admitted that failings in corporate governance had "resulted in AIM [supervisors] receiving more complaints about the company than any other company on its exchange over the last year".

It also emerged last week at the half-year results that the lossmaking group's auditor, Deloitte, had resigned following the June 2014 audit and had yet to be replaced.

The most recent nominated adviser or nomad - WH Ireland - quit last month, a few days before a meeting called by Dave King, a South African businessman, to oust the board and wrest control of Rangers from Mike Ashley, founder of Sports Direct and owner of Newcastle United.

Mr King, a director of Rangers in a previous incarnation that went into administration in 2012, won about 85 per cent of votes cast at the meeting. However, his appointment as a director and chairman of Rangers has yet to be ratified by Scottish football authorities. Paul Murray, an ally of Mr King's who was also voted on to the board last month, has been made interim chairman.

The board has failed to replace WH Ireland with a new nomad within the month, which is the deadline set by Aim. As a result Rangers' shares have been cancelled. Under London Stock Exchange rules a company's shares cannot be traded on Aim unless it has a nomad, which it deems "a company's single most important adviser".

Last week the company said it had lined up a replacement nomad, but that following discussions with Aim supervisors at the LSE, the prospective nomad had concluded it could not take the job.

Rangers added that it understood that any alternative nomad would be "liable to encounter similar difficulties and therefore the company requires to terminate its listing on Aim. This is no reflection on the current board or on the financial condition or prospects of the company. It is simply the result of the well-documented failings in corporate governance and management of those who previously controlled the company".

Rangers is now in talks about joining ISDX, an alternative share trading market. Meanwhile, it has made arrangements to allow shareholders access to a matched bargain trading facility with JP Jenkins, another share trading platform for unquoted businesses.

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