RANGERS have published the legal agreement made by chairman Dave King which commits him to a timetable of undertakings before making a court-ordered shares bid by a deadline of January 25, next year.

The 63-year-old businessman who had been defending claims of contempt of court over his failure so far to make the bid has agreed to meet a series of deadlines before finally fulfilling his pledge to make a bid to existing shareholders at 20p a share.

It comes after the contempt case in front of Lady Wolfe was paused after the Rangers chief said he was now “100%” committed to making the multi-million pound offer which is required under takeover rules.

The proceedings arose out of Mr King's failure to comply with a court order in December to make a bid for most of the club's shares after a ruling he acted with other shareholders to take control in 2015, ousting a board of directors said to be allied to Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley.

The Herald:

Under Takeover Code rules, a written offer to buy shares of other shareholders had to be made within 28 days of a bid announcement being made on March 29.

Now Mr King has made an undertaking that his company Laird Investments (Proprietary) Limited will make a cash confirmed offer for Rangers in full compliance with the takeover code by no later than 5.30pm on January 25, 2019.

Rangers International Football Club plc has previously said that the funds for the offer, estimated to be at around £11m, were there and that Laird had been seeking South African government approval to allow the money for the offer to be transferred to the UK.

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Lady Wolffe last week arranged for a hearing to be held on January 29 to see if the share offer had been made. She said the contempt proceedings would be resumed against King in the event that he did not make the offer.

As part of his agreement with the Takeover Panel, Mr King has pledged to deal with one of the key outstanding issues, to get a third party to provide cash confirmation that the money for the judge-ordered bid for shares is actually there.

Under Takeover Code rules if the confirmation is given and the money is not there, the Panel can bring an action against the third party 'guarantor' to recover the money for shareholders.

The Herald:

He has to take "all such steps as are required" to instruct a third party cash confirmer in the UK by 5.30pm on December 14.

And a legal advisor to ensure documentation in relation to the bid complies with the Takeover code must be in place by 5.30pm on December 14 Mr King has to take "all such steps as a matter of urgency" as are required in South Africa to obtain consents and approvals as are required to transfer into the United Kingdom funds for the bid by 5.30pm on January, 11, next year.

He has now complied with a commitment to make a public announcement of the text of his undertaking by 5.30pm on December 3.

Mr King's Laird firm had said in a March 29 announcement that the bid would be funded "using the receipt of dividends" amounting to £13,074,842.90 which was "to be declared on April 4".

Mr King had gone through a lengthy battle through the courts to stave off pressure to buy the shares fearing the heavy financial toll it would place on him.

The Herald:

After he made the new bid undertaking, Lady Wolffe told Mr King: "This proof will pause at this point but will continue on February 4 2019 and that is to make sure this is dealt with in a timely fashion.

"That is a peremptory diet - you are obliged to attend unless otherwise excused.

"The consequence of non attendance on that occasion without good excuse can have serious consequences."