Unlucky Paul Murray seems to have lost another Nominated Adviser in his attempts to find a market to trade shares in the The Rangers International Football Club.
Yesterday, reports on a website sympathetic to the previous regime at Ibrox claimed that the ICAP Securities & Derivatives Exchange (ISDX) had rejected the application to provide a share trading platform.
Today’s Herald followed up that claim and discovered that the company hadn’t even got as far as applying to the ISDX!
Responding to the matter in the Glasgow based newspaper Mr Murray claimed: “During the course of the week of March 30 we requested a time extension from the AIM Regulation team to enable the Company to “fast track” across to the ISDX exchange.
“This would have taken five business days and would have been a cost effective and seamless process for shareholders. It would have enabled trading to have commenced on ISDX immediately.
“In their wisdom the AIM Regulation team refused to grant this extension and the Company’s shares were de-listed on April 7.”
The phrase ‘fast track across to the ISDX’ is unknown in financial circles with no process available to transfer from AIM to ISDX.
The Herald added, without quotes from Mr Murray, that the company was ‘working to choose an appropriate advisor to ‘sponsor’ its way into ISDX, and currently had two in mind.’
Working hard but failing seems to be a hallmark of the company since Mr Murray finally reached the blue room after three years of lobbying.
Explaining why the club was removed from the AIM he told the club website: “We tried everything within our power to have the suspension lifted but it was clear that we would have to pay a price for years of poor corporate governance and financial mismanagement since the IPO.”
On the same day a company statement claimed: “The prospective Nomad completed its checks on the “fit and proper” status of the existing and the proposed additional director of the Company and confirmed to the Company that it was satisfied on both fronts.
“It then carried out its own assessment of the Company’s profile over the last several years and the issues which had been encountered. We understand this process involved discussions with the Exchange.
“We were advised that, following this process, the prospective Nomad was unable to take up appointment. We also understand that any alternative Nomad is liable to encounter similar difficulties and therefore the Company requires to terminate its listing on AIM.”
It would seem sensible for Mr Murray to engage with the mystery NOMAD that worked so hard to get the company listed on the AIM for the application to the ISDX, only the transparency campaigner will be able to explain another near miss in corporate governance.