Lloyds Bank ‘desperately wanted’ Whyte deal, claims Johnston

FORMER Rangers chairman Alastair Johnston has claimed that Sir David Murray had lost control of his own destiny by the time he agreed a deal to sell the Ibrox club to Craig Whyte for a token fee of £1.

Johnston was speaking on a BBC Scotland documentary entitled Rangers - The Inside Story, which was aired last night. The former chairman further alleged that he was instructed by an unnamed individual at Lloyds Bank to accept Whyte’s bid, despite having already expressed reservations about the Motherwell-born businessman’s financial resources. Johnston chaired the Independent Board Committee [IBC] which assessed bids on behalf of shareholders as Murray looked to sell his majority shareholding in the club. The Whyte bid included a pledge to pay the £18m debt owed to Lloyds. It was initially rejected by the IBC, which also featured Martin Bain, John Greig, John McClelland and Donald McIntyre. The IBC had commissioned a due diligence document about Whyte’s business history.

“One of our problems was that we did not see Mr Whyte’s ability to have that £9m or £10m you need to keep the club going so it could pay its bills on time,” said Johnston, who was removed from the Ibrox board by Whyte five months ago. “Liberty Capital was designated by Mr Whyte as his source of funding. And he wouldn’t tell us very much about Liberty Capital.”

Despite such reservations the deal went through in May this year, after being accepted by club owner Sir David Murray.

“David wasn’t in control of his own destiny,” said Johnston. “He’d become so beholden to Lloyds Bank of Scotland, and Lloyds Bank of Scotland desperately wanted this deal to happen.”

In regard to the alleged threat from the individual at the bank, Johnston added: “Let me paraphrase, I was told that if I stood in the way of this deal happening, they said we’re gonna cancel your credit line tonight.”

Lloyds Bank last night denied that such pressure had been placed on Johnston, or anyone else at Rangers. “Lloyds Banking Group’s aim has always been to secure the long-term financial stability and security of our customer, Rangers Football Club,” said a spokesman.

Johnston was later asked to resign by Whyte but refused. “Basically I said I was not going to resign,” Johnston told Mark Daly, the presenter of the documentary. “I said there’s a moniker we use around these parts. The second word is surrender, the first word is no.”

Former Rangers director Paul Murray, who was removed from the Ibrox board on the same day at Johnston, was also interviewed on the programme.

He, too, had grave concerns about Whyte and doubted the businessman’s logic in taking on an unspecified tax bill. Rangers are currently fighting off an attempt from HM Revenue and Customs to retrieve tax arrears reported to total as much as £49 million and which date back to many years before Whyte’s arrival.

“From my experience of buying and selling companies over a 25-year period, I’ve never ever seen anyone take on a liability of that nature before,” said Murray.