Finance expert shares £34.9m Rangers investment verdict as Douglas Park document emerges
We’re delighted to welcome football finance expert Dr Daniel Plumley as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Rangers...
Douglas Park is unlikely to pump any extra funds into Rangers with the Glasgow club targeting a “self-sustainable” model, according to Dan Plumley.
Park, 72, was re-elected as Ibrox chairman in December’s AGM, which was followed by his car and coach business, Park’s of Hamilton, posting huge profits in the 2021/22 tax year.
As shown in a tweet by Kieran Maguire on 24 December, Park’s of Hamilton recorded an operating profit of £34.9million for the financial year, up until 31 March, 2022 and a turnover of £865million.
While Park’s business away from Rangers is booming, the Ibrox club have gone backwards since the end of last season with manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst being sacked and replaced by Michael Beale in November.
And while the January transfer window is now open, Plumley doesn’t see Park dipping into the funds he’s made elsewhere in order to pump more cash into Beale’s transfer budget.
“Rangers are really interesting in this regard because they have talked at length about a model of becoming self-sustainable – and that should be applauded. I would certainly applaud that as it’s something you usually strive for,” Plumley told Ibrox News.
“They don’t perhaps need the external investment they’ve had in recent years.
“They might look to do it if they need to raise cash quickly through share sales or whatever like they’ve done in the past. But they seem to be targeting self-sustainability.
“That’s good in that regard if they don’t need that external investment coming in. But on the flip side, if you’ve got it – and this is a positive result for Park’s company – then you’ve got it in your back pocket if you need to go to it.
“That will come down to the performance on the pitch and keeping Rangers at the top of Scottish football and competing in Europe as well.
“I think they’re still looking towards self-sustainability but if your investors are doing well externally, that’s nice to have as well.”
In other Rangers news, this £17million Celtic player is still having nightmares about one of the Gers’ aces.