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THE Rangers Supporters Trust have upped their stake in the club - and claimed they've started the break-up of Sandy Easdale’s shareholder alliance.

The RST has bought another 450,000 shares to take their shareholding to 1,725,009, 2.12% of the club.

They are now the largest fan group shareholder in the club and the 12th largest overall and, with proxies, now control 3.8% of the voting power for the upcoming general meeting.

Significantly, however, the RST have purchased their latest tranche of stock from Beaufort Nominees, who include Blue Pitch and Margarita Holdings and other mystery backers who were part of the original investor group attracted to the club by Charles Green.

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Their total shareholding of 26 per cent is currently controlled by Sandy Easdale, chairman of the Rangers football board, and they are expected to vote in favour of the current board at next Friday’s Ibrox meeting.

RST spokesman Chris Graham said: “ We have shifted our focus in recent weeks to gathering proxies but also to targeting shareholders who we believe are aligned with the board but may be willing to sell.

“Purchasing shares off the market only takes you so far and we wanted to try to make inroads into the opposition’s holding as well. This purchase is the culmination of two weeks of hard work on that front.

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“We are delighted to have secured what we believe will be over a 1% swing in favour of the nominee directors. None of this would have been possible without the fans who contribute to the RST and Buy Rangers.

“If they continue to join the RST in numbers and contribute to Buy Rangers then we will continue our efforts to reclaim our club.

“Whilst not being complacent, we believe this is a decisive purchase. We also believe it signals the start of the breakup of the shareholder group that has aligned itself with this board through Sandy Easdale.

“There are clear signs that they know their time is up. We urge fans to continue to proxy shares and, even more importantly, continue to join the RST. With the fans help we can win this EGM and invest significant amounts directly into our club after the EGM.”

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