Dalglish and Kerr offer may be best for Celtic

The proposed take-over of Celtic by a consortium headed by Kenny Dalglish and Simple Minds lead singer Jim Kerr represents managing director Fergus McCann's best chance of preserving the club in its present form, a leading City analyst believes.

On Tuesday Dalglish and Kerr were revealed as the front-men of a major consortium, with considerable backing from financial institutions, who are aiming to buy out McCann's majority shareholding. No formal bid has yet been put forward. If the group offer to buy more than 30 per cent of the shares - with McCann's holding being 50.3 per cent - then Stock Exchange rules mean they will have to tender a bid for all shares.

The price of Celtic shares has increased since the existence of a proposed bid was revealed and the consortium may need to raise significantly more than £50 million.

McCann indicated yesterday that he could be prepared to talk to the consortium but restated his desire to sell his holding to the club's shareholders next year.

However, analyst William Davies, of Capel-cure Sharpe, said: "That is fraught with improbability. The vast majority of individual shareholders have bought into the club they support not entirely for financial benefit but to own a part of Celtic.

"If Mr McCann wants to keep Celtic as Celtic, as he seems to have indicated, then this proposed offer would probably be the best way he could do it. The other option would be to sell to the highest bidder which may well mean a Scottish media company becoming involved, which would be likely to offer a higher price."

A statement to the Stock Exchange on Tuesday indicated that the consortium had been talking of an offer below the current market value of Celtic shares, perhaps as an opening gambit. But it would also seem that the consortium have two significant aces up their sleeves.

The first is the emotional link between Celtic supporters and former Scottish international Dalglish, who made 324 appearances for the club between 1968 and 1977, and fanatical supporter Kerr. The second is the likely offer of substantial funds for transfer, which McCann's policy of further involving existing shareholders - even if they include wealthy Dublin businessman Dermot Desmond - is unlikely to be able to match.

Davies added: "The consortium has to be reasonably serious or Celtic plc would not have made a statement to the Stock Exchange, so that suggests they have serious financial backing."