Paul Murray and his Blue Knights consortium have temporarily withdrawn their bid to take over Rangers FC.
The group have announced that they will step away from the bidding process, leaving Bill Ng's preferred Singapore consortium to do the business.
Ticketus, Blue Knights' financial backers, jumped ship to Ng's group after revealing they could not provide a £500,000 deposit to Murray and co. and it now appears that administrators Duff & Phelps prefer the East Asian bid.
The Blue Knights released a statement saying they would step aside for now but are happy to again be considered if things change down the track.
"We reconfirmed our position and we believed we would be awarded preferred bidder status on Friday morning.
"As part of the process of awarding exclusivity Duff and Phelps had requested a non-refundable deposit.
"During the course of Friday Ticketus informed us that they were not prepared to provide this deposit.
"During the course of the weekend, individuals within the consortium offered to put up the deposit subject to a small number of conditions which were broadly agreed with Duff and Phelps.
"During the course of the weekend we were also made aware Ticketus had been in discussions with the Singaporean consortium who, on Friday, had offered Ticketus a 'substantially' better deal to the one offered by us.
"We confirmed we were not prepared to increase our offer to Ticketus which we believe to be in the club's best interests.
"The consortium believes the deal process has become incredibly complex and it is critical that a preferred bidder is appointed this week.
"As a consequence, and in the best interests of the club, the consortium has decided to take a step back to enable Duff and Phelps, Ticketus and the Singaporeans to conclude a deal as quickly as possible or not.
"We are stepping back to assist with this, but we stand ready to re-enter the process if a deal cannot be reached.""On the evening of Thursday April 12, The Blue Knights Consortium was asked by Duff and Phelps to reconfirm its 'best and final' offer of April 4," read the statement.
