A company owned by Rangers FC chief Dave King has been fined almost £64,000 for breaching financial rules.

Micromega Holdings Ltd, which the South-Africa based businessman founded in 1998 and of which he is executive chairman, was handed the penalty by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

The firm was censured and fined one million rand, with half of the fine suspended, for failing to follow regulations over the purchase of shares worth ten million rand.

The JSE issued a statement on Friday, March 17, outlining the reasons for the penalty, half of which amounts to about £31,846.

It said Micromega, which invests in financial services, information technology and car parts, breached its rules by failing to get the approval of shareholders through a special resolution for the purchase of its shares from two counter parties.

The fine comes just days after it was revealed Mr King breached UK financial rules by failing to extend his offer to other shareholders when "acting in concert" as he seized control at Rangers.

Mr King became chairman at Ibrox after a boardroom battle with Mike Ashley's representatives in March 2015.

The City of London's takeover appeal board ruled that Mr King breached its takeover code by "acting in concert" with the "Three Bears" in acquiring a stake equalling more than 30% of the total shareholding in Rangers International Football Club PLC.

Micromega said it will appeal Thursday's fine, arguing the transactions "had no impact" on the company's shareholders, and said it had sent a circular to them to approve the repurchases after the breach was discovered.

Micromega said this resolution was passed by 100% of shareholder present and voting at a general meeting on January 19, 2016.

The share purchases in question were:

- 1,995,134 shares repurchased on April 11, 2013, from Mr W Friedland at 250 cents per share.

- 1,806,281 shares repurchased on July 18, 2013, from Mr W Friedland at 220 cents per share.

- 318,302 shares repurchased on August 19, 2013, from Mr B Carolin at an average price of 305.52 cents per share.

The JSE statement said: "The JSE has found the company to be in breach of paragraph 5.69 of the JSE Listings Requirements for the purchase of its shares from two counter parties without the required specific authority to do so and during a closed period i.e. the date from the expiration of the six month period of a financial year up to the date of publication of the interim results.

"The shares were acquired by the company in terms of a general repurchase authority granted by its shareholders.

"Despite such repurchases having been effected through the order book operated by the JSE trading system, a prior understanding or arrangement between the Company and the counter parties existed, contrary to the provisions of paragraph 5.72(a) of the Listings Requirements."

It went on: "The JSE has decided to impose this public censure against the company as well as a public fine in the amount of R1m of which R500,000 is suspended for a period of twelve months in relation to the above mentioned breaches of the listings requirements."

In a statement, Micromega said: "The breach relates to the specific repurchases which occurred almost four years ago, and were disclosed in the statement by the board in respect of previous general and specific repurchases announcement released on SENS on June 19, 2015.

"The JSE has been advised that the sanction will be opposed by the company with an appeal to the Financial Services Board.

"The breach had no impact on the company's shareholders as following the company discovering the breach a circular was sent to shareholders to approve the specific repurchases and at the resolution was passed by 100% of shareholder present and voting at the general meeting on January 19, 2016.

"Of the total number of shares in question, 3,801,415 (88% of the shares) were in respect of a single corporate finance transaction, whereby the company received the shares as proceeds for the sale of shares in one of its subsidiaries.

"The company was of the opinion that this did not constitute a repurchase in terms of the JSE Listings Requirements.

"The remaining shares were acquired from a shareholder who had approached the company indirectly to sell his total shareholding.

"The related repurchase occurred in a closed period that had erroneously not been identified by the company as a result of a change in the financial year end of the company.

"The company previously apologised to its shareholders for the aforementioned infringements in the Stock Exchange News Service (SENS) announcement and attempted to rectify the oversight by the issuing of the circular and allowing shareholders to vote on the repurchases, and views the latest SENS announcement by the JSE as ill-considered and will therefore be appealing the censure by the JSE.

"Shareholders will be advised of the outcome of the appeal."