Raith Rovers: chairman Steven MacDonald reveals when clarity is expected on potential takeover of club by Hong Kong business Silverbear Capital Inc

With Rovers having lost an average of £150,000 a season since 2005, owner John Sim has been in talks with potential buyers about selling, with Silverbear chief executive Peter Chun a main interested party thought to be keen.

MacDonald, who revealed there are also potential buyers from the USA and Scotland, said: "If this takeover happened it would have a huge impact on the club.

"It would certainly take away a lot of the rumours and despondency that seems to be around the supporters at the moment.

"It would give a tremendous lift to everybody. You know what it’s like, everybody likes to be financially secure.

"The players and the office staff etcetera want to know that their jobs are OK.

"At this moment in time it is difficult financially but we won’t be certainly going bankrupt or anything like that.

“I don’t know if John Sim has spoken directly to Peter about buying the club but Peter’s involved and has expressed an interest through a middle man.

"We are hoping that it becomes clearer this week.

"John was at the Hamilton Accies game on Monday. He is the majority shareholder and he’s possibly keeping his cards a wee bit closer to his chest until he sees if there is a genuine interest coming from Peter.

"We should know by Friday if there is something going to be tabled to John as a shareholding deal or whatever.

"I believe there are another two interested parties. There are some Scottish businessmen we are speaking to, to see if we can do something but again it’s very early stages.

"And there is a third one from America that John was speaking to.”

MacDonald, who said it had been a stressful time and “a big learning curve” for him recently amidst the takeover rumours, revealed the Rovers board will do their best to back manager Ian Murray in the transfer market this month.

"We’re trying to look after our funds and support the manager as much as we can,” he said.

"If there are players he’s looking at and he wants to bring in, we will do our utmost to deliver the funds to secure these signings.

"During the January transfer window it’s possible players will move out and we’ll look to bring players in where we can.

"If Peter comes in with an offer to buy the club we definitely won’t be looking to move any of the higher profile players on.

"But we just have to wait and see. It's just cat and mouse at the moment.

"I’m sort of new to the chair. I’m doing my best to cope with this.

"I feel very privileged to be in the position that I’m in.

"Yes it’s difficult but we’re fighting on and hopefully we’ll get there. We are not looking at making any redundancies at the club.”