Slater Walker

Slater Walker was a British industrial conglomerate turned bank, specialising in corporate raids that got into financial difficulties in the 1970s. It shook the British banking system at the time, and had to be bailed out by the Bank of England after it was unable to refinance its debt during the secondary banking crisis of 1973-74, forcing its founder Jim Slater to quit.

In 1964, investor Jim Slater acquired control of H Lotery & Co Ltd, a £1.5m public company, which with his business partner Peter Walker - later a Conservative MP - they renamed Slater Walker Securities. The company performed what became known as corporate raids on public mainly industrial companies, At its peak, capitalized at over £200 million, the company held deposits totalling £95m, managed £250m of funds and looked after 29,000 pensions. It had grown to be not only a bank but also an investment and insurance empire with stakes in industrial companies. It had acquired Dutch investment bank Kempen & Co in 1972 which became its international division.

Slater Walker then changed strategy, from a corporate-conglomerate into what eventually was recognised as an unauthorised and unlicensed international investment bank, through gradually disposal of its industrial interests.

In 1974, it got into financial difficulty after having trouble refinancing its debt during the secondary banking crisis of 1973–75. By 1975 the problems led to its having to be supported by the Bank of England.

In 1975, the Singapore Government investigated what became known as the Spydar affair, into dealings in a Far East Slater Walker company which resulted in Richard Tarling, the company's sole director, ending up in Changi prison. Slater subsequently resigned as Chairman in October 1975, because the Singapore Government began to try to extradite him from the UK for alleged offences by the company in Singapore.

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