Walker prepares a bid to take back Iceland
ICELAND founder Malcolm Walker is negotiating with banks to secure the finance to buy back the frozen food retailer.
Its current owner, the resolution committee of Landsbanki, needs to offload the budget chain.
Walker is in negotiations with several banks, including Goldman Sachs, for a £1.5bn loan that would allow him to buy the 67 per cent stake being auctioned off by the stricken Icelandic bank .
Walker, who still owns 25 per cent of the company, has made it clear that he wants to grab the reins again, although chains like J Sainsbury and Wm Morrison could be interested in its 796-store portfolio.
If Walker does win control of Iceland, it will be a remarkable comeback. Although he has since been cleared of any wrongdoing, he spent three years in the wilderness while the FSA, Department of Trade and Industry and Serious Fraud Office investigated his sale of nearly £13.5m of shares just over a month before the firm announced a massive profits warning in 2000.
Walker is known as a man of action who easily gets bored and needs to move on to new projects to keep him happy.
Key decisions are as often made in the pub or over a glass of wine as they are in the boardroom, according to colleagues.
He is an extreme sports enthusiast who recently climbed Everest at the age of 65, showing he rarely shuns a challenge.