English Defense

Multimillionaire James Derrick Slater, co-founder of the London investment banking firm Slater, Walker Securities Ltd., credits his hobby--chess--with making him Britain's king of mergers. Analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of companies all over the world, Slater would then acquire some of them through quick, strategic stock purchases. Though he built Slater, Walker into a financial holding company that last year (the latest estimate) had a market value of some $360 million, he remained largely unknown to the public until he put up $125,000 in prize money to lure Bobby Fischer to Iceland to compete against Boris Spassky in 1972.

Lately, Slater has been retreating, selling many of his holdings in Britain, South Africa and the Far East. Last week he acknowledged the failure of his strategy to gain a foothold in the U.S. Only a year after Slater, Walker bought control of the Franklin retail-store chain for more than $13.1 million, he sold it for just $7.8 million. The buyer was Sol Kittay, a British emigrant and former head of the B.V.D. underwear company who is known for acquiring losing operations and making them profitable.

Slater recently remarked that "cash can be converted into things, but things can't be converted into cash." Interest rates in London of 13% to 15% on 90-day money may explain his thirst for liquidity, or he may simply want to retire at 45. Said John Ford, Slater, Walker's financial director, of the firm's sale of Franklin stores: "What happened in 1776 shows that the British don't always do well out in the colonies."

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