| Biography | James Derrick Slater (born March 13, 1929) is an investor.
Trained as a chartered accountant, he worked for Leyland Motors and became famous for writing an investment column in The Sunday Telegraph under the nom de plume of The Capitalist, where he described his own portfolio. In 1964 he started an investment company with Peter Walker, a Tory MP, called Slater Walkerin reality an authorized bank. He performed what became known as corporate raids on public companies. He was a friend and business associate of James Goldsmith.
During the secondary banking crisis in 1975, Slater Walker received support from the Bank of England. Following the takeover of the company by the Bank of England, 15 charges were brought against Slater for offences against the Companies Act by the Department of Trade, referring to the alleged misuse of more than £4 million of company funds in share deals. The case was thrown out in 1977.
In the period following his high-profile days as a high-flier in the City, Jim Slater produced an autobiography that sets out in considerable detail his early plans and visions regarding company acquisitions, and describes the processes he employed to bring them about. Once companies came under his control his strategy was to maximise the return on those of their assets that he judged disposablebe they property, plant or workforce. These tactics proved to be highly successful and profitable in the short-term, such that "Slater Walker" became a byword for a forceful and rewarding style of capitalism.
The acquisition and disposal of company assets in this manner became known as "asset stripping", a phrase term that carries with it connotations of hardship and distress associated with the human costs of unemployment. Some 30 years afterwards Slater acknowledged the drawbacks that were inherent in the practices he adopted, towards the end of a reported interview with Hunter Davies in The Independent of 15 December 1992.
Slater is the author of the well-known popular book of investment The Zulu Principle, focusing on simple techniques for identifying small dynamic growth companies whose shares are at a low price compared to their future prospects. With Hemmington Scott, he devised a monthly company statistical guide, Company REFS, also available as a daily online service, to make the identification of such shares easier for the private investor.
With Ian Watson, he founded Galahad Gold in 2002, successfully timing the commodities boom to make annualised 66% profits from gold exploration before winding the company down in 2007 and starting a new venture, Agrifirma, again with Watson and again in commodities, this time Brazilian agricultural farmland.
Slater has authored several other investment books, and children's stories such as A. Mazing Monsters.
Slater's hobby is chess. Amongst other sponsorships he donated $125,000 to make possible the 1972 World Chess Championship between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in Reykjavík, Iceland.
Although it is frequently stated that he declared personal bankruptcy, he did not do so. By 1975 he famously found himself a "minus millionaire", owing £1,000,000 more than he had. This was repaid within a few years with interest.
As of 2009 Slater is chairman of BioProjects International PLC, deputy chairman and finance director of Galahad Gold and investment director of Agrifirma.
Slater was featured in the second episode of The MayFair Set documentaries by Adam Curtis. |