Influential and controversial financier Jim Slater has died aged 86.

A legendary figure in the sixties and early seventies, his investment vehicle Slater Walker, set up with Conservative MP Peter Walker, bought stakes in hundreds of struggling companies, usually selling the assets for a quick profit - a practice that coined the phrase “asset-stripping”.

© Provided by Proactive Investors UK Legendary financier Jim Slater dies aged 86

But a failed merger with merchant bank Hill Samuel and the stock market crash of 1973 were the undoing of the controversial figure, who stepped down as chairman in 1975.

He was later accused, but never convicted, of fraud in relation to a Singaporean company.

In his later years, Slater went on to become a successful children’s author and writer of investment books such as the “Zulu Principle”, which championed the use of the PEG ratio to value companies, and Company Refs.