Page "James Goldsmith" Paragraph 4

During the 1950s and 60s Goldsmith's involvement in finance was more as a gambler than an industrialist, and brought him several times close to bankruptcy.

His successes included winning the British franchise for Alka-Seltzer and introducing low-cost generic drugs to the UK.

He was a greenmail corporate raider and asset stripper.

With the financial backing of Sir Isaac Wolfson, he acquired diverse food companies quoted on the London Stock Exchange as Cavenham Foods.

This included Bovril – the acquisition of which he financed by selling its assets in South America and elsewhere.

As journalists began to question his techniques of dealing with the funds and assets of publicly-quoted companies, Goldsmith began dealing through private companies registered in the UK and abroad.

These included the French company Générale Occidentale and Hong Kong and then Cayman-registered General Oriental Investments.

During the 60s and 70s Goldsmith had backing by the finance company Slater, Walker, run by Jim Slater.

When Slater, Walker crashed and had to be rescued by the Bank of England in 1975, eyebrows rose when it was handed to Goldsmith for its final dismemberment through his private companies.