Active Swedish investor Peter Gyllenhammar is rumoured to be considering a bid for erstwhile carpetbagging and insurance business Murray Financial Corporation. William Davidson reports.

Murray Financial (MFC), chaired by Conservative MP and one-time Welsh Secretary John Redwood, has a market value of £2.75 million. Despite this lowly valuation, it had cash of £3.45 million at the end of February.

Peter Gyllenhammar has held his stake in Murray since last summer, and now holds 17.45 per cent of the shares. Managing director Ken Murray owns 8.34 per cent.

Gyllenhammar also has stakes in a string of 'undervalued' Aim companies. These include Quadrant (QDG), White Knight Investments (WKI), Carbo (CAB), K3 Business Technologies (KBT), Leeds (LDSG), Darby (DGP) and Montpellier (MPL).

Ken Murray is unimpressed. 'Gyllenhammar is indeed an active investor, but a lot of his companies in Sweden have gone bust', he says.

'He has presented the board with a number of proposals, which we considered. Most of them involved buying companies he is involved with. Whilst we will look at all proposals submitted to the board, they have not met our criteria'.

Murray says that, in the wake of the unsuccessful foray into the world of the internet with insurancevillage.co.uk, he and the board would now be looking for less risky investments. 'We are looking for profitable businesses which do not need large cash injections'.

Other board members, such as 25-year-old Omani businessman Faisal Mohammed al-Youssef, have also put forward proposals to the board. Says Murray, 'It's hard to find someone who hasn't put a proposal forward'.

MFC shares were unchanged at 2.75p.