Walker lines up backing for Iceland Foods bid Malcolm Walker, the founder and chief executive of Iceland Foods, has lined up financing from three backers for his £1.4bn-£1.5bn bid for the frozen food specialist. Mr Walker and the management team of Iceland Foods have signed an exclusivity deal with the winding up board of Landsbanki, the failed Icelandic bank that is the majority owner of the supermarket chain. He has lined up financing from Brait, the investment vehicle of Christo Wiese, who owns a significant stake in South African retailer Shoprite, as well as from his friend Lord Kirkham, who sold furniture chain DFS to private equity group Advent International two years ago. Mr Walker, who with management owns 23 per cent of Iceland Foods, has also secured the backing of the Landmark Group, whose investments include restaurant chain Carluccio's. The backers were put together by Mr Walker's advisers Rothschild and Daniel Yealland, the former Goldman Sachs banker. Rothschild and retail specialist Mr Yealland - who also advised Lord Kirkham on the sale of DFS - helped Mr Walker to outmanoeuvre the two potential private equity bidders who had been circling the chain, BC Partners and Bain Capital. Mr Walker, who founded Iceland in 1970 with a single shop selling loose frozen food in Oswestry in Shropshire, said it was "fantastic" to have secured the exclusivity. This gives him the right to negotiate a deal. Although it is not finalised, there are thought to be significant break fees. He acknowledged that Landsbanki and Glitnir, which together control 77 per cent of Iceland Foods, looked set to obtain a "pretty full price" for the business. Mr Walker offered £1bn for the business 18 months ago. The equity value of the deal is £1.55bn, but the enterprise value is £1.4bn as there is £150m of surplus cash on the Iceland Foods balance sheet. Mr Walker said he would be "working for the next 200 years to pay the debt off." He is estimated to have lined up about £850m from the debt markets, with some funding coming from Deutsche Bank. Landsbanki is also providing £350m of funding. While the two failed Icelandic banks put Iceland Foods up for sale last year, appointing Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS to auction off the business, Mr Walker was always the natural buyer. "As long as Malcolm could get the funding, he was always in the driving seat," said Clive Black, analyst at Shore Capital. He has Iceland running through his blood. Mr Walker also saw off potential competition from Asda and Wm Morrison, who dropped out of the race after the first round of bidding, although they remained interested in picking up individual stores. "It is probably best in his [Mr Walker's hands]," said Philip Dorgan, analyst at Panmure Gordon. If anyone had bought the whole business and run it as a subsidiary of a major food retail chain, it would have been a disaster. Mr Walker insisted he would not sell any stores to help fund the deal. Iceland Foods has performed well over the past two to three years, benefiting from the trends towards shopping more locally, or in discount supermarkets. In that respect the performance of Iceland has been very strong. Going forward, you have to ask the question: is it as good as it is going to get?" said Mr Black. Selling out of Iceland Foods to a private equity buyer might also have been an opportunity Mr Walker - who celebrated his 66th birthday last Saturday - to exit his investment in the business and retire. He insisted on Thursday: "What would I want to do that for? I'm far too young.