Iceland Foods founder and chief executive Malcolm Walker is interested in buying the 67% stake in the UK frozen-food retailer that is up for sale.

Failed Icelandic bank Landsbanki announced last week that it had launched a formal sale process to dispose of its shares in Iceland Foods, a stake that has been valued at between GBP1.4bn (US$2.26bn) and GBP1.6bn.

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Potential bidders have been touted as UK supermarket Morrisons and Asda, the UK arm of Wal-Mart Stores, both of which have indicated their strategic goal to open smaller stores.

However, a spokesperson for Walker today (24 May) insisted that Iceland Foods’ management – which collectively holds a 23% stake in the group – are not interested in selling but would consider taking 100% ownership of the firm.

“The shareholder rights agreement does include pre-emption rights and [the management] has the right to match any offer, so it really depends who offers what and what their plans for the business are,” the spokesperson said.

Over the weekend, it was reported that Morrisons was preparing a GBP1.5bn bid for Iceland Foods.

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Last week, The Co-operative Group said it would not be interested in buying the retailer but would look at individual sites.

Last month, Sainsbury’s, the UK’s third-largest retailer, indicated that it would be interested in looking at Iceland Foods once Landsbanki put its shares up for sale.