Kevin Kenny's financial services group, Fishers, made a pitch last year to buy Hambros Insurance, a move that would have catapulted Fishers from being a relatively obscure minor player in the insurance business to a significant operator. That move was rebuffed at the time by Hambros Bank, owners of a controlling stake in Hambros Insurance.

Now the insurance group has been sold as part of the overall break-up of the Hambros group, but Fishers is not the buyer even though the price paid by the new owners, the Canadian group Lindsey Morden was only a few pence higher than Fishers was prepared to pay last year. Lindsey Morden bought the Hambro stake for 132p sterling a share cash, compared to the 128.7p in a mix of cash and paper which Fishers offered.

Insurance analysts said that since Hambros wanted hard cash and was not interested in taking anybody's share in part-payment for its stake, Fishers was never really in the running. Given that Fishers has a market capitalisation of just over £50 million and the Lindsey Morden bid values Hambros Insurance at nearly £90 million sterling, Kevin Kenny had no chance of making a realistic cash offer.