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Expect more corporate moves soon from Corvus Capital, the ambitious AIM-quoted vehicle of financier Andrew Regan, whose £104 million 1994 acquisition of CWS Food Manufacturing provoked a series of prolonged court cases which cleared him of theft and bribery charges. Regan holds about 30 per cent of Corvus, which in turn has built up key stakes, core and trading, in a variety of companies and is itself expected shortly to report unrealised investment gains of more than £20 million for a 15-month period to June.

Corvus, with a £41 million AIM value at 15.75p, has nearly 25 per cent of Roeford Properties, which recently raised £417,000 on AIM and is paying £1.5 million for a brown-field development site in Devon. Another Corvus AIM holding is Caymans-based Commoditrade, suspended at 12.5p as it negotiates to buy a larger French group.

Regan says commodities and insurance are currently the ‘sexiest’ sectors and is talking about using a quoted shell in Jo’burg for mining deals. Also owning a key stake in insurance shell Gable Holdings, which is recruiting senior players, Corvus has looked at pitching for Royal Sun Alliance, but ‘only on an agreed basis’.

Corvus has made £8.25 million selling out of resources group Lodore and Techpacific, backer of high-flying (and Caymans-based) finance group Crosby Capital Partners, headed by Regan ally Simon Fry. Regan says his game plan now is to buy big books of direct insurance business that can be reinsured in a profitable way.