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After realising £8 million from share stake sales, Corvus Capital is looking to buy hefty books of insurance business.

Headed by colourful financier Andrew Regan, AIM-quoted Corvus, which fans expect to report 18-month investment profits of £30 million in October, has sold its holding in Techpacific, key backer of Cayman-based investment group Crosby Capital Partners, for £3.75 million. This follows Corvus' £4.5 million sale of its stake in resources group Lodore and precedes an expected deal by Commoditrade, its AIM-quoted commodity vehicle (also Cayman-based), suspended at 12.5p, to buy a significantly larger French group.

Regan is building up Corvus' funds to give it the muscle for a pet project, to buy books of direct insurance business that are capable of being reinsured in a profitable way. Corvus has toyed with the idea of bidding for Royal Sun Alliance, but this is no longer likely.

The company also has a stake in AIM-quoted Gable Holdings, now 13.5p, which Regan wants to see grow into a cash-generating insurance business. New recruits to Gable are expected soon.

Corvus, at 16.13p, also has holdings in property and other sectors. Regan, whose earlier attempt to buy the Co-op was followed by prolonged legal problems  – from which he emerged buffeted but exonerated – has big ambitions for the company, which is likely to attract wider stock market attention before too long.