Fund deal for Commoditrade

09/08/2006 Robert Tyerman

Investment group Commoditrade, where financier Andrew Regan’s Corvus Capital holds a key stake, is paying £500,000 cash and £900,000 in shares for a 75 per cent share in the future net profits of commodity-focused investment management company AMCO.

Half-owned by Commoditrade non-executive director Chris Adams, an experienced London Metal Exchange (LME) trader, Amco manages the newly-launched AMCO Commodities Fund, which wants to raise up to £275 million over three years to seize trading opportunities across a range of base metals.

Graham Butt, chairman of AIM-quoted Commoditrade, says this deal fits into the company’s strategy of making ‘acquisitions which provide exposure to the international commodities market’. In May Commoditrade agreed to buy 75 per cent of French-owned commodities broker Sucden’s LME operations, run by none other than Adams, for £24 million.

Adams founded AMCO last year with fellow commodity trader Keiron Mathias. This latest investment could add more speculative spice to volatile Commoditrade, now 18.25p.