Top financier sets sights on Royal & Sun

A FINANCIER best known for his attempt to buy the British Co-op consumer services group now has insurer Royal & Sun Alliance (RSA) in his sights, it was reported yesterday.

Andrew Regan is understood to have identified Britain’s second-biggest insurer - owner of the More Than brand and valued at stg£2.4 billion (€3.5 billion) - at the start of this year, according to weekend reports.

The reports emerged at the end of a week in which shares in the FTSE 100 Index company surged 5% amid speculation that an unnamed “high-profile UK entrepreneur” was working on a bid. More than 80 million shares changed hands on Friday.

Mr Regan, who made his first fortune from the Cadismark household products business he founded after leaving school at 17, is believed to have been examining potential takeovers, with RSA his top target.

Last month he flew to New York to arrange financing although there are a number of potential hurdles, including a sizeable pension deficit and the group’s troubled American arm, the newspaper added.

In 1997, Mr Regan launched a £1.2 billion bid for the Co-op but the deal collapsed amid a series of allegations. Six years later and after three trials he was cleared of stealing £2.4 million from a company he controlled, money that Britain’s Serious Fraud Office claimed was used to provide bribes to two CWS executives to agree a food supply contract.

Mr Regan said he was the victim of a dishonest Dutch businessman who was granted immunity from prosecution.

The Sunday Times said a bid for RSA would be an audacious move by Mr Regan, who made his stock market return last year, taking control of Corvus Capital.