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Andrew Regan

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Andrew Regan

Andrew Regan (born 14 December 1965, in Manchester, England) is a British-born polar explorer and entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer of Corvus Capital, an investment company.

Early in his career, Regan ran a household products business, Cadismark, which was sold to Hobson plc in 1991. Following the sale, he became the chief executive of Hobson, which was listed on the London Stock Exchange. In 1994, Hobson acquired F.E. Barber, the food and drinks manufacturing operation of the Co-operative Wholesale Society.

Regan was responsible for developing the Loyd Grossman range of sauces which were manufactured by F.E. Barber. After rationalising the operation, Hobson was acquired in 1996 by Hillsdown Holdings for £154 million, through a recommended cash takeover.

In 1997 Regan led an attempt to gain control of the CWS in a £1.2 billion take-over bid which was rejected. As part of its bid defence, the CWS carried out an investigation into former dealings between certain CWS executives and Regan. In 1995 Regan had authorised the transfer of £2.4 m from F.E. Barber which he maintained he provided to an intermediary as a brokerage fee for successfully resolving the deadlock between the CWS and Hobson in negotiations about extending a food supply contract; the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) maintained that the transfer was used by the intermediary to provide a bribe to two senior CWS executives in order to extend the contract.

Regan's first trial resulted, in 2002, in a hung jury and a retrial was ordered. This retrial in 2003, ended when a juror alleged he was approached by an unknown party. At the second retrial (also in 2003), Regan was acquitted with the judge noting that he was minded to order the SFO to pay Regan's defence costs. In 2005, the Co-operative Group (successor to the CWS) received what it described as a "substantial payment" as part of an out-of-court settlement with Regan and others in a civil case relating to the accusations.

Regan was the original financier behind the online fashion retailer ASOS plc, which is now the UK's largest independent online fashion retailer. He invested £2.3 million in seed capital at the company’s inception and was described as the “creative arm” of the business during its formative period. As Seen on Screen, as it was then known at listing, was reversed into Brindle Limited, a shell company created by a consortium of fellow Monaco investors that included Nigel Robertson. The AIM listing raised only £255,000 (£95,000 after expenses) and had a market capitalisation of £12m when listed on the AIM Market in 2001, growing to £4.36bn in 2017.

Regan became the chief executive officer of Corvus Capital, an international investment company, in 2004 - a position he still assumes. Corvus was established to identify assets or companies which are either underperforming or undervalued. The management team attempt to acquire or tactically reposition such companies in order to realise potential value. Corvus Capital, Inc. was listed in the UK on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) before it was taken private in December 2008.

Corvus founded Lodore Resources, an AIM-listed investment company formed in 2004 with the intention to build a group specialising in the oil and gas sector. The company listed with a market capitalisation of £6.4 million, and after building a group with its assets principally in the United States. In 2005 the company was acquired for a total consideration of £115.0 million. Other Corvus investments included, amongst others, Commoditrade and Gable Holdings.

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