Shares in Oakhill, the de merged print and packaging division of James Crean, soared by 97.56 per cent in London yesterday following the purchase of a 5.45 per cent stake in the company by Mr Pierce Casey, the venture capitalist.

Although unchanged in Dublin, the shares increased by 20p sterling to 40.5p in London, just short of the flotation price of 42.5p sterling.

The consideration paid by Mr Casey has not been disclosed but the 3,076,984 shares would have cost €1.08 million (£860,000) at the last Irish closing price before the announcement. Mr Casey has stakes in a number of publicly quoted companies such as Lamont and a stake of more than 29 per cent in Unidare with Mr Dermot Desmond. He was not available for comment yesterday but his strategy is to take stakes in what he perceives as recovery situations.

Oakhill's share price has been very weak and, prior to the announcement that Mr Casey had taken a stake, it was substantially down on the first traded price of 68 cents on the Dublin market. The shares were last traded in Dublin at 35 cents.

The group is still looking for a new chairman. Mr Donal Chambers, the non-executive chairman, last October informed the board of his wish to resign due to "the demands and time commitments of the position" which were "substantially greater than he anticipated". At the time Oakhill promised to "meet in the coming weeks to appoint a successor".

Following the demerger, Crean ended up with a 20 per cent stake in Oakhill. At Crean's annual general meeting last July, Mr Ray McLoughlin, its chairman and chief executive, said he hoped to sell the stake within 12 months, but added "when the time is right is really when we will sell it".

Oakhill's latest results showed a 22 per cent increase in profit before tax and amortisation to €3.7 million from €3.04 million in the six months to June 30th 1999. Most of this growth was due to a contribution from acquisitions but there was some underlying growth, according to the company.