An investment group of seven principals has purchased 6.43 percent of Regency Cruises and is considering a possible takeover bid of the cruise line.

Caya Associates, a newly formed New York-based partnership, has purchased 1,497,945 of the outstanding 23.3 million shares for between $2.02 and $2.04 per share.

President Robert D. Tucker of the Atlanta­ based Scherer Scientific Ltd. partnership said that Caya Associates had access to the $46 million to $50 million that he thought would would be necessary to purchase all the outstanding shares and to take Regency private.

At press time, Regency was quoted at $2 5/8, up 3/16. The company went public in June of 1985, offering 6.5 million units at $1 each. (Each unit consisted of one share of common stock and one warrant.)

“We’re quite impressed with Regency Cruises and our research shows that it’s a well managed company and it would weather the storm in a possible recession,” Tucker said. “We are going to meet with Mr. Schantz privately as stockholders and talk to him as the chairman of the board to see what he thinks of the future of Regency because we’d definitely want to have him on our side in any takover bid,” Tucker added.

Tucker said that Scherer Scientific, James E. Brand as president of the Atlanta-based Georgia American Land Co, and Tucker individually, owned slightly more than 60 percent of Caya Associates. He said that three other principals included principals of the New York-based Commonwealth Associates investment firm and the fourth was a Mr. Hu of Japan with unspecified interests.

Tucker said that Caya Associates was very optimistic about the financial potential for the North American-based cruise industry and had studied Regency and found that the its publicly traded stock was “undervalued.” He said that Caya Associates would continue to invest in the three-ship cruise line if the takeover bid is thwarted “as long as it continues to be an attractive investment.”

Tucker said that he thought that there was a possibility of convincing some of the major existing Regency stockholders to join forces with Caya to ease any possible transition during any takeover bid. He said that Anastasios Kyriakides owned 5.8 percent of the outstanding stock, that Kostas Galetakis owned 7.7 percent, that Schanz owned 7.2 percent and that Fred Mayer, president of Exprinter Cruises of New York, owned 4.2 percent.