GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS, the arbiter of thousands of the biggest, smallest and daftest achievements, has been put up for sale by its owner, Hit Entertainment, with a price tag close to £60m.

The company wants to concentrate on developing kids’ characters such as Bob the Builder and Barney the Dinosaur.

Corporate-finance boutique Jefferies has already received significant interest in the business.

Hit hopes buyers will recognise GWR’s valuable intellectual property and recurring revenues as a Christmas stocking filler.

First published in 1955, GWR has sold 110m books worldwide and has been translated into 37 languages. The 2002 edition spent more than 20 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. It came back into vogue more recently with the popularity of “list” books such as Schott’s Miscellany.

Hit, owned by private-equity firm Apax Partners, is also looking for a buyer for Sooty the puppet.

GWR was sold by Diageo, owner of Guinness stout, in 1997.

A Hit spokesman declined to comment.

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