ONE of Britain’s most admired entertainment entrepreneurs is set to see his fortune valued at £400 million when his media corporate finance boutique floats on the stock market early in the new year.

Patrick McKenna, a former accountant who made his name as chairman and chief executive of Lord Lloyd-Webber’s Really Useful Group, is understood to have given the go-ahead for the flotation, on AIM, of Ingenious Media, the entertainment consultancy he founded in 1998.

Bridgewell Securities is expected to be appointed as stockbroker to lead a fundraising of between £150 million and £250 million before a listing in February or March. Sue Ford, previously finance director of Channel 4, was made finance director of Ingenious in October as a precursor to its float.

Ingenious has consistently been one of Britain’s fastest-growing private companies, with profits in its year to March 31 rising from £25.5 million to £33.5 million on turnover of £54.9 million, a margin of 61 per cent. Mr McKenna, chairman, held all the company’s A shares in issue at its financial year-end.

Ingenious has carved out a niche advising on flotations and mergers and acquisitions in the television production sector, most recently acting for Ricochet, the creator of Supernanny, on its £30 million acquisition by Shed Productions, the maker of Bad Girls and Footballers’ Wives. It also floated Shed on AIM and previously advised Hat Trick, the producer of Have I Got News For You, on the sale of a 45 per cent stake to Kleinwort Capital.

Ingenious also co-brokered Robbie Williams’s ground-breaking record deal with EMI, reputedly worth £80 million, and has invested in Simon Fuller’s company, 19 Entertainment, the producer of Pop Idol, which in March was sold to Robert Sillerman, the US media investor, for £100 million.

In June Ingenious unveiled plans to invest £110 million in 11 films with “high British content”, giving a boost to domestic production in an industry hit by revision of tax breaks. Ingenious is putting cash into titles ranging from X-Men 3, from Fox, the Hollywood studio owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times, to Woody Allen’s next British movie, produced by BBC Films. It has previously raised film finance for titles such as Vera Drake, Kingdom of Heaven and Hotel Rwanda.

Other directors of Ingenious include Neil Blackley, a former Merrill Lynch media analyst, who is a non-executive.

Mr McKenna is chairman of the Young Vic Theatre Company, to which he is a donor, and was on the British Tourist Authority’s board for seven years. He previously worked for Deloitte, heading its media and entertainment group.

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive