Brookes tunes in to vogue for floats

FORMER Radio 1 DJ Bruno Brookes is leading a string of flotations spurred on by a buoyant stock market. Brookes, once romantically linked with TV presenter Anthea Turner, is floating Immedia Broadcasting, the new name of his Storm Digital Broadcasting.

It supplies 'in store' radio for newsagents and pharmacies. The Aim float will value it at £16m and Brookes' 25% stake at £4m.

The four-year-old company has two radio stations - Newsagent Radio which goes out to 2,300 UK stores and Lloydspharmacy Live. with more than 1,000 outlets.

Brookes hopes to raise £5m to expand his coverage to around 7,500 stores.

Also jumping on the float bandwagon is Erinaceous Group, which sells software services to letting agents. It is raising £10m on Aim to value it at £50m to £60m. Its stable includes Hanover Park Services and Haywards Property Services.

Access Intelligence, which gives advice to small businesses, is floating with a £10m market value. It is changing its name from Readymarket.

Its brands include Marketing Guild which sells newsletters and provides a helpline and training seminars for small firms. Another brand is Wired-GOV which supplies subscribers with press releases from government.