Leisure Ventures lifts the lid on float

LEISURE Ventures, the cash shell set up by former Airtours managing director Harry Coe with David Burns, chief executive of the Football League, has unveiled its AIM flotation details.

The group has raised £510,000 after placing 8.5m new ordinary shares at 6p each with private and institutional investors. Trading in the shares is expected to start on Thursday.

It plans to buy undervalued leisure companies in the next two years and the high profile of the directors has helped attract well-known entrepreneurs.

Michael Edelson, who helped create shell company Knutsford, has taken a 5% stake in the group, as has Sir Rodney Walker, chairman of the Wembley National Stadium. Julian Richer, one of the original Knutsford investors along with Archie Norman, Nigel Wray and Nick Leslau, has also taken a stake.

However, comparisons with Knutsford, which focused on retail sector deals, are unlikely to be part of the company's marketing spiel. Speculation followed Richer's 2p-a-share stake in Knutsford, sending the stock soaring to 270p, but the deals to justify such a price failed to materialise and shares in what became WILink.com now change hands for 1p.