Sir Martin fortune soars on WPP wings

SIR MARTIN Sorrell's personal fortune has nearly doubled to £130m since he predicted a recovery in the advertising markets last spring.

Shares in his WPP advertising group, which hit a 320p low last March, have surged to 630p. He owns 13.6m WPP shares - the value of which has risen from £43m to £85m in less than a year. He has also made a £9.1m paper profit on his share options.

Sorrell, who built up WPP from scratch into a £7.4bn media giant, is also in line for a £40m payout from a long-term investment plan into which he paid £7m of his own money.

WPP was formed in 1986, when Sorrell bought a stake in a supermarket shopping basket company called Wire and Plastic Products. He then acquired several media firms. The group's agencies include Ogilvy & Mather and J Walter Thompson.

Sorrell famously predicted that the last advertising recession would be deep and 'bath-shaped' - with a long, flat period before the recovery. The bounce-back has not been as quick as some expected, but Sorrell forecasts a slow and steady improvement.