Stars in their eyes at Stellar

KATE Winslet, Tom Stoppard, Alan Bennett and Ewan McGregor are among the stars and writers snapped up by sports and entertainment manager CSS Stellar in a deal worth up to £22m. It is buying Peters Fraser & Dunlop Group (PFD), the Covent Garden talent agency that manages them, as well as writers Richard 'Blackadder' Curtis, Robert 'Enigma' Harris and Nick 'Fever Pitch' Hornby.

CSS, run by John Webber and Julian Jakobi, claims the deal will make it 'the largest talent agency in Europe' with up to 2,000 clients. It will also make millionaires of PFD joint chairmen Anthony Jones and Tim Corrie and their colleagues Michael Sissons and Maureen Vincent.

Webber and Jakobi, who worked for sports promoter Mark McCormack, floated CSS a year ago on the Alternative Investment Market at 180p with expansion in mind. This deal combines their TV stars (Anne Robinson, Michael Parkinson) and sports stars (racing driver Richard Burns), with PFD's writers and actors.

CSS is paying an initial £11.9m in cash and shares, plus up to another £10.1m over 16 months. The price is 13 times PFD's profits of £1.2m - after adding back £802,000 of 'excess management remuneration'.