Beckwith scores on Sportscard float

John Beckwith, a property tycoon turned sports entrepreneur, is set to enjoy a nine-fold return on a £1m investment in Sportscard Group when the credit card company floats later this year.

John Beckwith, a property tycoon turned sports entrepreneur, is set to enjoy a nine-fold return on a £1m investment in Sportscard Group when the credit card company floats later this year.

Sportscard offers credit cards that give users points to be redeemed against sports tickets, club memberships and merchandise at certain retailers, with each pound spent yielding a penny of points.

Its chairman will be Peter Risdale, chairman of Leeds Sporting, the owner of Leeds United Football Club. John Allwood, the former chief executive of the Mirror Group, the newspaper publisher now known as Trinity Mirror, is a non-executive director.

The group will today unveil a flotation on the Alternative Investment Market valuing the business at £40m, making Mr Beckwith a paper profit of £10m. Mr Beckwith's wholly-owned Pacific Investments vehicle paid £1.2m for a 49 per cent stake in Sportscard in 1997. Mr Beckwith will hold 30 per cent of the group after the float, and is locked in for 12 months with directors and other investors.