10m Web hit shows off Net mayoral assets

MARK KOTECHA - the entrepreneur who wants to be London Mayor - has turned a computer games company into a runaway success three months after selling his Internet company for 10 million.

Mr Kotecha, 35, has signed a deal with leading private investors who have paid 2 million for a 15 per cent share in the UK's largest Internet games retailer, Simplygames.com.

He began the company last December in a basement in south London with a couple of staff.

But since the summer, the company's turnover has risen 15-fold, leaving Mr Kotecha's group valued at 13.3 million and employing 40 staff. The company has sold more new Sega Dreamcast consoles than any high street retailer.

Dreamcast is expected to be one of the most popular presents this Christmas.

Mr Kotecha is launching Simplygames.com's German site next week, a French site next month and a Spanish site in the spring - making it one of the first UK e-commerce operators to have dedicated European sites for each country.

The company also plans to float on the Nasdaq next summer.

The deal is with an investment group led by Gregory Barker, who participated in the 1998 management buyout of top recruitment advertising group, Bartlett Merton.

Mr Kotecha also founded Netlink and turned it into one of Europe's largest providers of websites and Internet name registering services.

In August he sold the company to American group VIA Networks for 10 million.

Mr Kotecha now hopes his "Midas touch" won't desert him when he mounts a second bid to win the Conservative nomination for London's Mayor.

He said: "The events of the past few weeks have shown that what the Conservatives need is a Mayor with a proven history of running a successful business - and who can create jobs in the capital. I think Netlink and Simplygames.com

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