DJ with attitude sets out to woo shy banker

This spring, Chris Evans, the disc jockey and main shareholder in Ginger Media Group, told his radio listeners he was going to give away £500,000 sterling (#758,035) of the company's money.

The first thing Ginger chief executive David Campbell knew of the plan was when he heard the radio in the company London headquarters in Soho. The next few hours were spent frantically phoning the other shareholders, namely Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Apax Partners, the venture capital company, to reassure them that the publicity stunt was in a good cause - Comic Relief.

Fans of Mr Evans, who was born on April Fool's Day, have grown to love such behaviour. He announced he would buy Virgin Radio and appealed for funds during his own show on the station. And when Ginger was plotting to buy the tabloid Daily Star from United News & Media, the plan was for Mr Evans to stroll into studio and joke that he "bought a newspaper this morning".

This week, the Financial Times said Mr Evans was sounding out investment bankers about floating Ginger Media, possibly within six months. Such a move, which could value Ginger at £250 million raised inevitable questions about whether Evans could fit into a world of City suits.

One banker isn't convinced. "I don't think the City would want to invest in a business run by Chris Evans." He would want to be persuaded that the business was being managed by high-class executives rather than Mr Evans.

Mr Campbell says that is indeed the case. "Chris is the creative, and there are businessmen running the business. The reality is he wouldn't really deal with the City a lot."

Mr Evans's allies and shareholders also claim his and the company's attitude would change if flotation plans went ahead. According to Barbara Manfrey, a director of Apax, Mr Evans would realise that "one has different obligations if one were part of a public company than when one is a majority shareholder".

But for more conventional City types there are worrying parallels between Mr Evans and another swashbuckling figure, Mr Branson, who owns 20 per cent of Ginger. Just two years ago, Mr Evans described himself as a "replica" of Mr Branson, whose Virgin Group was floated in 1986. But Mr Branson's relationship with the City was short-lived, and by 1988 he was looking for an exit via a management buy-out.

Mr Campbell acknowledges there are similarities between the two, but says that should be viewed positively. "Both want to go into areas that other people haven't gone into," he says.

The turning point for Mr Evans came in 1992, when he was picked to co-present Channel 4's The Big Breakfast. The programme's success launched his career in earnest. He started his own company and devised a Saturday night TV gameshow - Don't Forget Your Toothbrush - which he presented. He became a household name, and was hired to present the breakfast show on BBC Radio One.

But his reputation as an enfant terrible clashed with the BBC's straight-laced ethos. When the corporation refused his request to be given Fridays off because he felt "tired", he resigned. Mr Evans soon reappeared as a presenter of Virgin Radio's morning show.

When Mr Branson put the station up for sale in 1997, he rounded up backers and beat Capital Radio, the preferred bidder, with an £85 million offer. That led to the birth of Ginger as it is today. Ms Manfrey says since Ginger's formation, Mr Evans "has done what he said he would do . . . He has improved the audience figures of Virgin Radio and he has been a magnet for new talent".

That is an opinion not shared by all. Although the figures have recently taken a turn for the better, Virgin has not had an easy ride. After an initial jump in listeners when Mr Evans joined the station in 1997, Virgin Radio's weekly audience dropped from 4.2 million in the three months to last June to 3.8 million by December.

As for the future, Mr Evans's ambitions are clear. Mr Campbell says Ginger "wants to get to large numbers of people who are in our target market - 20- to 44-year-olds".

That is exactly the audience that Mr Evans has courted for the past few years on TFI Friday, now in its fourth series.