TWO Darwen entrepreneurs are set to make a fortune by floating their company on the stock market.

Brothers Neil and Andrew Duckworth set up Winterhill Asset in 2008 to value industrial equipment and real estate for banks and administrators worldwide.

They hope to raise £6 million when they list the company on the Alternative Investment Market at the end of the month.

The float will enable them to buy West Yorkshire debt collection company Legal and Receivables (Largo), and provide capital for fur-ther swoops.

Neil, 41, said: “At the moment we deal with tangible things like valuing vehicles and machinery, but we want to deal with the whole aspect, so we have acquired a debt-collecting business.”

The Commercial Road business, which has 14 staff, will be renamed Winterhill Group.

It is expected to have a market value of between £12.5m and £17m when its shares begin trading, probably towards the end of this month.

Turnover for 2010 is expected to be around £6m with pre-tax profits forecast at £2.6m.

Neil will be chief executive of Winterhill Group and Andrew, 43, will become an executive director, as will Legal and Receivables founder Paul Snook.

Neil and Andrew grew up in Heapey near Chorley and went to Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Blackburn.

Their father ran a small asset management company in Chorley, SHM Smith Hodgkinson, which they took over in 1988.

For 20 years they built it up in Manchester before selling it to US firm Gordon Brothers International in 2004.

Neil said: “We have no intention of moving Winterhill from Darwen.

“It’s attractive to us because of the good motorway links, it’s easy to get on the train to London, and also to Manchester airport.

“Also as local lads we don’t want to have to sit in Manchester city centre traffic every morning.

“We hope to expand rapidly. We’re already taking on 27 people from Largo and took on a couple more people over Christmas.

“It’s a very positive time for the business.”