County man's fortune at £387m

A Shropshire businessman who made a fortune by floating his mobile phone company in America has been named one of the richest men in Britain.

Also see: Credit crunch bites super rich

Jonathan Kendrick, from Claverley, near Bridgnorth, runs ROK Entertainment at Albrighton on the county border.

The company has developed revolutionary technology which allows TV to be shown on ordinary mobile phones, giving them access to millions of customers in China and India - the two fastest growing mobile phone markets in the world.

He floated ROK on the American market, with his US partner John Paul DeJoria, in November last year, raising a billion dollars overnight.

The deal has made 50-year-old Mr Kendrick the 230th richest person in Britain, with a fortune of £387 million, according to the new Sunday Times Rich List.

The list, which shows how the credit crunch is starting to slowly hit many of the nation's mega-rich people, reveals that Mr Kendrick has a stake worth £287 million in ROK Entertainment, and a £100 million share of its sister company ROK Mobile.

Speaking at the time of the flotation, the former tyre salesman whose company now also has offices in Beijing, San Paolo, Moscow and Los Angeles, said: "It is our return for four years of sweat and toil.

"There are 2.8 billion handsets in use worldwide at present - representing more viewable screens than all the TV sets, all the computer screens and all the cinema screens in the world combined."