At 24, Nikolai Smolensky is an alumnus of British private schools and a former bank chairman who divides his time between his native Moscow and adopted London.

Now the young business prodigy has joined the ranks of big Russian investors in Britain with a purchase that is second in profile only to that of Chelsea football club by the billionaire, Roman Abramovich.

Sports car manufacturer TVR, which is based in Blackpool and has been owned for more than 20 years by Peter Wheeler, announced late on Tuesday it had been purchased in full by Mr Smolensky.

Mr Wheeler is expected to stay on as a senior consultant. The sale price has not been made public, though speculation in the Russian media has put it in the range of £15m. TVR is one of the few privately owned car firms in Britain and specialises in manufacturing high-performance luxury ve hicles such as the Chimaera and Griffith.

The company's profile has grown since one of its cars was featured in action film Swordfish. It opened a showroom in Moscow this month.

TVR, which employs 400 people, produces 800 cars a year, most of which are destined for the British market. There are hopes that the new owner will provide funds for the firm's expansion.

Spokesman Ben Samuelson said: "What Mr Smolensky is proposing to do is to supply the resources to be able to take our place on the world stage."

The youthful millionaire - who was named Russia's youngest rouble billionaire last winter by Finance magazine, with an estimated for tune of 2.9 billion roubles (£54.7m) - inherited his entrepreneurial spirit, as well as at least some of his money, from his father, Alexander Smolensky.

Smolensky senior founded the Stolichny Bank group - which would later grow into SBS-Agro - in 1989, during the height of perestroika. He lost his bank along with much of his wealth in the 1998 financial crash, when SBS-Agro became insolvent.

Out of its ashes Mr Smolensky built First OVK Bank, which he turned over to his son last year. Nikolai Smolensky had ambitious plans: to triple the bank's size to 1,500 branches and expand credit programmes for customers still wary of the concept. But the bank was sold for an estimated £80m less than two months later.

The younger Mr Smolensky has so far declined media interviews this week, issuing a statement through TVR instead. "I am very enthusiastic about the potential of TVR and am grateful for the opportunity to become a car manufacturer," he said.

Mr Samuelson said: "Very quickly, the word has gone around that he has a very wise head on those young shoulders."

Mr Smolensky is also said to be a fan of sports cars. Mr Samuelson said he had driven several TVR models, though he is not known to own one.