ITV in talks to buy Hat Trick Productions Private equity firm August Equity took a 45pc stake in Hat Trick for £25m in 2003, but Mr Mulville bought it back in 2009 saying it had been saddled with such "punitive" amounts of debt the deal almost sank the company. Since then, however, Hat Trick has been going through another "golden age," he said this weekend. "I wish I could tell you why but we're going through a patch when a lot of our ideas are being taken by broadcasters," he said. The comedy market is burgeoning at the moment. We've got a full order book and development is strong. The London firm is on track to hit £4.5m profits before interest, tax and depreciation amortisation in the current year, and is expected to fetch in the region of £36m. In the 18 months to the end of 2010, the last results available at Companies House, Hat Trick reported pre-tax profits of £4.8m on £33.1m turnover . ITV has been striving to announce the Hat Trick deal at its half-year results on Thursday, when the broadcaster is expected to report a 51pc jump in pre-tax profits from £146m to just over £221m, according to analyst forecasts compiled by Bloomberg. Revenues are forecast to be broadly flat at £1.09bn, down from £1.11bn in the same period last year. It is not yet clear, though, whether the deal will be agreed by this week. ITV has made good headway in the first three years of its turnaround strategy, by shoring up its balance sheet, slashing its pension deficit and moving from loss into a profit of £327m last year. However, analysts and television executives fear that the broadcaster has stalled on another key ambition to build up its pipeline of content, despite a string of heavyweight hires.