CPP set for float on stock market

The company, which is one of York's biggest private employers, was

built from scratch 30 years ago by entrepreneur Hamish Ogston, who still owns the vast bulk of the company.

CPP will join a number of companies which have announced intentions to float in recent days, reviving the battered IPO market. Earlier this week Leeds-based software medical developer Emis Group said it hoped to raise 50m by floating on AIM.

The company said it was "undecided and variable" exactly how much will be raised from the IPO, but at least half of its equity will remain with Mr Ogston. Chief executive Eric Woolley added Mr Ogston, who

handed over day-to-day running of the company 10 years ago, has rejected previous offers to buy the company because he "strongly believes in the growth story".

CPP plans to use the proceeds of listing on the main market to clear some of its 49m net debt, plus allow Mr Ogston "partial realisation" of his stake.

"We will look to raise a little bit of primary – it's not going to be more than 50m," said Mr Woolley. "It will just give us some

flexibility in our balance sheet rather than a massive amount of firepower for growth because we do not need it. We are highly cash generative."

CPP was founded in 1980 and covers customers for loss of items including wallets, mobile phones and keys, as well as identity theft. It has around 10 million policies in 14 countries and reported underlying earnings of 49.5m on revenue of 292.1m last year. It employs more than 1,000 staff in York and 2,000 worldwide.

"It was always planned that we would IPO at some stage and at this point now the timing is great for us in terms of the positioning of the company and our ambitions," said Mr Woolley, adding the company came close to listing two years ago but "happily postponed it" when markets plummeted.

"We have been positioning ourselves as an IPO contender for as much as five years but the growth rate has been compounding very nicely in that interim period."

In recent years, CPP has expanded into the developing economies of Turkey, India and Mexico. It plans to move into China this year, tapping into the country's increasingly affluent population.

In a statement, Mr Ogston said: "Having been the controlling

shareholder of CPP for the last 30 years, I believe the time is right for me to realise part of my investment as I continue to expand my other businesses and charitable interests.

"As a majority shareholder post the IPO, I look forward to supporting CPP and continuing to share in its future growth and success."

UBS and JP Morgan Cazenove will run a bookrunning exercise over the next month to gauge interest from institutional investors. CPP expects the share offer to be complete by the end of March.

This week's flurry of IPO activity follows New Look, Merlin

Entertainments and Travelport abandoning their plans for listings last week.

Philanthropist behind the company

As well as being one of Britain's wealthiest individuals, CPP founder Hamish Ogston is a significant philanthropist.

Mr Ogston, 62, founded Card Protection Plan Ltd in 1980 and handed over its day-to-day running in 1999 when he became non-executive chairman, a role he relinquished in January.

Over the summer of 2008, Mr Ogston made a donation of 2m to York Minster's restoration fund.

He has also donated money to the company's UK Community Charity Fund, which helps community groups and charities based near its offices.

According to the 2009 Sunday Times Rich List, Mr Ogston is worth 428m and ranked 127th in the UK.

The Sunday Times valued CPP at 400m and said he has other assets of 30m.