A privately owned company which sells airport transfers and travel insurance is exploring a stock market flotation that could help to breathe fresh life into the City’s moribund IPO pipeline.
Sky News has learnt that Holiday Extras, which was founded in 1983 by Gerry Pack, is drawing up plans for a possible future listing.
Travel industry sources said the timing and size of a flotation were yet to be determined, while it was unclear on Thursday whether advisers had been appointed to work with the company.
Market conditions are unlikely to be opportune for an IPO for some time, one investor said.
Holiday Extras staged a management buyout in 2018, which resulted in Mr Pack, its management team and an employee benefit trust owning the bulk of its shares.
That deal was reported at the time to value it at about £100m.
Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022 filed at Companies House show it made a £4m loss, compared to a £9.5m loss the year before.
The company said it was recovering from the pandemic but that its 2022 revenues were only 41% of pre-COVID levels.
Responding to an enquiry from Sky News, a Holiday Extras spokesman said: “Holiday Extras has enjoyed a spectacular recovery in the year since travel restrictions were lifted, with our best ever results in our forty-year history [during the] financial year that ended in April.
“We are always actively exploring opportunities to accelerate our growth, including talking to potential investors and a potential listing.
Although we have discussed a listing we currently have no concrete plans to IPO.”
The City has seen a dearth of new listings during the last year, with companies deterred by the performance of prominent recent IPOs such as that of Deliveroo and a gloomier prognosis for the economy.