THE credit-card and mobile-phone insurer CPP is examining plans to cash in with a £500m sale or stock-market flotation early next year.

The company, set up 27 years ago by the colourful entrepreneur Hamish Ogston, has appointed UBS to carry out a strategic review. Ogston still owns almost all of the shares and drew a £5.8m dividend last year.

CPP, which stands for Card Protection Plan, has 10.5m customers. It provides cover against the loss or theft of driving licences, credit and debit cards. In recent years, it has benefited from the boom in store cards and has long-standing contracts with Marks & Spencer and HSBC.

CPP claims that 40% of UK households either own or have owned one of its card policies.

The company has lately been remodelled round “life assistance”, adding in insurance cover for keys, mobile phones and identity theft.

It provides phone cover on behalf of a number of the mobile operators, including 3, supplying replacement phones and covering the cost of unauthorised calls when a handset has been stolen.

Underlying earnings were £25m in 2006, on sales of £200m, which are expected to rise 13% to £225m in 2007.

Ogston, who is 60 next year and stepped back into a nonexecutive role five years ago, said: “Most businesses have a periodic review of where they are going and what their options are and we are going through that.”

His decision is not thought to have been prompted by an approach for the business, although he has been contacted in the past by interested parties.

Ogston last considered a flotation in 2000, but was put off by stock-market conditions. CPP employs almost 1,200 people at a call centre in York.

The company has recently gained a foothold in China and is exploring options for moving into India, where the burgeoning middle classes are turning to credit to fuel their spending on consumer goods.

After a stint in the Norwegian merchant navy, Ogston embarked on his business career by trading cocoa futures while studying at Manchester university.

He later founded several companies, including the retail discount card supplier Countdown and the awards scheme Supreme Awards.

One of his most high-profile projects was the Guinness World of Records, a visitor attraction in London’s West End that he sold to Guinness.

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