Cox & Kings, the luxury British travel company founded in 1758 as a bank for army officers serving in the Raj, has reignited plans to float on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

It such a flotation were to take place, Anthony Good, its chairman, could reap a $40 million (£24 million) windfall.

The company, the world’s oldest travel business, is based in London but it is considering an initial public offering in India to tap the boom in middle-class Indians taking foreign holidays.

Although a final decision to float has yet to be made, an IPO of Cox & Kings is looking increasingly likely, even if the timing is uncertain. Mr Good, Cox & Kings’ chairman and the founder of Good Relations, the public relations company that is now part of Bell Pottinger, said yesterday that the float could happen as soon as September. However, Peter Kerkar, the group’s chief executive, said that it would not take place before the first quarter of next year.

Thanks to a previous IPO episode, Cox & Kings is unwilling to be too precise about the timing. In 2005, the group said that it hoped to list early in 2006, but then it went on to scrap the IPO in the face of plummeting Indian stock markets.

Mr Good said that Cox & Kings was planning to sell about a quarter of the company in the IPO.

The sale of 25 per cent of Cox & Kings shares would raise about $100 million (£61 million) and give Cox & Kings, which began offering holidays in 1923, a market valuation of about $400 million.

Mr Good owns about 10 per cent of Cox & Kings, which would be valued at about $40 million in the IPO. Mr Kerkar, whose family owns a controlling stake in the business, would see a value of at least $200 million on their shares.

The bulk of the IPO proceeds would be used to expand the company through acquisitions, with the remainder used to pay off its £11 million of debts.

Mr Good said: “India is so far ahead that the Indian company has ended up as the parent. It’s a reflection of the growth in the affluent middle classes.”

Last year, Cox & Kings took 287,000 Indians on foreign holidays, compared to only 16,500 people from Britain. Eight years ago, the company sent 15,000 Britons abroad but only 4,000 Indians.

In 2010 the group expects to have nearly doubled its Indian customers to half a million. Cox & Kings has 79 outlets in India and Mr Good said that it was “not unrealistic” to expect that to increase to about 200 in the two or three years after flotation.

Cox & Kings’ history stretches back to 1758, when Richard Cox was posted to serve in India as an agent, a role that included paying the soldiers. He soon added banking and shipping to his responsibilities and developed a sizeable company. After the First World War, the Cox family business merged with Henry S King & Co, a rival bank and shipping agency.

In 1923, the company was sold to Lloyds Bank, at which point the banking and shipping businesses were separated. Lloyds retained the banking business and sold on the shipping operation. It was at this point that the shipping business began its transformation into a travel company, starting with tours in Egypt, India and South Asia.

In 1970, Cox & Kings was sold to Grindlays, a British colonial bank, as part of a deal with Indira Gandi, then the Indian Prime Minister, to develop tourism in the country.

Mr Good said that the Indian general election in May had been a factor behind the decision to step up plans to launch an IPO because it introduced greater political stability. “The election results created a totally new and much more stable, growth-oriented situation in India,” he said.

Mr Good also expressed confidence that investor appetite for the shares would be strong when the IPO was launched. “I’d be surprised if the issue was not oversubscribed,” he said.

In August 2007, Cox & Kings signed a long lease with the private owner of a mountain in the Lungern-Schonbuel belt of the Swiss Alps. It has branded the mountain Mount Cox & Kings and uses it for its holidays.

Cox & Kings runs holidays to India, Latin America, the Far East, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In addition to package tours, it will put together individual “tailor-made” excursions for its customers.

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