Allard to pocket £10m as All Leisure floats on AIM

Roger Allard, the colourful head of All Leisure, the cruising company, is set to pocket more than £10m from the £110m listing of the group on AIM tomorrow, just a decade after he bought the company for a token £1.

The company, which specialises in cruises to Antarctica and the Caribbean, will begin trading tomorrow at 180p per share. It owns the Voyages of Discovery and Swan Hellenic brands and has benefited from a boom in travel by older generations.

Sources close to the company said it would begin paying a high dividend straight away as it is highly cash generative.

Mr Allard, the former First Choice managing director who has 40 years' experience in the travel industry, is currently a 75 per cent shareholder in All Leisure. He will remain by far the largest investor in the company following its float on the alternative investment market.

All Leisure made pre-tax profits of £6.25m on turnover of £47m in the year to last October. All Leisure's listing will raise £20m in total.

The company said the cash raised will give it "the flexibility to take advantage of further ship acquisition opportunities in a growing cruise market".