By Mairi Mallon Bermuda-based Sea Containers is set to float its prestigious rail company, Orient Express -- made famous by Agatha Christie's novel by the same name -- next month.

Sea Containers, which owns companies involved in passenger transport, marine container leasing as well as luxury hotels, announced an initial public offering (IPO) of shares in Orient Express Hotels Ltd to be launched in July in its quarterly report.

And this week details of the IPO, which should raise $215 million, are due to be published in the company's annual report.

In the quarterly report, Sea Containers said that it had been purchasing limited amounts of public debt in the open market, and that it was `the company's present intention' to conclude and initial public offering of the Hotels shares in July this year.

And the $215 million will be used to re-pay debts owed by Orient Express Hotels to Sea Containers.

Revenues for quarter for the leisure part of Sea Containers was listed as $10.06 million compared to $9.4 million for the same period the year before.

In 1999 the operating profits of the Sea Containers subsidiary was up $15.3 million or 31 percent to $64.8 million and sales stood at $253 million.

In the same year the Sea Containers group revenue was $1.3 billion, with pre-tax profits standing at $66.6 million -- just over what the leisure division makes on its own.

$114 million was spent financing the group's $1.8 billion of debt, affecting the profit margins. Without the debt, the company would have made $196 million.

The sale is expected to reduce large debt at Sea Containers and boost the share price, which closed on Tuesday at $22.12, which has fallen considerably from its 52 week high of $39, and is worth almost half of what it was worth two years ago.

The Orient Express IPO is expected to be a success mainly due to the huge cash flows from the company, but also because many would like to own a piece of the legendary Orient Express.

The train and its journey across Europe has inspired countless writers and these days it is the wealthy and honeymooners who wind their way from Paris to Venice to Istanbul, eating caviar and drinking champagne.

Now, if all goes according to plan, the world's most famous railway will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and investors for the first time will be able to buy into the business.

Sea Containers are the owners of the Orient Express Hotels, which they have built up into a huge collection of top-notch hotels, restaurants, steamers and railway services.

In all there are 26 hotels, six luxury train services, one cruise ship and two restaurants.

This list reads like a Louis Vuitton suitcase's guide of where to go and what to do if you are a millionaire.

It includes the luxury havens of the Windsor Court in New Orleans and in Venice the famous Hotel Cipriani.

There is also the 21 Club - and exclusive dining place in central Manhattan, New York, the Bora Bora Lagoon Resort in French Polynesia, golfers paradise of Quinta do Lago in the Algarve, Portugal, the Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro as well as the Gametrackers resort in Botwsana.

The Orient Express also owns other rail services such as the Road to Mandalay in Myanmar and the Eastern and Oriental Express which travels through South East Asia.

The growth of the Orient Express group started in 1976 with the Cipriani, and grew again in 1982 with the addition of the Venice Simplon Orient Express. The latest acquisition was the Sydney Observatory Hotel at the beginning of 2000.

BUSINESS BUC