Agents' Mutual releases more details of stock exchang...

Agents’ Mutual has released more details of its float on the stock market, which begins on February 9 with a placing priced at 165p.

In a statement to the London Stock Exchange it says approximately £30m equity is to be raised through the placing of new ordinary shares, giving it an anticipated market capitalisation on admission to the market of circa £100m.

The £30m figure appears to be substantially less than the £50m suggested some months ago by Agents' Mutual spokespeople.

Agents' Mutual this morning said it will start dealing on the exchange’s Alternative Investment Market on February 9 and anticipates that agents will own over 70 per cent of the issued share capital.

Its statement to prospective investors says: “The key proposition of the business remains the creation of an agent-backed, full-scale property portal to disrupt what is otherwise a duopoly of Rightmove and Zoopla by offering a premier search experience to consumers whilst charging sustainably fair prices to agents.

“From Admission, the Directors believe the OnTheMarket portal will have over 5,500 branches representing around a third of the total UK residential property listings.

“Agents provide the majority of income for the property portals and also supply the majority of their most valuable content – the property listings. As a portal with significant agent support, the Directors believe OnTheMarket.com is uniquely positioned to create an alternative to the leading incumbent portals and to provide an opportunity for a broad base of agents to participate in the equity value of their own portal.”

Agents Mutual also this morning revealed its strategy for the float’s proceeds.

This includes increasing its market budget to £25m a year for two years to raise awareness of the OnTheMarket portal, and to “scale up” the company’s infrastructure - especially sales, CRM and technology.

It also aims to grow what it calls its “core base” of agents advertising on the portal, which requires “accelerating agent recruitment and broadening agent backing with the targeted use of equity incentivisation for key agents committing to support the portal with long term listing agreements.”

The statement to the City this morning was signed by Agents’ Mutual’s chairman Chris Bell, chief executive office Ian Springett, chief financial officer Clive Beattie, commercial director Helen Wheatley and a non-executive director, Ian Francis.

A ZPG spokesperson has told Estate Agent Today: "We welcome this news as it finally lifts the restrictive rule placed on agents for the past three years that has prevented them from being able to market their clients' properties freely and achieve the best outcome for them. We look forward to continuing to welcome back agents who want to benefit from the best value and most effective marketing, software and data solutions in the UK."