Seven years after it launched on the London Stock Market, speculation continues that Purplebricks may be about to de-list and return to life as a privately owned company.
The troubled agency’s share price has fallen further in recent weeks - it remained around the 20p mark all day yesterday, a far cry from its high point of very nearly 500p in summer 2017.
Purplebricks has told Estate Agent Today that it does not comment on speculation, following two publications floating the possibility that it might de-list.
De-listing can happen in a number of ways.
Firstly if it continues to perform badly it can be dropped by the stock exchange itself; there is no suggestion this is happening to Purplebricks.
Secondly, the company itself can choose to de-list if that meets its strategic goals.
In the case of Purplebricks it would mean that it was no longer under an obligation to issue public statements on its financial performance - so if it had been de-listed it would not have had to release the trading statement, last month, which showed a year-on-year revenue drop of seven per cent and a year-on-year profits drop of 11 per cent to £26.2m.
The Daily Mail’s City tipster has suggested that the German media group Axel Springer - now Purplebricks’ largest shareholder - may buy shares off other investors and then take the agency back into the private ownership it had prior to January 2015.
In late 2019 the similarly-troubled Countrywide agency - long before its acquisition by Connells - did a legal sleight-of-hand with its share price, which had fallen to below 10p at the time, after years of turmoil and loss of market share.
On December 30 2019 it enacted a share consolidation, a process done by companies usually when they feel embarrassed that their share price is just a few pence.
The consolidation saw one ‘new’ share issued to existing shareholders in return for a larger number of their ‘old’ shares - which meant that in the case of Countrywide, its share price went from little over 7p to 360p in one day.
On March 8 2021 Countrywide was acquired by Connells Group, and the following day was formally de-listed from the London Stock Exchange. On March 15 it was re-registered as a limited company, becoming Countrywide Limited.
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The difference being with Countrywide, that after the assets of CW Plc were acquired, the new owners had a c-suite who actually knew how to run an agency business, and they started to do just that, and amazingly the business transformed. The problem with Purplebricks is that they need someone in the c-suite who actually can run an agency business, remind me what is Vic Darvey's background? Maybe a CEO with agency credentials would be a start to close the disconnect from user UX and the realities of all the moving parts that agencies encompass.
The model of agency is not rocket science, but somehow Purplebricks has turned into a science project that has gone wrong. Anyone becoming a controlling force of this business - needs to have probably four key people who have the knowledge, vision and skills to push this company to its next stage. They are the key, not who 'owns' the business. Zara Stanton is up for a new role, maybe as an advisory?
Anyone still care?
Is Andrew Stanton in love with the Connells board
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