Purplebricks delays publication of annual accounts

Purplebricks has pushed back the publication of its annual accounts.

The online agent’s full year results were due to be published on 12 July but the brand said in a stockmarket update yesterday that they will now be published in the first week of August 2022.

The statement said: “This is to allow sufficient time to complete the audit, which this year has included additional procedures as a result of new processes and controls implemented by the company since the last audit.”

The announcement said the board still expected revenue of approximately £70m and an adjusted EBITDA loss of approximately 8.8m.

The online agency brand issued a trading update in May where it warned that losses may reach almost £9m.

It said that it has seen a continuation of lower volumes of new instructions coming to market since announcing its interim results in January.

Purplebricks revealed that “market conditions” meant the level of net instructions for the full year period was down from 58,043 in 2021 to 40,141 for its latest reporting period.

Net instructions are defined by Purplebricks as the number of instructions won in the year net of the number of instructions refunded.
 

The update said: “Our revenue is expected to be approximately £70m for the full year and adjusted EBITDA is expected to be approximately £(8.8) million. 

“Our cash balance at 30 April 2022 was £43.2m, reflecting the lower instruction volumes and exceptional costs in line with guidance.”

It comes after Purplebricks delayed the publication of its half-year update just a day before they were due in December 2021 so it could finalise provisions needed for failures in its lettings business.
Purplebricks also delayed confirmation of the appointment of its new chief executive Helena Marston in April to complete due diligence checks.

She was meant to official take the role at the start of the month but was only officially appointed at the end of April.