The Mail on Sunday yesterday reported that Emoov has made an audacious bid to merge with Countrywide.

Last week Emoov founder and chief executive Russell Quirk, writing exclusively in EYE, revealed his interest in Countrywide but went no further than to say he was waiting by the phone.

Yesterday, the Mail ran its story under the headline “Emoov bids for ailing Countrywide”. It claimed that Quirk has “renewed unpublicised overtures he made last October when he initiated merger talks”.

The paper said that Quirk proposed that Emoov take shares in Countrywide and combine forces with its 850 branches.

Countrywide has not, however, responded, with a spokesperson telling the Mail: “We are not in conversations.”

Quirk told EYE that he considered the Mail’s headline to be “interesting”.

He said: “I’ve confirmed to them that I believe there’s a huge opportunity for collaboration here and that ‘old meets new’ is an exciting prospect and would rejuvenate City appetite for Countrywide if we were involved.”

Last Monday Countrywide issued a profits warning, sending its shares into freefall and wiping millions of pounds off its value. On Saturday, according to Countrywide itself, its loans of nearly £200m were due to be ‘stress tested’.

This morning, Countrywide shares are due to start trading at just 37.65p.