Beleaguered Countrywide shares languished at below 4p yesterday, while Purplebricks was looking at new challenges as to its future after both its founders sold up.
Countrywide shares finished the day at yet another all-time low, at 3.7p after a fall of almost 11%.
It means that Countrywide’s shares have now fallen almost 27% in the past week and 35% in a month, according to Hargreaves Lansdown.
Meanwhile, Purplebricks’ shares barely moved yesterdaydespite the news that co-founders brothers Michael and Kenny Bruce, plus Michael’s wife Isabel, have sold up their entire holdings to Axel Springer, enabling it to double its stake to almost 27%.
Michael and Isabel’s sale of shares was formally notified to the stock exchange in an RNS. The sale by non-director Kenny Bruce emerged separately.
Michael Bruce collected around £34m for his 11% stake, while Kenny sold for £7.8m for his 2.6% holding.
Purplebricks shares ended at 106p, up 2% on the day, but they had fallen as low as 96p before the announcement. The share price is some 79% down from peak less than two years ago.
There is speculation that Purplebricks – into which Axel Springer first pumped £125m in March last year – may now be taken private.
Axel Springer itself has confirmed that it is looking to de-list, and wants to take its entire giant publishing business private via the backing of a US equity firm.
Its stake in Purplebricks is now only a little way behind that of Neil Woodford, whose funds currently hold around 30% of the business.
In a further twist, one of Woodford’s funds, the flagship equity income fund, last night suspended trading, with investors told ‘not to panic’. The fund has shrunk from £10bn to under £4bn in less than two years.
However there are a number of funds in the Woodford portfolio, with investments spread between them, and there are no implications for Purplebricks, EYE was told last night by a Woodford spokesperson.
In yet another development, the magazine Property Week has claimed that Axel Springer and Woodford are in talks about a possible takeover of Woodford’s stake in Purplebricks by the German publisher.
Comments (33)
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Start a business with an exit plan. Build said business with other people’s money [Sentence removed as it breached posting rules] and a wonderful marketing campaign. Exit business and become a multi-millionaire.
They won’t give 2 hoots about your respect or what any estate agent in the country thinks. They had a plan and it looks like they pretty much nailed it.
It has very much harmed the industry but again, I’m sure they won’t care.
This about sums it up. They have executed their get rich (relatively) quick scheme to the letter.
Could Jon Hunt be interested in Countrywide? Has Loads of wedge as a little fixer up and sell project.
PB/Countrywide alliance sounds a distinct possibility-or Bruce buys countrywide
Bruce’s milked it for all its worth and are having the last laugh while they roll around in notes … or will it be short lived? They will always be remembered for what they did … billy no mates!
However we hate PB, we have to give a standing ovation to the Bruce Brothers and family for making a **** load of money and walking away clean.
Everyone here would have done the same with the kind of money involved, they would not think twice if a fool came offered them unlimited funds.
Let wait and watch the Woodford funds as it is now getting interesting
Axel Springer have come to the rescue and will now do a deal to bailout Woodford and take control of PB. They can then run it their way and cull the current management team.
They will probably offload the US operation,whilst retaining Canada, to anyone who will take it – or simply close the doors.
Now there is nobody at PB with the vaguest idea of how to run a proper estate agent.
Staffed with failed agents with the tag of Local Property Expert – I say what a title………, they are Captainless, rudderless and clueless.
Watch it scrabble around for a couple of years before it sinks to the bottom.
As for Countrywide – it is much the same as any regional or corporate – costs too much to run, no profit and not what the public really want.
The public need looking after and don’t want faceless directors who no longer run the front end in charge of their biggest asset.
High end local service is the way forward. It always has been……
This comment sums it up for me. The best agents in the UK are independents, led by owner drivers. In early every morning, working late most evenings, delivering a personal service to customers. They understand better than anyone, without customers they have nothing, this is why they care with passion. In one of the toughest markets ever, the independent agents will win trough, they always do.
Hear, hear, hear.
It’s the flagship fund which has been closed for withdrawals as high profile investors have been seeking to withdraw funds due to poor performance .
This places Woodford in a very difficult situation as he needs to raise cash to meet demand for withdrawals The straw that has broken the camel’s back is Kent Council seeking to withdraw their entire £250m investment The funds haven’t got that sort of liquidity so he will have to sell shares
Its a Catch -22 as introducing big lumps into the market is likely to depress the price of the shares in the companies further .
Axel will be seeking to take advantage of this situation giving Woodford the option of selling his entire holding in Bricks without affecting the price .
How much is a good question but likely to be more than a £1 If agreed Axel will be in control and takeover the company. It could happen this week Michael now firmly established on the California coast could conceivably take on the USA and Canada operation leaving Sporting Ken to play with his football club and horses back in Blighty. No doubt can pick it up for a song ,
Its clear that the Bruces and Axel have had differing ideas about the future. Either way Michael has probably trousered well in excess of £70m
East v West.Contrasting fortunes .Have some sympathy for Headphones Quirk as he munches his whelks on Clacton beach His boast that his Emoov was Pepsi to Purplebricks Coca-Cola only last year
What the tailor did with the cash he got from the King isn’t of much interest, Bruce did not deliver the HUGE profits he promised, he did not get the 10% of all transactions we were told he would so the money he’s earned from this, although eye watering is not earned from success but from broken promises and failure.
Being denied the opportunity of explaining how a fortune was earned by success and achievement robs the cash of its value.
With not a gram of envy for the money and without being churlish, he failed to do what he said he would do and now he’s gone cannot put that right.
There’ll be people impressed by the money, I’m not
Well said. They rode in on a moral white horse playing on all the agent stereotypes and promising the public to save them from the scourge of estate agent lies and deceit.
In reality they displayed all the very traits they slagged off on an audacious new level.
[Sentence removed as it breached posting rules]
Its the hypocrisy I find so distasteful.
The one caveat I would add is for them to have got away with it does shed a dim light on the public perception of our industry. They were successful because there are too many slippery agents still, no licensing to give consumer confidence , no strong leadership / voice from industry bodies defending the industry. And a general dislike of anything sales related in this country.
Traditional agents may be winning this battle but it would be naive to think we have won the war.
>Bruce did not deliver the HUGE profits he promised, he did not get the 10% of all transactions
Very hard to get these estimates right. Ask your pal Anthony Codling about the recommendations and estimated profits he made in regard to CWD.
4 to 5% market share of new listings isn’t to be sniffed at. How many other companies have achieved this by organic growth? CWD tried to buy growth with borrowed money and made a complete mess of it.
4% to 5% is not enough at their cost of aquisition per listing…….
Sniff all you like, it is not enought to be profitable….
How many other agents have had the 5 year burn rate of cash purplebricks have had?
By their own admission they thought they would have 20 – 30% of the entire market at this stage.
Lpes are leaving, funding is drying up, market is contracting, business model not working so shutting parts down. Share price tumbling.
You really do wear purple tinted glasses.
It’s nothing to do with wearing any colour glasses. It is just being fair. You may take great joy from the fact they don’t have 20 to 30% of the market but anybody with any experience in investing takes these types of statement with a pinch of salt.
It’s very hard to make estimates of future growth and profitability. I’ve been investing in the stock market for over 30 years and for new companies listing on AIM you take any forecasts with a pinch of salt. Forward looking statements usually come with a huge load of caveats anyway so Robert May saying they promised HUGE profits is unlikely in my eyes.
This is what Anthony Codling said in 2017 about CWD:
‘the group’s “broad business mix” provided a “silver lining among the storm clouds” and gave Countrywide an advantage over its online-only rivals. “Strong performance in lettings, financial services and surveying helped mitigate some of the pain caused by falling housing transactions and we expect that many of the digital hybrid agents are jealously looking at Countrywide’s additional revenue streams’
If my memory serves me correctly he even said they were doing the right thing when they offered their online proposition.
So both Bruce & Anthony Codling not the best at forecasting.
I’ve read that Jefferies gave 5 buy recommendations for CWD from the period between March 2015 and June 2016 when the shares were priced between 350p and 500p approx.
Why are you bringing May & Codling into this?
Seriously your life must be pretty empty to post daily on an industry forum (an industry you are not in) and continually look to discredit certain individuals.
Why is there this bitterness and time come from? Local estate agent run off with your wife?
maybe he is the Bruce brothers
You’re assuming he could actually get a wife.
Unlike PB they have been around for a lot longer. Got to laugh at your “any forecasts with a pinch of salt” for someone who says they have been investing on the stock market for 30 years. Now that’s head in the sand for you and just about sums up all investors in on-line only agents …. don’t listen to the experts, don’t listen to reality, haven’t a clue what they are doing … blindly taking things “with a pinch of salt” and loosing money left right and centre. The only winners are the directors building a business using other peoples money and failed but milking it for all its worth till they bail out. That isn’t a success, some would say Conmissary.
And it was 4% to 5% market share for all on-line agents not PB. All gone turtle and PB is hanging in on a thread. Springer can invest as much as they like …. they haven’t the staff to operate the business. PB has become a no no for employees and the word has got around.
At least CWD sellers didn’t pay for their failure. PB took so much money from sellers and they got nothing in return. NO SALE – FEE ANYWAY!! All the while spending ridiculous money on advertising their moral high ground. RATHER COMMISSERY THAN PAY NOW GET NOTHING. Investors took their chances and should have known better. But all the sellers are the ones I feel sorry for. Bruce and Co now in happy retirement with millions robbed from the public.
How about 43% market penetration and a Deloitte fast 50 with compound profit growth that averaged over 37% for 9 years, all achieved organically through service and commitment to the customer?
I walked away from that because suddenly there was no respect for the achievement, no respect for the staff and no respect for the customers. Without respect, without integrity, money isn’t worth a thing.
>I walked away from that because suddenly there was no respect for the achievement
So respect rather than the achievement is paramount?
Sounds a bit egotistical to me.
Anyway must dash enough chit chat for today 🙂
Another Troll posting, personally attacking people. Grow up or clear off.
‘So respect rather than the achievement is paramount?‘
You wouldn’t know about either.
Woodentop – I’m on nobody’s side here but he takes enough personal attacks to be allowed to give some. It works both ways, surely.
Nope. The one that comes out guns blazing is always Ducky, we are only responding to his initiated behaviour.
Respect comes from achievement not from fleecing “sheep investors who fear missing out more than they fear losing money” (IOW more than the care about blowing a retirement fund/ other people’s money on some group-think, ponzi bubble)
One of the best ways of charging full commission on a “valuation”/Market appraisal when the client complains about commission fees is to say “well if you want to save money use purplebricks, but before you do, find out how their doing first” Oddly enough, most clients I talk to already know how well PB are doing.
Were listing great and getting our full fee.
Thanks PB
Couldn’t have got there without you.
🙂
Could PB buy Countrywide and be one of the largest EA in the UK?
PB doesn’t have the capital, but the fact Axel Springer has a US equity backer suggests they could buy it and create something.
Sad reality is though any external investor now will wait for Countrywide to go under as there is to much toxic debt to acquire whole and try restructure.
It’s going to be an interesting month