Members of Agents’ Mutual have voted 89% in favour of demutualisation, with only 11% against.
The vote will introduce a new parent company in preparation for an IPO on the AIM stockmarket.
The size of the vote has not as yet been revealed but 70% of the eligible membership voted.
A court hearing to sanction the members’ scheme is scheduled for Monday.
It is expected that should the court sanction the members’ scheme, it will become effective the following day.
Ian Springett, chief executive of Agents’ Mutual, said: “I am very pleased at such a resounding demonstration of broad member support for our strategic proposals for the business.
“We firmly believe that should we be successful in raising external capital, we will secure the resources we need to take the business to a new level in the interest of property advertisers, consumers and shareholders alike.”
http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail/other/13355288.html
Comments (40)
Your honour. Im sorry i stopped paying my monthly subs to on the market but i found out that other agents were only paying £50 when i was promised at the launch that i would have the preferential rate as an early bird joining and despite trying to speak with someone about this i was fobed off! Because I was on arrears I was told I would have no vote on the total change and that I would still have to pay each month for something that doesn’t exist any more! Is that fair your honour? Or would you agree with me that myself and loads of other agents were taken for a ride!
Sorry guys, I really don’t have time to read all the comments but I am looking forward to getting my money back, at least that will pay for a few months Z/RM subs.
I have a feeling you are far from alone. The number of agents who have spent thousands in fees and got next to nothing in return. Voting no wouldn’t get your money back, voting yes would. Think I know what I would do!
All round, great news for Zoopla I think, RM not so. OTM, they’ll never become number 2 yet alone number 1. That’s a given.
The post above, from ‘IndAgent’, is an interesting one – as are the apparent ‘results’.
In other posts there is a theme that suggests a proportion of those voting may have been influenced by financial reasons rather than ethical ones.
Even worse – that they were simply resigned to the vote being in favour, and therefore ‘went with the perceived flow’ in order not to lose out on potential future benefit – as GPL pointed out above.
So here’s a question then – this time to the ‘Ayes to the right’:
Did you vote Yes because
…you firmly believe in AM/OTM and think this is the only way it has a chance to achieve its’ original stated aims? (Hit ‘DISlike’)
…other (hit ‘Like’)
Look forward to seeing the results.
Ironically a group of Turkeys have actually voted for Christmas, and paid for the stuffing themselves
Congratulations on being naive
Well done IS, enjoy your days in the sun on your new yacht
Glad not to be part of this fiasco
So we now enter a 3 portal economy where the founding objective of OTM (that to reduce agents marketting costs) is completely forfeited in lieu of ‘moving forwards’. Agents up and down the country giving the best service and marketing will have no real option but to adopt this 3rd portal to ensure our clients know our/their marketing is unbeaten. So, we don’t lose or even reduce exsting portal fees- but add a 3rd.
If anyone involved in OTM thinks that external funding to the tune of millions can be raised whilst a framework capping rates/growth can be applied they are grossly mistaken. The soaring membership fee charts of the other portals that reguarly bounce around social media will soon have a 3rd cohort. Within 5 years (if they ca successfully establish themselves) we will have another £1k a month per branch portal.
The sad thing is that profitable agents (and Im lucky enough to be one) can adopt this with minimal impact on margins- especially if any sort of ROI is established. But for those facing tough times, made even more bleak by the pending letting fee ban, another tough choice is on the cards for them.
I had expected the float to be approved but had expected a much closer vote so my biggest surprise is the margin of approval. It is what it is.
Congrats to the OTM Board for pushing this through and obtaining majority backing- you’ve done what many of us thought you couldnt. Now we have to just get onboard so I am really excited to see what OTM evolves in to with substantial funding both from a tech/ux basis and a branding/marketing viewpoint.
“So we now enter a 3 portal economy…”
Do we?
“Agents up and down the country giving the best service and marketing will have no real option but to adopt this 3rd portal to ensure our clients know our/their marketing is unbeaten.”
I disagree, Mr Byfield, to both of the above points. Strongly disagree at that.
“Within 5 years… we will have another £1k a month per branch portal.”
How’s that? it is stated NO increase in Tariff for two years, then 5% max. per annum thereafter. So even those like you down ‘That London’ won’t be shelling out seven hundred for a sales branch and only half of that for rentals.
#SPRINGATE
1) Because agents want the money they invested in this failure back in the way of shares. Then to sell and no doubt leave when contract is up.
2) Because a lot of people didn’t vote, but yes voters were encouraged into voting, and no not.
Another new chapter to look forward to enjoying. ha haa
Personally i hope the shares reach £2.00 on launch and then plummet below a quid in the following weeks.
Feel free to cash in on your 1 months subscription rate.
If agents had supported OTM from the outset rather than being critical from the sidelines, it would have been a very different story. Unfortunately that didn’t happen so OTM really only had two options. Call it a day or try to create something new which would still try to broadly meet agents needs whilst doing what it is necessary to attract the investment needed to move it forward. They really wer damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
The real travesty here is that agents missed the only chance they’re ever going to get to take ownership of the incredible value created through their inventory, rather than pay somebody else a small fortune so they can truly capitalise on its value.
But from day one it was never followed through properly, and with the best ability that could be mustered, was it?
Where was all the ongoing contact with members, the building of an ambassador network, regular regional meetings, postings on PIE, encouragement of new members through referral, local area initiatives……instead for the most part of the last two years it appears like just silence.
Realistically, it was never going to compete longer term. It takes a lot of cash to drive up peoples awareness and keep them coming back. OTM have never had the budget. Just look at how much Purple Bricks have spent, a huge amount more than OTM.
I am one of the few people, that thought, it was working.
In a depressed market and only 2 years in. I thought it was doing pretty good.
At least we know… after the “News Blackout”?
Winners or Losers? ….it wasn’t about that …it was about Change.
Let’s see what difference 50 Million Pounds New Equity makes …..I look forward to seeing Ian & his Board enriching themselves further because of the roaring success of OTM V2 ….in which case I will doff my Hat and say “You actually managed to turn it around”.
To the YES Vote Members… support OTM V2 and help grow it.
To the NO Vote Members… you voted your way, your conscience is clear.
….what sticks for me?
NO Voters including myself are forced to remain with OTM V1 for the remainder of the Original Agents Mutual Contract despite OTM V1 no longer existing? It is a pretty shabby scenario in my view… those NO Vote Members are locked-in to shore up support for incoming investors? So…. the Estate Agent OTMV1 you instructed to sell your home sells their estate agency business, a new company OTMV2 takes over and you are simply locked-in to that New Company?
It just doesn’t sit right with myself (and it seems others…) hence my “Objection” will be lodged before the “Court Sanction Hearing” on 11th September 2017.
As yet, NO News on the actual numbers of Votes Cast however this will be released after the New Investors have arrived with their money. I’m assuming that not even the New Investors will know how many votes were cast as they couldn’t have information made available to them that the “Mutual Members” weren’t aware of? ……it is still “Mutual” just now?
You made a valiant effort Graeme…..I have huge respect for what you tried to do.
What really riles me is that all the great ideas that could have been done to make OTM successful will now be lost….because lets face it, the board will now feel vindicated, and will listen even less to anyone else than they did before!
The voting form was rather complicated. Anything completed incorrectly would of been dismissed. 80/20 is a huge gap.
However, following the comments above, I too was witness to a generation at the meeting. Who were definitely saying, we know its wrong, but take the shares. Someone even said to me, ‘we are being shafted, but how much longer do you want to work anyway’!!!
There are of course, an undisclosed number of £50 per month agents advertising on OTM who were offered this as an incentive to increase numbers. I wonder how many of these agents will commit to a 5 year listing agreement on the new portal at a significant price increase?
I’m one of them, and no I wont be signing for a further 5 years. To me OTM wasn’t worth the £50 let alone the full rate card.
We won’t be signing any 5 year contract either.
Although IS indicated that, as well as enticing the “Key Influencers” with free shares, there would be cheap or even free subscriptions available in the first 18 months to get the numbers up.
Any no voters also in contract breach? I was told there were over 500 agents non paying before the vote, I wonder how many stuck to their guns and didn’t cave in and sign?
The telling remark by IS is “We firmly believe
that should we be successful in raising external capital, we will secure the resources we need to take
the business to a new level in the interest of property advertisers, consumers and shareholders alike.” I just wonder what is going to be the attraction to external shareholders in a portal that wants to keep prices down for estate agents and therefore profits down for shareholders. Time will tell.
The FT reports today, as of Sep 01, 2017, the consensus forecast amongst 17 polled investment analysts covering ZPG PLC advises that the company will outperform the market. This has been the consensus forecast since the sentiment of investment analysts improved on Apr 21, 2017. The previous consensus forecast advised investors to hold their position in ZPG PLC.Zoopla Mkt. Cap. £1.588B, Rightmove Mkt Cap. £3.774B, OTM has a lot of catching up.
The telling remark by IS is “We firmly believe that should we be successful in raising external capital, we will secure the resources we need to take the business to a new level in the interest of property advertisers, consumers and shareholders alike.” I just wonder what is going to be the attraction to external shareholders in a portal that wants to keep prices down for estate agents and therefore profits down for shareholders. Time will tell.
Float, or sink…?
‘Never trust an Estate Agent’ – That’s the trouble with this industry summed up. No one cares about anyone else and they just look at short term gain. Karma will bite them back though in the long term.
In the local area, the agent’s who joined OTM were the ‘older boys’ who clearly fear the future as they don’t know how to evolve and/or keep up with the changes in marketing and software advances. Maybe they don’t care about the future and hence why they have voted in favour of a short term windfall.
Totally agree,,they went to all the meetings, gave it the ‘i ve been doing this for 30 years’ then bottled it and stayed with rightmove. Not sure if i want purplebricks to go bust now. At least i can trust them to back stab me …ha
Feels like this is the end for the chance of a credible organisation for independents to fight back against ‘online listers’. Guess YOPA are making their plans already to dominate OTM.
Ian Springett, chief executive of Agents’ Mutual, said ” It only went and worked …. £20 million quid …hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha”
Springett will be rubbing his hands together.
No doubt he will announce his departure after the flotation with his reason being that he only ever wanted it to be a non profit mutual… It’s absolutely laughable.
Was that a tremor running through Zoopla Towers?
No it was Springett laughing
No it was a tremor…….Zoopla really didn’t want this to happen.
yeah ok all those agents getting nothing from OTM since joining not having to adhere to OOPR now where they going to go ……….
triopoly? tripleopoly?triplelopoly? Better start saving for my third portal.
“Better start saving for my third portal.”
Why?
Because so far not one potential client has mentioned OTM… But with some free money, the public might become aware of this ‘new’ site. If no one is dropping Rightmove, what is to say that agents will now only choose RM and OTM once the one other portal rule is dropped?
FIX? LIKE this comment if you voted YES, Thumbs down if you voted NO.
Sad day.
Greddy, silly agents.
Idiots.
Headline should be : 90% of agents obviously dont read PIE…. i am glad really…i can get on with killing my competition instead of being deluded and trying to help them.
zoopla share price up 3% and rightmove 2%…city not heard yet or not bothered.. purplebricks down 6%… praise the lord