Purplebricks, the UK’s largest online estate agency, will hold its Annual General Meeting later today.

The company is under pressure from a serious downturn in instruction levels and has an activist investor, who owns just over 4% of the business, vocally calling for its chairman, Paul Pindar, to be removed.

Activist investor Adam Smith, who in July increased his stake in Purplebricks to 4.18%, is looking to oust the chairman, Paul Pindar, of the online estate agency, and even recently threatened to call an EGM if Pindar does not go.

Smith is unhappy that the company’s share price, which is currently at a near all-time low, and wants Pindar to leave in order to “restore the credibility of the company with investors”.

Shares in Purplebricks, which currently stand at 17.5p, have dropped sharply since it listed on Aim in 2015, after a series of profit warnings and operational blunders, causing market value to shrink to just over £45m, from £240m.

Shares in the online estate agent have plummeted since its all-time high in 2017 of 525p, with recent regulatory failings, contributing to that decline. The significant fall in the firm’s share price has caused many investors to sell up, concerned that Purplebricks might be vulnerable to a takeover.

Smith’s banking advisor Glenn Cooper, who is chairman of Harrier Partners, told the press that Smith will demand that the online estate agency group must have a chairman with “a strong background in residential real estate as well as real leadership skills”.

But Pindar has been building up his holding in Purplebricks despite calls from the activist investor vocally calling for him to be removed as chairman. He appears to have strengthened his position ahead of the online estate agency’s AGM later today.

Paul Pindar and Sharon Pindar, a person closely associated, together hold 16,618,056 Shares representing 5.42% of the total issued share capital.

The delayed full year accounts for Purplebricks were published last month.

They revealed that revenues are down to £70m from £90m in 2021,

Gross profit is down 27% from £57.7m to £42.1m

Adjusted EBITDA is minus £8.8m and the overall loss from total operations is £42m. This contrasts with a profit of £6.8m in 2021.

Total fee income was £63m, down 28% on 2021 and instruction level was 40,141 units, down 31% from 2021.

Average revenue per instruction remained almost static at £1,568, compared to £1501 last year.

Cash balance stands at £43.2m, down from £74m in 2021.

EYE NEWS UPDATE: Purplebricks full year results published