LSL, parent company of brands including Your Move, Reeds Rains and Marsh & Parsons, has sold 7.8m shares in Zoopla at an average £3.20 per share, it announced on Friday.
The sales were made between July 20 and September 16.
LSL continues to hold 3.5m (3,533,786) Zoopla shares, representing 0.8% of Zoopla’s ordinary share capital.
The proceeds of the disposal will be used to reduce corporate indebtedness and for other general corporate purposes, LSL reported to the stock exchange.
LSL had held 4.9% of Zoopla’s stock, but sold a number of its shares when Zoopla floated in 2014. It continued to hold 2.6%.
Entirely separately, Zoopla’s vision of creating a one-stop shop for consumers’ property needs was outlined at last Thursday’s Capital Markets Day. One analyst went on to express some concern over what he called the disclosure of agents’ and developers’ fees to list on Zoopla.
The event, a first for the group, followed its acquisitions of comparison website uSwitch in May last year, and estate agency software provider PSG in April this year.
Analyst William Packer, of Exane BNP Paribas, said that Zoopla had argued that less than 10% of British households are considering moving at any one time, “limiting monetisation of the property portal model”.
Packer said that little customer overlap between Zoopla and PSG offered obvious cross-sell opportunities, while Zoopla highlighted the potential to agents of its MoveIT and mypropertyfile tools.
However, Packer added: “On the negative side, ZPG announced plans to reduce ARPA disclosure . . . following the significant ARPA slowdown and agent losses post Agents’ Mutual launch.”
ARPA stands for Advertising Revenue Per Advertiser.
Packer told EYE: “They will report one ARPA number going forward including new home developers and estate agents and include both zoopla.co.uk subs and PSG subscriptions. Therefore it will be harder to see what an agent pays for the core product.”
Jupix users will be the first getting access to the tool before it is rolled out to all members of the group.
By combining uSwitch and MoveIT, agents will have a referral service tool offering price comparison to home-movers across services such as conveyancing and financial advice, helping consumers save money whilst boosting agents’ bottom-line, Zoopla said.
Jupix users will be the first getting access to the tool before it is rolled out to all members of the group.
Mark Goddard, managing director of ZPG Property Services, said: “By bringing together two leading products within ZPG, we’re able to offer agents the unique opportunity to play a greater role in the home-moving service, with a service like no other.
“It’s essential for us to continually offer our agents the right tools and innovations to help them stand out.
“As competition increases, agents are really feeling the pressure, although with MoveIT and now uSwitch, agents have the opportunity to increase profits in just a few easy steps.”
I would be more interested in reading an article on last weeks Purple Bricks AGM.
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Here’s a link Woodentop to what the brokers are forecasting for the PB share price….its just like getting estate agents out to value houses at the moment…think of a number and double it as they need more business! http://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/p/purplebricks-group-plc-ordinary-shares-1p/broker-forecasts Clearly we all need to buy quickly before these stellar sp levels are hit. AIM listed companies often are valued on hope rather than reality
From what I can glean, nothing outrageous from the AGM except a little unease from journalists and investors that they won’t reveal the true number of sales and therefore conversion rate. Their model is all about instructions, but if they can’t sell, then the offering becomes less convincing. It is acknowledged they are no1 in their field and it is still an early day business plan, so losses are forecast into next year, but reducing all the time. Questor (financial journalist for the Telegraph for those who don’t know) notes that the PB share price is the only 1 holding up compared to LSL, Countrywide Foxtons etc
The LSL sale of Zoopla share makes sense, paying down debt with its sp at near record highs. What is noted is Zoopla no longer discuss the average cost of membership….wake up agents, your leverage continues to ebb away!
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little unease from journalists and investors that they won’t reveal the true number of sales and therefore conversion rate.
That should be a warning to any investor. If as it is rumoured they are failing miserably, otherwise why wont they publish, just watch the share price collapse as soon as the public find out and will shun them. As a “listing model” failure is very very very close behind, bit like a run on the bank, investors will be ditching like rats up a drain pipe.
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WOW – that’s a lot of shares…Eye watering figures!
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