The founder of online letting agency Urban completed this morning on purchasing the business from the administrators.
Adam Male, who founded Urban in 2008, would not disclose the price he paid the administrators, James Cowper Kreston.
After it was acquired by Emoov as part of a merger with Tepilo, Russell Quirk described the purchase price of Urban as “a steal” at £3m.
Male would only say this morning that he had not paid nearly as much as that.
He praised his staff saying: “I kept them motivated and working, and I am very proud of them. They had exactly the same uncertainties as everyone else in Emoov and Tepilo, and I was not able to give them any assurances as to their future until this morning.”
As with the rest of the Emoov business, the Urban team had been working out of the London headquarters. Male revealed that they are now in serviced offices in Tunbridge Wells.
Comments (13)
He was probably a creditor anyway, so by taking back some of the liabilities of staff etc, I imagine he probably only shelled out a few quid in actual cash if any.
I’m happy for the people who hopefully will now receive their entitlements!
lookout for the next round of crowdcube funding to begin…
Fair play to him.
Good luck to him.
Hopefully won’t be using the services of RQPR to launch the service!
You really are a “glum” lot. Why not just wish him luck with his endeavour?
At some stage someone “will” get the right balance to create a sustainable operation that will survive alongside the remains of the traditional business giving the public a choice of service.
One of the reasons the existing industry is suffering is because it has failed to become its own “disruptor”.
Remember when Decca rejected “The Beatle’s”?
All you need is love.
Season’s Greetings
This seems to be the problem, our industry doesnt need disrupting it needs continuous evolution.Through training and the embracing of modern technology we are able to provide a high quality service that the public can benefit from. Emoov, PB etc arent disrupting, they are dumbing down the service on offer and trying to convince the public that they are cheaper, when in fact in most examples they are more expensive.
Congratulations to the chap at Urban, he saw the future, he saw Emoov couldnt work, happily took their money and is now buying back his successful business for much less than he paid for it
Good news for the staff 2 weeks before Christmas. 🙂
Cor, it’s like the 1980s all over again. Sell your business for lots of wonga to an over-eager buyer willing to pay over the odds. Then a short while later buy it back for peanuts on the pound. Let the Good Times roll!
I know of an auctioneer in Kent who did exactly that. Nice work if you can get it. Any insurance companies want to venture into the world of Estate Agency? It’s really easy and ever so profitable you know……………
How long before the business is worth 11 billionty pounds, they are completing on 125% of everything that they take on, they’ll let your property manage it and deliver a personalised birthday card to each tenant for 9 quid a month and they just need to raise 5 million £’s from mugs to expand out of Kent into the big world?
That’s a very cynical answer Jeremy but I like it 🙂
Nice bit of business separate to the noise of Emoov going south. Would have a guess he didn’t even pay £500k, and now he’s back as before but with a tidy profit in his bank account.
I’d of given him a fiver for it as well, sounds like a steal at that price?