Online agency firm loses £9m with liabilities of almost £23m after easyProperty deal

New accounts filed at Companies House show that E-Prop Limited lost £9m, with liabilities of £22.8m, in the period from October 1, 2016, to the end of December 2017.

The accounts of the firm, a company in the same stable as the Guild, Fine & Country and easyProperty, have only just been filed at Companies House. The period covers the time when easyProperty merged with the Guild parent company in a £60m deal.

The company says in the documents that it believes that both the loss and current liabilities are appropriate.

The company reported equity of minus £22,809,707 as at the end of 2017, compared with equity of minus £13,767,271 the previous year.

The newly filed accounts say that the company is reliant on funds provided by its parent company, eProp Services and that the parent company has indicated that it will continue to make funds available and not call in the debts.

The firm says that this should enable the company to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future, by meeting its liabilities as they fall due for payment.

However, the accounts say that the directors acknowledge there can be no certainty that this support will continue.

In the accounts, the named directors of E-Prop are R G Ellice and J A Cooke.

Rob Ellice launched online agent easyProperty, later acquired in a reverse deal by GPEA, parent company of the Guild and Fine & Country. Cooke is CEO of eProp Services of which E-Prop is a subsidiary.

e-Prop Services reported losses of £2.65m.

Cooke last night told EYE that the latest filed accounts for E-Prop were historic, for a period which encompassed the deal and its associated costs, done in July 2017 with easyProperty.

Cooke said that moving into this year, the business is in a cash-generative position, with 14 new easyProperty licensees currently being taken on board.

He said: “I am very comfortable with the way we are looking.”

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08328850/filing-history

Parent company of Guild, Fine & Country and easyProperty chalks up £2.65m loss

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16 Comments

  1. cyberduck46

    Seems to be a bit of a theme here. Perhaps we can hear about some of the published accounts from traditional agents who have negative shareholder funds and are only surviving because of loans?

     

     

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    1. AgencyInsider

      Yes, it is a theme ducky. And the theme is: ‘The Disruptor and Game Changer Emperors are repeatedly being shown to have no clothes whatsoever.

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    2. Property Pundit

      Usual genius response. Hey, don’t look over here, look over THERE!!!

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    3. Woodentop

      Thing is Ducky most agents are not propped up with extra funds. Most are successful and a viable business covering their expenses, those that aren’t are not around for long.

       

      While you seem to be keen on this theme, maybe you would like to declare your stake and loss in shares with PB?

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    4. smile please

      You are right, there is a theme.

      Online agents business is not sustainable.

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    5. P-Daddy

      ENRON would be proud of this announcement

      tick tock tick tock

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  2. Property Ear

    Wouldn’t anyone feel very comfortable with the way they were looking with a loss of 9 million pounds and 22.8 million pounds liabilities?

    Kidology at its very best!

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  3. PepeM

    Cyberduck, check out article below on Arun Esates, a “real” Estate Agency !

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  4. ArthurHouse02

    Why are these accounts being filed so late. In this article the company is a year on from the accounting period so god knows what their losses are now. More concerning is that they feel these losses are somewhat normal, i would expect a business to be turning a profit within 3 years of launch.

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  5. AgencyInsider

    ‘I am very comfortable with the way we are looking’ says captain of Titanic looking comfortably away from the impending iceberg.

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  6. J1

    Don’t Easy Loss sorry Easy Prop just take money off their member agents? Is anyone actually making money out of having an EasyProp franchise? Or have they realised it undermines their core business and are mostly stuck with the cost?

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  7. WestMidsValuer97

    And…….

    There goes another one.

    Please, please, please let the next be that awful Purple rubbish….

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  8. seenitall

    Its amazing how easy it is to spend other peoples money, how little concern they have for value or profit or decent service.    Bit like our government.

    Most small businesses are owned by people who have put their own blood, sweat and tears into the business and really do care about making it successful.  They have skin in the game.              Anyone with little or no skin in the game play fast any easy with money. It may work it may not they don’t give a damn.

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  9. s71

    Every time i read about millions being poured down the drain, one question pop up?

     

    Who are the fool’s that have millions to throw around?

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  10. SLF

    People that have a far better idea about investment than you do.

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  11. Thomas Flowers

    Cyberduck

    So if a traditional agent went bump how much money would their clients lose?

    Has the demise of emoov highlighted that when a major call-center agent runs out of money 1000s of their pre/deferred payment customers lose their money?

    Perhaps this is why by both Housesimple and Easyproperty Directors have recently stated that they are able to service their considerable debts…..for now?

    I wonder what provision if any, the regulators have or are implementing to protect these users in the future?

    Perhaps, allowing the disruption of no sale-no fee may prove to be a huge error in the near future?

     

     

     

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