Purplebricks’ problems mount as share price falls 15% in a week

Purplebricks’ share price continued to fall last week, dropping to an all-time low of 10.89p on Friday before recovering to close the trading day at 11.77p – down 15% compared with a week earlier.

The online estate agency, which last month announced plans to reboot its controversial ‘commisery’ campaign urging vendors not to instruct commission-based estate agents, has seen its share price plummet as pressure continues to mount on the firm following its recent woes.

The troubled online estate agency replaced its finance director last week just days after it warned of job losses to improve its financial performance.

It is the latest in a string of boardroom changes at Purplebricks which is under fire from an activist investor over its rapid cash burn and a steep fall in its share price.

Regulatory failings have also had an adverse impact on the company, contributing to its recent decline. Shares in the AIM-listed firm have dropped from its all-time high in 2017 of 525p.

The significant fall in the share price of Purplebricks, which is currently being investigated by Propertymark for potential tenancy law breaches, has caused many investors to sell up, concerned that Purplebricks might be vulnerable to a takeover, which is something regular EYE columnist Russell Quirk refers to in his latest opinion piece today. See below. 

Meanwhile, Purplebricks issued this statement to shareholders on Friday:

Purplebricks Group plc, a leading UK estate agency business, announces that on 3 November 2022, Dominique Highfield, Chief Financial Officer, has been granted an award over 1,000,000 ordinary shares of £0.01 each in the Company (“Award”) under the Purplebricks Performance Share Plan.

The Award has an exercise price of £0.01 per share and may become exercisable subject to continued employment and performance based on two performance measures relating to the Company’s relative and absolute total shareholder return over a three year performance period. The performance period begins on 15 August 2022 in order to align measurement of performance with the award granted to the Chief Executive Officer in August 2022.    

In addition, the Award is also subject to an underpin condition, requiring the Remuneration Committee to be satisfied as to overall Company performance and other success markers including customer satisfaction before confirming any vesting under the formulaic performance conditions.

The information set out below is provided in accordance with the requirements of Article 19(3) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation No 596/2014 (as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018).

 

OPINION: Purplebricks is broken – is the fix close to home?

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One Comment

  1. Woodentop

    Sounds ‘Boomin’.

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