Purplebricks shares fall to under £1 launch price of four years ago

Purplebricks share price fell 10% at one point yesterday, while the London Stock Exchange implemented a series of price monitoring extensions.

While price monitoring extensions are routine, Purplebricks shares dipped to under 96p – below the launch price of £1 when it launched on the stock market in December 2015.

The shares then edged up to finish at 101p, a fall of some 5%.

Foxtons, due to announce its results tomorrow, also saw its shares fall by almost 5%, down to just under 83p. Its shares also inched up again, finishing at 84p.

Share prices in LSL and Countrywide were largely static yesterday, with The Times having commented that the prospective takeover was failing to impress investors.

Share prices generally have been hit by Coronavirus fears, which wiped £100bn off the FTSE on Monday.

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44 Comments

  1. ExTOgirl

    There’s no recovery…

    Vic Darvey and crew are now showing their leadership (and EA) skills.

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    1. JVSOZ

      Yep ExTOgirl, you’re right. Everything I’m hearing is exactly the same BS management they did in Australia, so they were playing from the same playbook that Vic is playing from now.
      You’d think they’d make things better or run it smarter… NO CHANCE!!!
      Vic was way out of his depth from the day he was employed to be the patsy while Michael and Kenny and crew quickly exited the building. In a single file of course- didn’t want to arouse any suspicion now did they!!!

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    2. PeeBee

      “Vic Darvey and crew are now showing their leadership (and EA) skills.”
       
      I’m surprised that Mr Darvey isn’t a MNAEA… or a MARLA – like CFO Mr Davies appears to be:
       
      naea.co.uk/estate-agent-directory/london/mr-james-davies-m0331870.aspx  
       
      Of course if this ‘James Davies’ is actually a different ‘James Davies’ to the man with control of the Purple purse strings I will happily admit my mistake…

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    3. therealpropertyexpert

      Anyone can label themselves a CEO. Being one is another matter.

       

      His biggest issue is the company he keeps in senior management.

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  2. JohnWick

    Talking to Financial Director magazine, Davies says he and CEO Vic Darvey want to mould the company into a digitally-led beast and encourage its customers to “self-serve as much as possible.

     

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    1. Property Pundit

      What could possibly go wrong?!!

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    2. therealpropertyexpert

      Whilst the field agents are totally naive to the fact that this will render the majority jobless.
       
      I think Purplebricks think they can become a portal and topple Rightmove. 

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  3. Hillofwad71

    Connells reporting for 2019 a very healthy  £50.5m  profit slightly down ,NO DEBT and a cash reserve of £75m .Very respectable indeed all  things considered  
     
    The BODS at CWD should be suitably embarrassed  £90m + debts and token profits +a big abortive bill for failing  to sell LSH to a Dane without bacon
     
      I somehow doubt it though ,Pass the port  .it just goes to show what they could have achieved if they had stuck to the port and sat on their hands
     
    Not only that  its noticeable in  many  towns Connells are outpacing CWD brands   In Worcester for example Connells have 82 sales listings whilst   the 2 CWD brands Taylors and R A Bennett have  32 and 39  respectively

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    1. ARC

      As I mentioned yesterday on another thread it comes down to leadership. Plumtree, Livesey, Fry and Hart, have to coin an old phrase forgotten more about good agency practise than Long, Crefield and Chapman have ever learnt.

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      1. Bless You

        Be interesting to see if a ban on referal  fees affects them.

        Most of that profit probably comes from mortgage arrangement.

         

         

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        1. ARC

          I think you will find that it won’t affect them at all as all there mortgage business is in house so no ‘referral fees’ are paid. 

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    2. Dyane

      ‘a Dane without bacon’  Nice one.

      Made me chuckle over my first coffee this morning. Thanks.

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    3. houseseller

      It has always suprised me the aggresive selling of Mortgages and leglal products by the Connells Group has been alllowed to exist by the Skipton.I wonder if they even know what the sale process is ? I imagine all most all the profit comes form these two revenues lettings and S and V-agency I imagine looses money now

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      1. chiponshoulder

        You might want to brush-up on your facts (oh … and your spelling and punctuation!).   I gather their S&V and lettings operations are very profitable.   My experiences are that they take their compliance and commercial responsibilities very seriously and they skillfully find a way of meeting and exceeding expectations in both respects.

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        1. TB

          If you choose to critique     someone’s punctuation then you should make sure that your own punctuation is spot on.  You will find that your full stop following your exclamation mark is superfluous!.!.!.  If a full stop was required it would go within the bracket.

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    4. houseseller

      Connells Group today announces strong results for the year ended 31 December 2017 with pre-tax profits up from £73.4m to £104.2m over the year (up 42% on 2016), 

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  4. Agent123456

    Where is ducky and Dom these days, I miss the arguments on here

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    1. Hillofwad71

      Cyberduck no longer holds Bricks shares, invests  mainly in housebuilders .He sold out a long time ago when he noticed the trend in daily  listings went into reverse and  traction failed overseas
       
      In his defence he was no great supporter of Bricks . Unfortuantely   his personal  experience with agents generally had  not been good and he felt the service they offered  was no better or  worse.That’s life.That was a shame as we all know there are plenty of excellent ones about ,many who grace these pages  
       
      On that note I had recently  instructed a letting agent in S. Wales  on a flat .Having been  an independent one myself  I like to choose someone small if possible. However  had to draw his attention  to remove the scale of tenants  fees applicable from his website .He had failed to change the template    

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    2. teddy

      cyberduck was told not to post on here after a story on rummage4 when one of the members started mentioning his real name and making false statements, describing his property and referring to his family members. The whole thread was removed but it was thought by PIE that it was better cyberduck refrained from posting.

      The email from PIE stating “For this reason we request that you desist from posting any further comments on Property Industry Eye.  This will remove the catalyst for the negative responses and should also remove the root cause of the unspecified risk to you and your family that you have highlighted.” and “I trust that you will appreciate our decision is made with the best interest of you and your family in mind and I further trust that you will see the sense in removing yourself from the EYE comments.”

      If you want to engage cyberduck in regard to PurpleBricks you will find he occasionally posts on the lse share chat forum. Over there he gets attacked for posting negative comments on PB 🙂

       

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      1. whatdoiknow58

        I believe the post/thread you refer to dates back to 18th January 2019 which must be the longest thread ever ( 90 plus ) on a non PB related story. If in doubt look it up. Disgraceful episode in my opinion whichever side of the fence you come down on just Google it. 

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        1. Robert_May

          the thread (June 2019) was a contrived story based on a site specific search of my  beta testing platform   The one in January was the result of a ‘journalist’ making a story out of a  polite conversation in the queue for the buffet at a conference

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      2. Robert_May

        For clarity- the allegations made in the story were contrived and harmful. I pointed that out prior to publication and requested the story was not run, my request was ignored

        There was an attempt force the hand of  one of my beta partner agents who withdrew their support from rummage4 as a result of the story.

        Harm and delay has been caused as a result of that story but now I  am in the first stages of the release I can be judged on what I have built not on what  people assumed I was building and how they assumed it worked.

         

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        1. ARC

          Is this a tantric launch as it feels like its been going on for ever?

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        2. SLF

          Rummage4. It feels like we’ve been hearing about this since the dawn of the internet.

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  5. smile please

    Founders cash in walk away, Money not as easy to come by, share price dropping, need to raise £££ so drop a large layer of staff.

    Not so much the colour Purple more like they are in the Brown stuff.

     

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    1. htsnom79

      ” BrownBricks ” does have a certain ring to it 🙂

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      1. davehedgehog

        talking of which…Where’s my newspaper…back in 10 minutes….

         

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  6. DerekSharpham

    It seems Keller Williams are cherry picking the better TOs at Purpleland.

    It’s a slippery slope from here on out for  the call centre specialists.

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    1. ARC

      If a ‘better’ PB TO thinks the future is KW then I would say that they are very welcome to each and will get everything that is coming to them!

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  7. houseseller

    The minute Michale Bruce left with his brother the share price was going one way.They st the Vision which no one else has been capable of keeping alive.

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    1. PeeBee

      “The minute Michale Bruce left with his brother the share price was going one way.They st the Vision which no one else has been capable of keeping alive.”

      Allow me to fix that for you:

      “The minute people saw the Emperor’s winky (credit: Robert May) the share price was going one way. The wizardly duo The Bruce Brothers’ magic spell was broken over the big City and after a lot of pain and loss, people will live happily ever after.”

      There ya goes!  And before you thank me – the pleasure’s all mine.

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  8. J1

    Their FD has just claimed on a rival news website that its all about data.

    Surely it should all be about their staff first, and then their clients needs, and then perhaps data?

     

    Just saying – they don’t get it do they???

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  9. Madasahata

    There is zero passion left at PB HQ, Vic and his band of execs have made sure they poured acid on that! Don’t be surprised to see Axel Springer moonwalk in if they drop below 80p and take it private. The company you see now is a shell of its former vibrant self, they are now going to be trying to recruit whoever they can manage to scrape the bottom of the barrel with or train some 18 year olds for 8 months in their ‘academy’ so they are ‘fully trained’ local property experts valuing within the year. LOL

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    1. JVSOZ

      Well, their training was more like:
      “How not to Sell with skill because we’re so good that you want to use us, just sign here”
      I’ve done many sales training courses over the last 30 years, and I can tell you the one I had at PB was the worst and was laughable.
      They had a person who is apparently a “psychologist” running it, and not only was he a total alcoholic, he didn’t know how to sell to save his life. I have an audio recording that he insisted we all make of him doing role play, and it’s the most pathetic thing you’ve ever heard.
      By the way…he’s still there training the newbies!!!!! So PB have a 0% chance based on that alone.

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      1. ALOnline

        Anyone who states they are a “Psychologist” in any corporate or business capacity is usually a conman. My partner is trained in clinical psychology and she hasn’t had a hint of sales experience in her life. She is fantastic at her job, but it doesn’t make it easier for her to sell products to people.
        People strap the word “psychologist” to sales techniques to trick the more gullable among us that they know something we don’t, that they can read minds or that they can do some behaviour manipulation to hypnotise people into buying things. It’s bull.
        Salesmanship training from salesmen is, unsurprisingly, far more useful than pseudo-pyramid-schemers.

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    2. Property Pundit

      The company you see now is a shell of its former vibrant self‘, or as I like to call it, natural selection.

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  10. GPL

     
    Purplebricks – Pointless
     
     

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  11. Chris Wood

    How’s that on-going investigation by HMRC mentioned in your YE statement going Purplebricks?

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  12. ALOnline

    I fail to see what tangible impact a dip in stock price will have on a company that’s already in profit? It’s not as though they realistically need to attract new investors at this stage, they make money month-on-month.

    I would have thought that they will be repaying their original investors, limiting liabilities and reinvesting capital at this stage.

    Unless they plan on selling up, or winding down to settle their liabilities, what’s the big deal?

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    1. Ostrich17

      “I fail to see what tangible impact a dip in stock price will have on a company that’s already in profit?”

      1. PB have not posted a profit yet !

      2. The share price will impact on staff share options and morale.

       

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      1. ARC

        1. They have for the UK operation, which is basically all that is now left, therefore profit.
         
        2. Assuming they offer them firstly and secondly unless the employee is looking to sell today they probably haven’t even realised.

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        1. Ostrich17

          1. Er, no they haven’t. Check their published(audited) accounts.
           
          2. The employee share schemes are all listed in their published accounts – options granted and exercise price. 

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    2. ARC

      All true but it does get clicks/comments and that equals ad revenue.

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    3. PeeBee

      “I fail to see what tangible impact a dip in stock price will have on a company that’s already in profit?”
       
      Just to confirm, ALOnline – the “profit” you refer to – is that the NEGATIVE £102.28MILLION accumulated from 1/5/14 to 30/4/19, as shown on the London Stock Exchange website ?

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