Purplebricks shares start the new week trading at 45p – having put on a remarkable price spurt of over 36% on Friday after they had fallen to an all-time low of 32p.
The movement followed an announcement on Thursday that major shareholder Toscafund has cut its holding from 12.8% to 9.8%.
There is no indication as to who may have acquired the shares.
The major shareholder in Purplebricks is global publisher Axel Springer which currently has a holding of some 27%.
A shareholder with a 30% stake in a public company must under stock market rules launch a takeover bid within 30 days of crossing the threshold.
Comments (12)
Toscafund – winners of the Neil Woodford “that’s a GREAT looking investment – lemmee at it…” Award 2020.
Sorry for being a pedant, but I believe Frau Renshaw has transposed a figure in the above article.
“…having put on a remarkable price spurt of over 36% on Friday after they had fallen to an all-time low of 32p.”
The share price bottomed out at 23p (23.45 to be precise) at close of business on 18 March.
It’s currently sitting at 31.45 – down 30% on Friday’s close.
Watching for some meaty sales/buys today!
Pee Bee
Your a man of the world (estate agent wise)
Questions:
A: Are solicitors still able to get hold of searches if the council staff are at home as unessential workers?
B: Are removal firms OK to move people, even if the government locks everyone down except for “essential travel” ?
C: Would you continue to show buyers around property ? (we’re considering only empty property until we’re told to stop even that) except for clients over 70, which is most of them round here.
padymagic.
Can I assume you’ve posted this on the wrong comments thread?
I only wish I could live up to your belief of my experience. If I did then I might have the answers to everything – sadly that is far from the reality.
But, in an attempt to answer your questions:
A. Probably not – but in such times of difficulties will lenders not take a more relaxed view on search indemnites?
B. Probably not – unless the person moving qualifies for ‘essential travel’. Even then, other temporary alternatives could be made available.
C. Probably not. Risk to all parties trumps potential benefit.
But does this mean there’s a complete grind to a halt? Not if the world is to function ‘normally’ after it’s all over.
These are unprecedented times, and as such I would suggest need previously precedented solutions to be adapted to suit, rather than look for ‘new’ answers.
For A. and B., ongoing sales will in the main go into hibernation. What little work can be done will be – but the main challenge is keeping the minds of buyer and seller focused on the outcome when it is able to happen. A seller cannot reasonably expect their buyer to proceed; neither can a buyer think they can pressure a seller to move out to facilitate a move that can’t take place! The downside is that any hiaitus effectively gives both parties more opportunity to potentially walk away from a deal – but again the ‘lockdown’ is going to remove a lot of the potential reasons for buyers (and to a degree, sellers) from changing their minds. Where Contracts/Missives have been exchanged, then I would have thought agreed completion dates will have to be disregarded in chain situations unless extenuating circumstances prevail.
With regard to C. – whilst I wouldn’t expect anyone to actually buy a property without physically visiting it, I can envisage there are some who might be prepared to make conditional offers based upon virtual tours.
That being the case, required checks can be carried out so that when the offer is firmed up following a physical viewing, all the donkey work is effectively done and legals can therefore be commenced immediately.
Hey – all I’m saying is that Estate Agents have to think on their feet with every contact they make. This is in many ways no different. Those that think will find ways to do business.
Thoughts?
You’re not wrong, I can only hope existing deals can find away to go through and after speaking to a solicitor (working from home) she is still getting searches back and hopes this can still be managed despite everything. But for how much longer?
Yes as far as viewings are concerned I’m willing but my wife (a very experienced nurse) thinks I’m an idiot for even thinking about it.
Cheers
from an idiot !!!
Safe to say we’re all idiots, padymagic.
PB will be a distant memory soon
Unfortunately so will 50% of this business. I dont think there is anyone alive who will have seem anything worse than what is to come.
Sorry for this piece of outstanding optimism!
Newsboy some hope for you.
Once this is over, there will be a phenomenal market to deal with and agents will rise again for sure How long that will be no one knows, but for sure it will happen.
We need to change the way we are thinking and start to look to the future so we are ready. The world is in panic mode and that stops clear thinking. We need to take control of our emotions and start to apply some real thought to the future otherwise, when it does come, we will not be ready. We must not lose our belief that there is a future. Yes it will be tough, but the Government are trying to help in a phenomenal way and we should use their offer for “survival” mode
Out of interest, what makes you think that? I would’ve thought they’d be well positioned if a consolidation of agencies were to happen, or even licensing. I’ve been really intrigued in how this field will play out and I would’ve predicted that PB will do well, but I’m interested in others thoughts.
“I would’ve thought they’d be well positioned if a consolidation of agencies were to happen, or even licensing.”
Why would you think that?
To be honest I’m not from this industry originally but im really interested in what others see the future looks like. I’ve read a few times on this site that times are hard for agents and there could be a lot that will go under over the coming years (with things such as pressures from Right Move’s fee increases). Plus with the issues at Countrywide & other major agents that have been reported, I assume we’ll see less in the market in the coming years.
Which given Purple Bricks don’t have as much geographical-based costs, I figured they will capitalise. I expect the same amount of homes will be sold (although not maybe in this next few months of course).
I also assumed, if licensing comes into play, this will put further cost on agents, which may make it unviable for a load more of them. Whereas there must be some economy of scale with things such as licensing (thats my experience in other industries anyway) so the larger orgs will do ok.
I assume the well funded models such as PB/Yopa have deeper pockets and less need to make profit to survive, unlike the rest of the market (but maybe that wont be forever?) so I assume they can ride the licensing costs, should they come into play, and aggressively expand to take market as agents drop off.
Would love to know your views. This is just my summary from what I’ve been reading.