Zoopla is expected to announce its long-awaited stock market flotation this week.
But its advisers could be spooked by a sharp fall in Rightmove’s share prices in recent days.
Last week, Rightmove’s shares plummeted £3, reducing the value of the company to just under £2.1bn from a high in February of over £2.7bn.
The fall did not come on the back of any bad news from the company or negative broker sentiment, but may have been the result of speculation of a house price bubble and a possible rise in interest rates.
Although Bank of England governor Mark Carney appears to have ruled out an immediate rise in interest rates, he did say that the housing market was the biggest threat to the recovering economy, and that the Bank is closely watching rising house prices.
Yesterday in an interview on Sky he went further, saying that the housing market has “deep, deep problems”.
Meanwhile, Zoopla is expected to announce its plans to go public this Thursday when its parent group, Daily Mail and General Trust, releases its annual results.
The stock market is expected to value Zoopla at around £1bn – half the current value of Rightmove – creating a windfall for both the Daily Mail publishers and Zoopla founder Alex Chesterman, who made the Sunday Times Rich List yesterday for the first time, with a fortune estimated at £100m.
The DMGT owns 51% of Zoopla, while Chesterman has a 9% stake. Other winners in a flotation would be the corporate estate agents, including Countrywide and LSL, that also have stakes.
Any flotation of Zoopla would inevitably cause City analysts to focus on Agents’ Mutual, its recruitment of agents so far, and its plans to launch next January with an advertising rule of “only one other portal”.
More likely to be spooked by the fact that the whole agency world seems to think it is Zoopla who is going to be the target of the Agent Mutual embargo.
With Mr Shipside finally showing a ‘Waffa’ thin sliver of contrition it is obvious that Agent Mutual is already having an effect on our world. Well done AM.
Would you invets in shares if you knew the customer base wasn't quite as sticky as the propectus claimed?
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surely the effect of Agents Mutual needs to be known before asking for investment?
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When Miles Shipside swallows hard and puts his name to something not condescending about us little people, as he did last week, it is the greatest indication that the threat is very real!
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Alex Chesterman now in the top 1000 rich list published last week. Now worth £100m apparently. Not bad work if you can get it.
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I don't think you can knock Alex for consistently being in the right place at the right time and doing deals that simply beggar belief. Alex has done well out of the utter misconduct of newspaper people. Whether it was GMG giving him Think Property literally months after they had put together all of the industry dominant software feeds, Solex/GMW/Vebra, Core and CFP, A&N media letting him get his hands on Primelocation and FP and Archant allowing him to power Homes24, Alex has done brilliantly well and deserves every penny of an albeit rather over inflated and tenebrous? valuation that is wholly reliant on the good will of agents.
If this was fantasy playground scrapping I would most like to be teamed up with Agents Mutual but my second choice would be Alex and Zoopla. I have the greatest respect for RM but their mistreatment of the industry that feeds them and their consistent gloating manner which they have used to taunt agents irks me a little too much.
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Right place-right time although you make your own luck as they say. Alex has indeed played the game well and you can't knock him for making a few quid. But I think with all the goings on with the industry, I think he will probably up sticks and sell all his 9% shares and could you blame him! It will be interesting to see if LSL holdings also sell up?!
You may well be right about Rightmove and Miles Shipside pandering to the industry all of a sudden…they have for so long taken things for granted, but it was only a matter of time before agents revolted!
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I have been a revolting Agent since 1986. I think Alex has played a blinder but think his resemlence to Stage Hypnotist Kenny Craig might be more than a passing coincidence.
Don't look into his eye look around his eyes!
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Afternoon Ampersat, see you've been 'playing' here today, and as it has dissapeared into the archives, I'd just flag up that I responded to your post in the thread about 'Agency not changing for the last 40 years'
I'd be interested to see your response to my question as to how, as you describe yourself, 'one of the few people able to help with changes that are apparent right now and help put things right.' you are planning to put things right, and indeed, what you consider to be 'right'
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Do Zoopla have to declare the AM proposition to would be investors prior to flotation?
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