Foxtons should become a national brand, says leading City investor
Catalist Partners says the company has lost its way recently and should expand into the UK's major cities and Hong Kong too.
A city investment firm with a shareholding in Foxtons has called on the London agency to open branches outside the M25 as it criticises the firm for ‘losing its way’.
Catalist, which is run by Sothebys Interational franchise owner and industry figure Robin Paterson, recently took a 2.3% stake in Foxtons and claimed expansion could eventually make it worth £1 billion.
The listed company currently has a market capitalisation of £190 million, a drop of 63% on its value five years ago.
The agency has endured a torrid half decade during which its key London property sales market has been impacted by Brexit and the Covid pandemic, profits have slumped and branches have closed. It has launched a fight-back of sorts, buying two small London lettings agencies and major rival Douglas & Gordon.
But Catalist reckons the agency’s aggressive operational style could go far outside the capital in cities and towns such as Ascot, Chichester, Salisbury, Exeter, Norwich, Manchester, Cambridge, Oxford and York. The company does have two branches outside the M25 – in Guildford and Woking.
Patterson (pictured) says he’s recommending that company buys up agents to help it expand, and that it should open up an office in Hong Kong.
A dossier outlining Catalist’s recommendation has been published which is withering about Foxtons’ performance over the past five years, and says the agency has allowed competitors to take market share off it, particularly in the more expensive postcodes of London where it was once dominant.
Catalist was also behind a recent shareholder revolt over CEO Nic Budden’s proposed bonus of £398,000. It was also a shareholder in Countrywide and Patterson was a vocal critic of the now Connells-owned agency’s previous management team and tactics.
Russell Quirk (pictured), who in 2018 was in talks with Foxtons to sell his hybrid agency Emoov to the agency, says he suggested it use his former agency’s platform to open a further 60 offices outside the capital, a list that includes all the locations mentioned by Catalist. “I did I the brand awareness analysis and targeted the appropriate locations,” says Quirk.
