LSL appoints new chief after sudden departure of predecessor

LSL has appointed a new Chairman to replace David Barral who quit the role less than a year after taking it up.

The group, which owns Your Move and Reeds Rains, has announced fund manager specialist Adrian Collins (main picture) as Barral’s successor.

Entire network

Barral, who left the role with immediate effect in February, took over from veteran Bill Shannon at a time last year when the company announced that its entire estate agency network of 183 branches would become franchises.

Collins’ executive career was spent in fund management including 25 years at Gartmore. He was one of the founders of Trustnet, and also held senior roles at Jupiter, Bestinvest and Lazard Investors.

He served first as executive and then non-executive chair of Liontrust Asset Management. He is currently Board Chairman of Logistics Development Group (formerly Eddie Stobart Logistics), and a non-executive director of Hargreaves Lansdown. He was also the chair of Bahamas Petroleum Company from 2011 to 2021.

Track record

David Stewart, LSL Group CEO, says: “Adrian is hugely experienced, with a track record of growing businesses and creating value.”

LSL Property Services made a strong start to 2024, as it announced a £7 million share buyback plan.

The group told the City last month that net cash was £35 million at the year end with the final dividend maintained at 7.4p per share.

Trading update

The results followed March’s trading update when it reported profit over the first two months of the year around £1 million compared to losses of £1.5 million and £2 million for the same period in 2023 and 2022.

LSL has 61 estate agency franchisees operating in 306 territories making it one of the largest estate agency franchise groups in the UK.