LSL sells 50% stake in conveyancing firm LMS for £12 million

Your Move and Reeds Rains parent company LSL has sold its 49.6% holding in conveyancing firm LMS for £12m to a UK private equity firm.

Its LMS investment was valued at £9 million in December 2020 and at the time LSL reported a profit of £300,000 from this.

In 2011 LSL along with rival Connells acquired an interest in LMS through an investment in Cybele Solutions Holdings Limited, its parent company, which itself had a turnover of £21.5 million in 2019, its most recent accounts show.

LSL’s original investment was for a 33% stake in the firm for which it paid £672,000, a holding it later increased.

The money from the sale of its share in LMS is to be spent by LSL on growing its financial services business, which it sees as a key area of growth.

The sales will also simplify its internal structure, the company says. LSL has a plethora of different offering mortgage, insurance and other financial services including surveying and valuations services division e.surv.

It will also still have a hand in the conveyancing pie with its homefast conveyancing panel management service.

Last month it entered into a £200m joint venture with private equity firm Pollen Street Capital (PSC) to set up what the two companies hope will become a leading national tech-led mortgage broker.

The company also recently signed a distribution agreement with Martin & Co parent company The Property Franchise Group for its financial services arm PRIMIS.

“This announcement follows significant progress developing and executing a clear Financial Services led growth strategy supported by a strong and flexible balance sheet,” the company says.