Alison Platt
-
Latest property news
Countrywide chief takes up new role at… another troubled property giant
Himanshu Raja was CFO at Countrywide four years but has left following its acquisition by Connells.
Read More » -
Latest property news
Countrywide begins search for new CEO, reports Sky News
Exec chairman Peter Long will soon make way for a CEO once head hunters have secured a suitable candidate, it has been reported.
Read More » -
Latest property news
Revealed: What really went wrong at Countrywide during the Platt years
Former Countrywide lettings chief John Hards reveals what he believes were the key strategies that landed the company in trouble.
Read More » -
Latest property news
So long – goodbye. Countrywide chairman quits £360,000 Royal Mail non-exec role
Countrywide Executive Chairman Peter Long has resigned from his role as non-exec Chairman at the Royal Mail.
Read More » -
Latest property news
Countrywide chief cuts down his non-exec work to focus on saving firm
Countrywide’s Executive Chairman Peter Long yesterday stepped down from one of his several non-executive director positions outside the company to “reduce” his business commitments. The move comes as Countrywide struggles to find a new CEO, a hard role to fill when the embattled company’s share price has been plummeting in recent months following several downbeat trading updates. The 64-year-old has quit his non-exec role at global theme park and zoo operator Parques Reunidos. He joined it in early 2016 to help the company following an IPO. “After careful consideration of my overall business commitments, I made the decision some time ago to reduce them. I am therefore stepping down now from the Parques Board,” says Peter Long. “[And] after careful consideration of where Parques is in its development and discussions with the Board, I have concluded that it now requires a Chairman who is able to give considerably more time to the business than had originally been envisaged and that I am unable to fill given my overall business commitments.” Travel sector Peter Long joined Countrywide in February 2016 as a non-exec Director before becoming its non-exec Chairman later that year. He had little or no track record within the property…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Revealed: why Countrywide sales and lettings went awry during Platt years
Countrywide has revealed that it will take three years to turn the business around following the departure of Alison Platt in January, and also detailed how and why she left. During the final months of last year Countrywide Executive Chairman Peter Long carried out a review of why its sales and lettings business had lost so much market share and profitability since 2015. He discovered that the strategy adopted by the company to treat sales and lettings as a single retail business failed to appreciate that they are really separate entities each with different characteristics and customer bases requiring separate expertise. Long also found that the ‘one size fits all’ approach the company had adopted led to a reduction in entrepreneurial culture and that branch managers lost the autonomy to recruit and promote colleagues or develop their businesses to fit local conditions. Reducing closure costs Countrywide has also published how much its ongoing cost reduction and closures programme cost last year. Its preliminary results, which come ahead of its full Annual Report later this month, show that it spent £4.4 million on redundancies and changing the leadership structure and £1.65 million on consultants to manage costs and get “strategic initiatives”…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Countrywide share price freefall continues valuing firm at just £200m
The Countrywide share price freefall continued yesterday plunging by 10.5% to 84.9p per share, an all-time low for the company (see graph, right). Its share price had rallied slightly in recent days following the departure of CEO Alison Platt, but investor confidence in the future of the company and the overall property market appears to be waning again despite Chairman Peter Long recently stating that he would stay on until the company’s problems had been sorted out, and the promotion of Paul Creffield to Group Operations Director. The sudden drop in shares is likely to be a result of major shareholders offloading their exposure to the company’s shares and recent figures from the Land Registry revealing a 21% drop in year-on-year property transactions during 2017. The most significant shareholders in Countrywide are Oaktree Capital with 33%, Brandes Investment Partners with 19%, Apollo Investors (10%), Harris Associates (7.6%). Investec Asset Management ( 6.2%) and Jupiter Asset Management (5.8%). Following the departure of Alison Platt, Peter Long’s salary was doubled from £180,000 to £360,000 as ‘golden handcuffs’ to incentivise the long-serving industry stalwart to remain with the company, while Platt’s severance deal is yet to be announced, although it likely to run…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Countrywide CEO Alison Platt quits after sales and lettings ‘lose focus’
It’s official – after several days of speculation, Countrywide CEO Alison Platt has resigned from the company and will stand down from the board. Until a successor is found Executive Chairman Peter Long is to run the company. He is believed to have been instrumental in challenging the company’s strategic direction of recent, and a key figure in persuading Alison Platt to go. Clearly talking to the City, Peter says that although some parts of the company have been performing well, its core sales and lettings business has “lost focus” and that “a key priority will be to implement changes that will enable this area to start delivering once again,”. Profitable growth “Working together with this experienced executive team I feel confident we can return the business to profitable growth. “We have a strong and successful business in Financial Services, B2B and Commercial led by an experienced and committed management team.” There is speculation that Paul Creffield (pictured, left), who has been Managing Director of its Commercial Development team and joined the company in 2006, may be in the running to be the next CEO. During his time at Countrywide he has led most of its divisions and before joining…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Is Alison Platt about to exit from Countrywide as share price dips under £1?
Rumours that the position of Countrywide CEO Alison Platt may be in jeopardy were circulating in the City after its share price hit a new all-time low of £0.98p during mid-day trading today. Shares in the company have been in freefall since a trading statement on Thursday warned that profits were likely to be lower than expected following a “disappointing” last quarter. That day its share price dropped 20% but has since fallen overall by a quarter as investor confidence in Countrywide crumbled after the trading update predicted its 2017 profits would be £65m, down by 22% from £83.5m during 2016, Last night Sky News reported that board members were in private discussions about the future of Alison Platt, who could be pushed out within days, and even if she does hang on, may struggle to survive until the full year results are published on the 8th March. These are likely to make grim reading, as the trading update suggested last week, and may push the company’s share price down past £1. If this were to happen then it would mark an extraordinary collapse. Countrywide’s share price has fallen from nearly £6 a share in September 2015 to £1.02 today…
Read More » -
Features
The Negotiator Conference & Expo 17
It was the biggest agency networking day of the year, attended by over 500 property professionals, Iain Duncan Smith and hosted by Radio 4’s Justin Webb.
Read More »
