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Latest property news
Bath’s letting agents shine for students, leaving others stinking!
The average review score highlights the high-quality accommodation and services provided by letting agencies in the city, ensuring a comfortable and satisfying experience.
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Supplier News
ZPG reports profits up by 41% before tax, helping sweeten Silverlake purchase
Property and comparison giant ZPG has seen revenue and profits increase dramatically over the past six months, it reports today.
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Latest property news
ZPG refinances its debt following recent business buying spree
Zoopla parent company ZPG has revealed that it is to restructure its debt by raising £200 million through a bond or ‘senior notes’ issue. ZPG says the bonds will become due for repayment in five years’ time and will help it refinance its debt by securing more “attractive interest rates” until 2023. This gives it a further three years of breathing space – its existing debt, which is part of a £325 million facility, is due for repayment in 2020. In ZPG’s most recent financial report for 2017, the company says it spent £97.5 million repaying debt, up from £52.5 million during 2016. The bond issue, which will not be public and will be offered to investors through different financial channels, follows a significant spending spree by the company which has seen it acquire several businesses. Expensive acquisitions This has included most recently – and expensively – the acquisition of financial products website Money for £80m and Dutch property data firm Calcasa for £26.5 million. Within its latest results published late last year, ZPG revealed that it had a net debt (borrowings minus cash in the bank) of £191.5 million, up from £146.5 million in 2016, although its total borrowings…
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Latest property news
ZPG snaps up comparison website money.co.uk
UPDATE: Zoopla has today gained approval from the FCA to acquire Dot Zinc Limited, which operates the Money.co.uk website. The sale will now go through on 1st October 2017. Also, at almost the same time the FCA approval was announced, ZPG revealed that its CEO Alex Chesterman today sold 4.25 million of his shares in the company, or approximately 1% of its issued share capital. The sale of the shares, which were sold at £3.63p each, will see Chesterman cash in just under £15.5 million. Original story starts: Zoopla parent company ZPG has bought financial products comparison website Money.co.uk for £80m, prompting shares in ZPG to rise briefly by 7% after the announcement yesterday. The Cirencester-based company behind the website was set up in 2008 by CEO Chris Morling and, until now, had been one of the few independently-owned online comparison services for consumers buying financial products such as credit cards, insurance, mortgages, loans and investments. The FCA-regulated firm offers products from some 600 providers and attracts over two million visits a month to its website and has 50 staff and ten million registered users. The deal will see the company’s shareholders paid £20m in cash in December this year…
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