Paul Creffield
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Latest property news
Countrywide drops proposed £20m remuneration package for directors
Britian's largest estate agency group Countrywide has had its proposed remuneration package for its key directors rejected by the shareholders.
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Latest property news
City consultancy recommends shareholders reject Countrywide’s golden handcuffs for senior team
A City-based consultancy has called for shareholders to reject Countrywide latest remuneration package for its top execs.
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Latest property news
Countrywide share price crashes as £129m debt refinancing deal is revealed
Countrywide’s share price has crashed to an all-time low after it revealed plans earlier today of a multi-million-pound share issue to refinance its debt, and despite signs of improving business performance. Earlier this morning its share price dropped to 14p after opening this morning at 25p. Only three weeks ago it was trading at 55p a share and a year ago, £1.56p. The share collapse follows details of its plans to raise £129 million via two share offers, one for £111.4 million and a second for £28.6 million. This share placing must be approved by shareholders at a special meeting on the 28th August before it can proceed. But the company says if approved the cash raised will be used to reduce its current debts by 60%. The Capital Refinancing Plan is in part designed to improve its results by clearing its considerable loan interest payments off the balance sheet. Business turnaround? The announcement was accompanied by an upbeat summary of Countrywide’s ‘turnaround plan’. This reveals an improving sales pipeline which, although still down 9% year-on-year, is an improvement on six months ago when the pipeline was down by a quarter. Countrywide also says the number of properties it’s marketing…
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‘Come back to us’, Countrywide’s Peter Long asks departed talent as profits sink
Countrywide’s Executive Chairman Peter Long (pictured, above) has called for the senior figures who left the business during the Alison Platt years to return to the company as the company reveals its latest figures. Overall income reduced by 9% during 2017 and profits dropped by 23%, driven by a poorly-performing sales and lettings where profits fell by 45% from £48.4 million in 2016 to £26.4 million last year. This is a third year in a row the results from its core branch network have been poor. Countrywide’s mortgage business, which is highly dependent on its pipeline from the branches, also generated less profit last year, down from £22.7 million to £19.7 million. But one area of the business doing well is its B2B services operation. Profits increased by 13% to £35.6 million driven by surveying, and its commercial business outfit Lambert Smith Hampton. The 2017 results also reveal that although the company made an underlying profit of £19.5 million during 2017, nearly half that of 2016, it has reported a loss of £208.1 million after taking a £225.9 million hit for exception items. The company says it will not pay a dividend for 2017. In response to the figures, Countrywide…
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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…
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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…
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