Founded in 1981, Foxtons started life as a two-person agency in Notting Hill. Over the years we are proud to have become London's leading estate agent.


Estate agency Foxtons Group has announced the successful pricing of its IPO of 169.4m shares of one pence each. The price has been set at 230p per share.

Based on the Offer Price, the market capitalisation of the Company will be approximately £649m on admission.

The Offer is expected to raise gross proceeds of approximately £390m, comprising a primary component of £55m and secondary sales of £335m. Secondary sales will consist of a partial sell-down by Adnams BBPM Holdings Limited (an entity controlled indirectly by funds advised by BC Partners), executive directors of the Company and certain other employees of the Group.

Conditional dealings will commence on the London Stock Exchange at 8.00 a.m. today under the ticker FOXT.

Admission to the premium listing segment of the Official List and to trading on the main market for listed securities of the London Stock Exchange and the commencement of unconditional dealings in the Shares ("Admission") are expected to take place at 8.00 a.m. on 25 September 2013. At Admission the Company will have 282,176,468 Shares in issue.

http://www.foxtons.co.uk/

StockMarketWire.com
London estate agency Foxtons Group has warned that it expects full year revenues and adjusted EBITDA to be significantly lower than last time.

The run up to the EU referendum led to significant uncertainty across London residential markets and the decision to leave Europe is expected to prolong that uncertainty.

The group says: "Whilst it is too early to accurately predict how the London property sales market will respond, the upturn we were expecting during the second half of this year is now unlikely to materialise. As a result, the challenging conditions we referred to in our April 2016 trading update, which have impacted recent property sales volumes, are now likely to continue for at least the remainder of the year."

2016 first half group revenue is now expected to be slightly below prior year with a lower adjusted EBITDA margin in the region of 20% primarily due to subdued sales volumes and the costs associated with recent investment in our branch network.

Chief executive Nic Budden said: "Whilst we had a strong start to the year, we said in our Q1 update that we expected the first half to be challenging ahead of the EU referendum. Since then recent sales volumes have been slow as uncertainty and higher stamp duty has led many buyers and sellers to sit on their hands. The result of the referendum has increased uncertainty and is likely to mean that these trends continue for at least the remainder of the year.

"Looking further ahead, we remain confident of the attractiveness of London property sales markets and our strategy to focus on the outer London mid-market segment. Furthermore, our strong lettings business provides strong downside protection."

Realıty setting ın.

FOXT sp has been on the wain for some time, ( 240 a year ago - DYOR ), possibly overvalued as the property "bubble" expanded? . . . . and now it's getting more-realistic - bust as always Markets over-react and maybe soon it will be undervalued.

The RNS after BrExit is telling us nothing we didn't know - and I don't think 4 days of trading means their business is collapsed . . . rather this is a good time to deliver bad news.

Peel Hunt comment today:
"First half and full year profits are set to be significantly lower than the prior year given the uncertainty in the lead up to and in the aftermath of the EU referendum vote. We believe FY2016 PBT could halve compared to our current forecasts. Liquidity in the London property market will return but we continue to believe that Foxtons is not best placed to capture the upside given its high commission rates. Market share growth will remain a challenge. Our new target price is 100p.
Trading update. After a decent first quarter when trading was boosted by a rush of transactions to beat the stamp duty changes, uncertainty has weighed on activity since. Friday’s referendum result has amplified this uncertainty and profits for H1 and FY will be significantly below prior year levels. For H1, revenues will be slightly below the prior year at c£70m, but the higher costs from the larger branch network will see the EBITDA margin decline to c20% from 29% in H1 2015. This implies H1 EBITDA of c£13m-14m (H1 2015: £20.5m).
Transactions outlook tough. The group’s pipeline for transactions in Q2 had declined due to the pull forward of activity to beat the stamp change. While there has been little time to assess how many people may pull out of transactions, it is likely to have some impact and transaction activity will be subdued for at least the remainder of this year. In the meantime, the world of estate agency is changing with lower priced players gaining share. As and when the London market rebounds, Foxtons’ commission rate of 2.5% on sales will be even more of an outlier, in our view.
Lettings challenging. Lettings provides the group with a relatively stable income stream, however, organic growth of the lettings book has been slow as tenants are typically staying in properties for longer and churn between lettings agents has slowed. We expect a modest (1-2%) reduction in lettings revenues for the full year, which implies a material decline in market share given the growth in the branch network.
Forecasts and valuation. We are yet to finalise our forecasts, however, the weak outlook for transactions could see second half transaction revenues 30-40% lower than the prior year. If we take the mid point of this (35%), combined with the slight fall in lettings stated above, group revenues for the full year would be £132m (our current forecast is £159m). At a c20% EBITDA margin, this implies EBITDA of £26m (our current forecast is £46m) and PBT of c£21m (our current forecast is £42.6m). The dividend, which is covered c1x by earnings will also be under similar pressure to our PBT forecasts. While 2016 may well be trough earnings, given the uncertainty around the London market and competitive headwinds we cannot justify applying any more than a 15-16x PE ratio to this year’s earnings. If the group generates £21m of PBT in FY2016 (c6.1p EPS), a 16x PE implies a c100p target price. We maintain our reduce recommendation."

Goldman Sachs today:
"We make 10 rating changes. We upgrade LafargeHolcim and Wolseley to Buy (from Neutral); we downgrade Braas Monier, Bovis, Redrow, Crest Nicholson (off CL) and Bellway to Neutral from Buy. We downgrade Berkeley Group, Countrywide and Foxtons to Sell from Neutral. We also remove the Not Rated designation from Salini Impregilo and reinstate as Neutral."

StockMarketWire.com
Foxtons said group revenue was down to £68.8m (H1 2015: £71.1m), while adjusted EBITDA fell to £13.1m (H1 2015: £20.5m).

HIGHLIGHTS
- Adjusted EBITDA margin of 19.1% (H1 2015: 28.9%)

- Profit before tax of £10.5m (H1 2015: £18.1m)

- Cash returns to shareholders during H1 2016 total £28.3m comprising total dividends of £17.1m and £11.2m of share buy-backs (H1 2015: £14.5m)

- Interim dividend maintained at 1.67p per share (H1 2015: 1.67p per share), while due to the uncertain economic environment a special dividend will not be paid (2015: 3.10p per share)

- Five new branches opened during the first half in line with our organic, self-funded expansion strategy taking the total number of Foxtons branches to 63. Two further branches on track to open during the second half.

StockMarketWire.com
Estate agent Foxtons' total group revenue for the quarter to the end of September was £37.5m (2015: £43.5m) with revenue for the nine months ended 30 September totalling £106.3m (2015: £114.5m).

Sales revenue in Q3 was £12.2m (2015: £18.5m) reflecting a continuation of reduced activity in the London property sales market.

Lettings revenue, whilst also reflecting lower levels of new tenant activity, benefited from Foxtons strong renewals book and grew modestly in the third quarter to £22.8m (2015: £22.6m).

Foxtons says: "The response to the marketing initiatives which we launched to enhance our lettings business has been encouraging, in particular, the new business which we have secured from the institutional private rented sector (PRS).

"Our zero lettings campaign, which commenced in August, has been well received and has been extended to our new branches in Vauxhall and Peckham.

"Continued tight cost control in Q3 has improved margins and we expect to be broadly in line with full year market expectations. Foxtons remains highly cash generative with no debt.

"Leveraging our leading technology, we launched a new 'MyFoxtons', online portal in September, which gives customers complete visibility on the entire sales and lettings processes, without compromising on the high-touch, personal service they receive from Foxtons agents. Customer feedback so far has been very positive. " During the year, Foxtons opened seven new branches in Loughton, Sutton, New Malden, Fulham, Maida Vale and most recently in Vauxhall and Peckham, increasing the network size to 65 branches in total.

The group is committed to open two more branches in Q1 2017 in outer London.

Chief executive Nic Budden said: "The long term fundamentals of the London property market remain very attractive and represent a huge opportunity for growth with nearly £3bn in total sales and lettings commissions on 2015 volumes. We have built Foxtons to withstand sales market cycles with our lettings revenue comprising over half the business. We are pleased with the response we have seen to the strategic initiatives which we have implemented to grow our lettings business, and also the successful launch of the new MyFoxtons portal. "

Who ever is holding the stock, certainly the chart was sending a message >>>>>>downtrend

A stop loss should be appropriate on those cases

company still trading water ( revenue down on the last Q)

sure glad i bit the bullet at 160!

on the other hand, RMV continues to performs though it can be a bit volatile

These guys and Countrywide, Savills are trending down now for sometime. Any downturn in broader economy then could get a lot worse.

perhaps ask yourself why RMV continues to flourish
it's not rocket science :-)

Cynic- I have done and cant quite fathom it :)

really???

all estate agents use RMV to promote the properties on their books, whereas an individual estate agent is only promoting "his"

so, though the property market may be a bit sticky (not entirely true, but still), especially for the inflexible old school like Savills and Knight Frank, there's an awful lot of minor players, from Purple Bricks (yuk!) through small local agencies who benefit from RMV's services

Agree with all the points. Just cant see how they will keep there margins going forward.

Is estate agent sell-off overdone? - By Lee Wild | Thu, 24th November 2016 - 13:27

Philip Hammond's first Autumn Statement as chancellor has attracted plenty of criticism, not least for the Office for Budget Responsibility's (OBR) estimate that Brexit will cost the UK up to £60 billion. There's some scepticism around infrastructure spending, help for housebuilders and the deficit, too, but it's new rules on estate agent fees that's had most impact on equity markets.

The government proposes to ban letting agents from charging tenants' fees for things like reference, credit and immigration checks, and for drawing up tenancy agreements. This can be a huge cost to renters, especially in London hotspots. According to the Citizens Advice Bureau, the average charge to cover admin services is about £337.

David Cox, managing director of the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA), called Hammond's crackdown "a crowd-pleaser" that will not help tenants long-term. He might be right, but the chancellor seemed pretty committed.

"In the private rental market, letting agents are currently able to charge unregulated fees to tenants," Hammond told a packed House. "We have seen these fees spiral, often to hundreds of pounds. This is wrong. Landlords appoint letting agents and landlords should meet their fees. So I can announce today that we will ban fees to tenants as soon as possible."

His plan had been leaked overnight Tuesday, so big players like Foxtons (FOXT) had plunged well before Hammond stood up at 12:38 Wednesday. The London-based firm is down over 16% over the past two days.

Clearly, the likes of Countrywide (CWD) and Belvoir Lettings (BLV) had a sleepless night, both issuing trading updates first thing Thursday.

Relisted by private equity owner Oaktree Capital in 2013 at 350p, Countrywide's share price responded with a further 13% dive to 169p, adding to yesterday's 5% slide. The UK's largest integrated property services group - it does lettings, sales, mortgage broking etc - warned Thursday that stamp duty changes and the EU referendum had already hurt business.

"Transaction levels are currently running significantly below 2015," it said, adding that volumes for 2016 will be down 6% on last year, and that 2017 could be even worse. That will dump 2016 cash profit at the bottom of market expectations.

Chief executive Alison Platt hardly mentioned the chancellor and letting agents' fees, saying only that she "looks forward" to working with government through the consultation process.

AIM-listed Belvoir was more specific. "At this stage, Belvoir cannot fully predict the likely financial impact on the results for the year ended December 2017 and beyond," it said. "Based on the group's experience following a similar decision in Scotland in 2012, however, the board anticipates that mitigating action should be possible over time and indeed it should be noted that no franchisees were lost in Scotland as a consequence."

It predicts about 10% of income derived by franchisees is from fees to tenants, and that the impact on total group gross profit will be less than 8%.

Elsewhere, AIM-listed online estate agency Purplebricks (PURP) won a reprieve after claiming the chancellor's action would not have any "meaningful impact" on the business. Upfront fees are already pretty low and it does not charge renewal fees. We'll hear more at the interim results on 5 December.

What the experts say

First of all, it's well worth recapping what technical analyst and Interactive Investor contributor Alistair Strang predicted here a month ago, with Countrywide's share price at 202p. I quote:

"From a software perspective, [Countrywide] currently needs to better 280p to cancel a logical target at 170p, this being a point around which some sort of bounce can be hoped."

And today's session will be hugely important if Alistair's often reliable software is right.

"The problem comes if the share closes a session below 169p, as apparently the final bottom should be at 127p," he warns. Keep 'em peeled.

UBS spells out the risks

"Our initial approximate sensitivity analysis suggests that while there is a meaningful [operating profit/EBIT] impact the share price reactions could be overdone," suggests UBS analyst Heidi Richardson.

"We estimate that without mitigating action the change could impact Foxtons FY17 EBIT by -4% to -12%, and Countrywide FY17 EBIT by -2% to -7%. However it could be lower if fees are transferred to landlords/rents rise. For Savills we expect limited impact as UK residential transactions make up just 9% of sales including fees from selling homes."

Richardson still rates Foxtons and Savills a 'buy', and remains 'neutral' on Countrywide.

According to market data site SharePad, Foxtons now trades on about 16 times forward earnings and yields around 6%. Countrywide trades on just 7 times earnings and yields about 6.5%.

BELVOIR LETTINGS 110.00p -8.33%
COUNTRYWIDE 170.00p -12.33%
FOXTONS GROUP 102.25p -2.85%
PURPLEBRICKS GROUP 110.0

London Property Prices Falling Faster Than You Think, NAMA Warns
Bloomberg - November 24, 2016 — 1:31 PM GMT

U.K. real estate prices may be dropping at a much faster pace than official reports indicate, according to the Irish agency that manages property loans acquired from bailed-out banks.
Reports since Britain’s vote to leave the European Union point to the value of land in central London declining by more than 10 percent in the past year, while house prices are 11 percent below their 2014 peak, said Frank Daly, chairman of Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency, known as NAMA.

“Our analysis suggests that the fall in U.K. prices may be much higher than official estimates,” Daly told lawmakers in Dublin on Thursday. “Analysts are forecasting that prices will fall further over the coming years, partly in response to a weakening economy and to the likelihood that companies will move staff overseas in response to Brexit.”

Irish ministers and executives are closely monitoring economic and market developments in the U.K. because the country is Ireland’s largest trading partner along with the U.S. Earlier this month, Stephen Vernon, chairman of Dublin-based Green Property, said London’s real estate market is “tanking by the day.”

Office values in the City of London financial district fell the most in at least seven years in July after the Brexit vote in June, according to CBRE Group Inc. Home prices in the U.K. capital fell for a fifth month in August, the worst streak since 2009, as higher taxes and the referendum result damped demand.

Explore Housing Prices in London
NAMA took over billions of euros in risky debt following the financial crisis in 2008 and Ireland’s international bailout. The agency’s debtors have 800 million pounds ($995 million) in assets located in Britain, down from 12 billion pounds in 2011. Among loans NAMA took over were those linked to the Battersea Power Station site on the banks of the River Thames. It sold them on in 2012.

FOXT have been really bad news for ages and am very pleased i bit the bullet on them at 160
it wasn't nice at the time, but of course would have been far worse now


i know i keep banging the drum for RMV but unashamedly continue to do so, though of course it has also taken something of a knock recently

PURP has performed the best of the above (don't know Belvoir), but as that is a "new boy" it doesn't have a lot of history

RMV knocks the socks off both FOXT and CWD and as market leader (by miles) should continue to do so

No one left to sell to at London prices. Need a cohort clubbing together to buy a basic home. Victims of their own ramping.

Foxtons says sales could fall further in 2017

Negative comment in todays DM.