Countrywide share price rises 125% in three months

Is Countrywide finally on the road to recovery?

Its share price has risen 125 per cent in the past three months; much of that has been in the past three weeks since Sky News revealed that the company had recruited professional headhunters to replace Paul Creffield, the chief executive, and will involve current executive chairman Peter Long.

The company’s long-term share price fall, since before the tenure of Alison Platt as chief executive, has been well-documented.

But this year’s share price fall - now appearing to be in reverse - was triggered by the collapse of the sale of commercial arm Lambert Smith Hampton, and the failure of merger talks with LSL Property Services which would have led to the creation of the UK’s largest agency group.

In late January Countrywide’s share price was 393p but then - well ahead of the arrival of the pandemic in the UK - it went into a multi-month decline. By mid-March it was around or below 60p and remained at roughly that level until early June.

Since that time the company’s stock market fortunes have improved and its share value usually hovers around the 140p mark, despite a dip in Tuesday's trading.

There is no additional comment from Countrywide on the replacement process for Long and Creffield. Estate Agent Today has asked the company for an update but has not received a response.

Sky News has suggested that Long at least is likely to remain a board member even after being replaced as executive chairman before the end of this year.