Activist investor backs new Purplebricks board roles ...

A high-profile Purplebricks investor has backed the beleaguered online agent for bringing more experienced individuals to its board but has urged it to go further.

It comes as Purplebricks made two senior board appointments ahead of its annual general meeting yesterday.

The online agent has appointed former Leaders Romans Group chief executive Adrian Gill and ex-Zoopla marketing officer Gareth Helm.

Activist investor Lecram Holdings has been calling for Purplebricks to bring more agency experience to its board.

Gill has 20 years’ experience as a property executive including as finance director and group commercial director of Connells and executive director, of estate agency at LSL.

As well as Zoopla, Helm has more than 30 years’ marketing expertise, largely as a chief marketing officer in high-profile, consumer-facing businesses including McDonald’s, Moneysupermarket, Mars and Homeserve.

A statement from Lecram Holdings, which has a 4.2% stake in Purplebricks, following the AGM yesterday said: “We pleased to see that the chairman has finally done what we have been calling for both, publicly and privately for a while now, and that is to bring some relevant property experience onto the board of a what is, after all, a property agency.

“However, this does nothing to change our previously stated position on the company.”

Lecram Holdings has previously called for Purplebricks chairman Paul Pindar to be replaced by someone with “necessary experience and skills to address urgently the company’s continuing cash burn and operating performance with thin residential estate agency sector.”

All resolutions at the Purplebricks AGM were passed including on pay and the appointment of shareholders but the position of chairman was not put to a vote.