Purplebricks’ share price has continued falling after it informed the markets that it is up for sale last week.
The beleaguered agency’s share price opened at a new low of 7.69p on Monday morning, dropped to 7.41p during trading and closed at 7.70p.
The online agent effectively put itself up for sale last week with the launch of a strategic review last Friday, stating that it had no offers yet.
A former Purplebricks agent has since made a low-ball offer for the troubled brand on social media.
Simon Taylor, who was a local property expert for Purplebricks covering East London for five years before join eXp in March 2020, has put a cheeky post on LinkedIn offering £1 for the brand.
He said: “I’d like to publicly announce my intention to make a cash offer for the ‘fixer upper’ Purplebricks subject to contract.
“My cash offer for the company is £1.00.
“With limited tangible assets, a battered brand and cumulative losses, it’s hard to fathom how the company can be worth much more.”
He also revealed an eight-point list of changes he would make:
1. The model will be delisted with a pivot to a truly self employed, franchise model. In its current format, the model cannot sustain its wage bill.
2. The precise structure of a new model would be done in consultation with several ex-Purplebricks agents to ensure the mode is fit for purpose from an agent perspective.
3. The customer will not come first. Agents in the field will, closely followed by the customer.
4. Agents / true franchise territory owners will have to pay to acquire a franchised area for a period of five years. Within each area, franchise owners will be able, encouraged and supported to build a team and employ their own agents in the field.
5. No more ‘pay anyway.’ There will be a small upfront marketing cost with a competitive fee payable on a successful completion. Likely in the region of 0.75% - 1%.
6. Agents will be able to earn a good income from eight to 10 instructions per month. No need for 20 plus per month.
7. Post-sales support will ‘once and for all’ be taken with the seriousness it deserves. A dedicated team will work in close contact with the agents on the ground. It’ll be proactive rather than reactive.
8. The need for tiers of pen pusher managers and directors will be obsolete.
He added: “With a model adjustment, improved leadership and a happy and fulfilled pool of talented agents, the business can survive and thrive.
“Proof of funds for the proposed purchase can be provided upon request.”
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What’s next? An ex Woolworths employee claims things would have been better if they sold more pick ‘n’ mix.
I’m really not sure what to make of this.
Does EAT think this is a genuine/serious article?
I would say not, so why is it here?
If you think it is, I heard a exp agent now wipes there @$$ with 3ply toilet paper and is now claiming they’ve made the big time since making the switch to the model.
Maybe that’s tomorrows headline
Although I would agree that some points Simons made here are valid, they are quite obvious.
What is it with these exPurple brickers who now think they hold the torch for all estate agents, the irony here does makes me laugh.
His microsite is showing 4 properties with an accumulative value of 1.6m. I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s setting the world alight himself, much to be said about most of his current colleagues too so maybe with pb’s recent performances it would a situation not too dissimilar I’m afraid. I would agree it’s desperate times for PB currently but I don’t think your attempt will be entertained.
Good luck though, they’ve done crazy things before
For an experienced agent I would have expected more of a sense of humour…
Great Article
To be fair, when looking at a £20m loss, £1 is fair (like the sale of Prudential E.A.in 1980's).
Although, I'm not sure Simon, 3 yrs at EXPO (who has zero properties for sale, 4 under offer) is the right candidate to take on PB.
And point 9, and apologize for all the fee bashing commisery advertisements.
PB committed another nail in the coffin when they revealed it could be sold, how laughable now the valuation is a £1. I actually dont think its worth a £1.
Without the backing it is hopelessly insolvent.
I would not like to get into a bidding war so it's £1.03p for me to take over. All joking aside when put to the share holders or the liquidation team I would not be telling anyone my plan before. Let's see if I can win the bid
Not sure even worth £1
And I wouldn't take it it they paid me
What was that about "comisery" ??? LOL
Meaningless and somewhat disingenuous comments by "potential acquirer" who has at least achieved the oxygen of some publicity - I'm sure he'd run a mile if they actually said yes!
The business is losing several hundreds of thousands of pounds a week which would need covering plus the costs of restructuring as he suggests.
I don't see major shareholders such as Axel Springer rushing to consider!
BTW is his offer subject to contract or due diligence? If not could be very expensive!
Yes Michael, number one on the list is getting to break-even and or profit on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
Hundreds of millions has poured through the coffers of Purplebricks from original angel investment, listing on AIM, Axel Springer investment (ouch those shares soon dropped in value) etc, added to by nearly nine years of upfront revenue from what on the surface was going to be a cash cow, no physical offices, few PAYE employees, and revenue upfront.
The problem of course is if you are online ... the cost to keep the brand alive TV and other media advertising means that the cost of acquisition of inventory is more than your revenue.
If I had met Michael & Kenny back in the day, I would have asked them like all proptech founders for the financials, looked at the commercial ideation model and said, it will alaways burn cash, unless you automate large parts of the process with really great tech, instaed all the cash generated has been used to pay the c-suite, and finance follies like sponsoring the Olympics or going to other countries squandering valuable revenue.
Just a Countrywide PLC was a fatally wounded dinosaur as it failed to adopt Proptech, which was quoted in the Telegraph. Purplebricks also despite its pretence of being a digital solution, if you peeled back the dragon scales, the frame work below is just a pale copy of existing estate agency operations, whereas the whole idea of tech is to re-imagine how things are done.
Look at what Uber did for the vertical of taxis etc. Software can change consumer behaviour, but not if it is designed to replicate how agency was being done pre cloud computing in 2004.
I would not like to get into a bidding war so it's £1.03p for me to take over. All joking aside when put to the share holders or the liquidation team I would not be telling anyone my plan before. Let's see if I can win the bid
According to their last sixth monthly figures they had 'Cash and cash equivalents at 31 October 2022 of £31.3m (30 April 2022: £43.2m), reflecting the loss in the period' so they are still burning £2M a month, which would at that rate mean by the end of Feb, they will be another £8M down, and by their year end down to £20M. With a class action pending possibly with a £5M plus fine, plus the legals, without a further round of funding, by Christmas 2023, the company will be without cash to continue.
Given that only 99,000 properties have been sold sstc by all agents in the first two months of 2023, down from 120,000 in the same period last year, this cash guzzling cow is going to find it a hard grind to get front loading cash from a smaller pie of vendors. So the cash may run out sooner.
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