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Foxtons is the Rothschild mergers and acquisitions bank working with its brokerage Deutsche Numis and Singer Capital Markets amid mounting pressure from shareholders to sell itself for £160m by the end of this year. Appointed a house.
The move, reported in the Sunday Times yesterday, comes after the company’s largest shareholder publicly called on the property brokerage group’s board to find a buyer.
Canadian investors Conbellium Capital, which owns about 5.3% of the business, and UK-based Milkwood Capital (5%) have both said they want Foxtons to find a buyer for the business.
Rhys Somerton, who runs Milkwood Capital, said: “We hope this unique asset will be sold this year.”
Two years ago, Rothschild advised on the sale of Leaders Romans Group to US-based private equity investor Platinum Equity.
In May 2022, Conbellium Capital also issued a letter to Foxtons’ board suggesting that a sale could result in up to a 200% premium on the company’s share price.
At the time, the company said, “The combination of poor business results and inadequate capital allocation led to understandably poor stock price performance.”
“Shareholders have lost more than £650m, or 87% of their investment, over the past eight-and-a-half years.”
At the time of Foxtons’ IPO in September 2013, the company’s market value was £753m. The company’s market capitalization currently stands at approximately 156.67 million pounds.
The company has been in the red every year since 2017 and 2021 due to a decline in the number of home sales in London.
However, the rental business is doing well as rents in the capital have risen in recent years.
Pre-tax profits for the year to December 2023 fell 34% to £7.9m, according to a trading update published by the company in March.
A Foxtons spokesperson said: “The Foxtons Group has a dedicated financial advisor. Rothschild is the group’s financial advisor, along with Singer Capital Markets and Deutsche Numis, which is also the group’s joint corporate broker.”
Foxtons fully digitizes both sales and rental processes