THE CHAIRMAN of estate agency Purplebricks should be removed following its "dreadful" annual results, a key shareholder said yesterday.

Lecram Holdings, which owns 4.2 per cent of the company, yesterday called for the company to take action and for chairman Paul Pindar to be removed after it reported disastrous losses and plummeting revenue for the last financial year.

The firm registered a loss of £42m in the financial year up to April, down from a £6.8m profit in 2021, while its group revenue was down 23 per cent to £70m and its gross profit fell 27 per cent.

Purplebricks announced adjusted ebitda loss of £8.8m, which it says was driven by lower activity and a move to a new operating model.

Glenn Cooper, chair of Harrier Capital which advises on Lecram's 4.2 per cent Purplebricks stake, decried the "dreadful" results.

"The leadership of Purplebricks has admitted to errors in its marketing, lettings, customer conversion, employment model and failed expansion into Germany, with the result that over £30m of shareholder funds were wasted in the last financial year," Cooper said.

He added that while plans for a new CEO and CFO were in place, "we wonder why it has taken so long to act and are concerned at the lack of market experience at board level, and the fact that the chairman who presided over this terrible performance is still at the helm."

"We will be meeting the company later this month and will reiterate our call for a change of chairman, and our willingness to take action to bring about this change."

Helena Marston, CEO of Purplebricks said the poor performance coincided "alongside a housing market which played against us" but regardless, "our performance was not good enough". She said the firm was already taking "decisive action". Among measures are a cost reduction programme to make £13m in savings. Purplebricks was approached for comment.

(c) 2022 City A.M., source Newspaper