New boss has his work cut out to build up Purplebricks
HE may only just be getting his feet under the desk, but Purplebricks’ Vic Darvey will be straight in at the deep end this week.
The new chief executive of the ‘hybrid’ estate agent was promoted from chief operating officer to chief executive in May, just a few months after joining the business.
He replaced founder Michael Bruce after a disastrous stint in Australia, which the firm has now quit, and the US, which is under review.
Darvey’s job on Wednesday when the company reports its annual results is to convince investors – who include under-fire fund manager Neil Woodford – that the Aim company is back on track.
Its shares have dropped to below £1, its flotation price from 2014, for the first time in more than three years.
As well as tough trading, the company has been hit by the ‘Woodford effect’.
The fund manager has frozen his Equity Income fund and is having to sell down shares in that portfolio – down to 19 per cent in the case of Purplebricks.
Woodford may have trouble offloading more Purplebricks shares this week if recent trading has got any worse.
MERLIN Entertainments, the owner of Thorpe Park, Alton Towers and London attractions including the London Eye, has agreed a sale to the Danish billionaire family behind Lego and other investors for £4.8billion.
The real winner is ValueAct Capital, the US activist investor which has made a name for itself in recent years for shaking up British companies such as Rolls-Royce.
ValueAct had been pushing for Merlin to go private so it has finally got its way. It first took a stake in Merlin in February last year and built up a 9.3 per cent holding.
Helped by Friday’s share price surge, it looks to have made around £100million on its Merlin bet. Magical investing.
A SNIPPET in a trading update from AIM-listed Victoria Oil & Gas (VOG) reveals it is the target of legal action by Cameroon Holdings Limited (CHL) – because VOG suspended a royalty payment from its Logbaba gas project in Cameroon to CHL.
VOG has a 35 per cent interest in CHL, but 43 per cent of it is owned indirectly by HJ Resources Limited – a company ultimately controlled by VOG’s former chief executive Kevin Foo and his family.
Foo was booted out in April – a condition of new funding from investors, who were unhappy with the royalty deal. Now, it seems Foo is not happy about the deal ending – having pocketed millions since it started in 2009.