Rightmove makes wrong moves as estate agents defect to rival sites
THE heat was on Rightmove today as slowing profit growth and a decline in the number of estate agents listing showed its days could be numbered as the go-to property porn website.
The firm reported its slowest full-year profit growth in nine years, despite rising 10% to £203 million, and the total number of agents listing fell 2% to 17,328. Analysts were quick to question whether Rightmove’s smaller competitors had now caught up.
Peel Hunt analyst Jessica Pok said: “We believe the competitive environment is getting tougher as OnTheMarket continues to add to the number of agencies listing on their site, while Zoopla focuses on making the customer experience better.”
She added that slowing profit growth reflected how badly the property market has been damaged by Brexit: overall housing transactions fell 3% last year.
A growing sense of unease around the firm was compounded by chairman Scott Forbes who said that after a “significant minority” of shareholders opposed his re-election as chairman at the annual meeting in May, he would resign May next year. Investors disap- prove of his having so many other jobs: he is chairman at research giant Ascential, renewable energy business Innaol Group, and US car-selling website Cars. com. Shares fell 28.9p, or 6%, at 453p.
One company unaffected by Brexit is recruiter Robert Walters. The firm warned that uncertainty around Brexit will keep hurting its business in the UK, especially in investment banking, but it does most of its business in Asia so investors were unperturbed.
Overall profit grew 14% to £392 million for the full-year, with Europe and Asia posting the strongest growth. Revenue grew 6% to £1.23 billion.
Overall, the FTSE 100 was up 44.12 points at 7118.85 as luxury designer Burberry made gains in the wake of stellar numbers from Sotheby’s in the US overnight, boosted by sales of watches, wine and art. One broker said: “Look how the auction houses are doing to see how the economy is performing. If the high net worths are buying paintings they will also be buying handbags and expensive clothes.” Burberry shares climbed 34p to 1922p.
Further down the market Neil Woodfo rd ’s f l a g s h i p Wo o d fo rd E q u i t y Income Fund has offloaded its holdings in five unlisted stocks to sister company Woodford Patient Capital Trust in a £73 million share deal.
Investors were unimpressed and Woodfrod Patient Capital edged down 0.2p to 83.4p.
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