Purplebricks losses rise as sales are questioned

ShareS in online estate agent

Purplebricks were looking a little grey yesterday as losses widened amid an ongoing row over how many houses it actually sells.

The firm, which does not charge housebuyers commission, made losses of £21.3m in its 2018 financial year – much more than the £5.1m it lost the previous year.

and though it claims 81pc of listings on its site ‘sold’ in the 12 months to april, this also included exchanges and sales that were still subject to contract.

anthony Codling, an analyst at investment bank Jefferies, said: ‘Purplebricks continues to tell us it sells lots of houses, without backing up that rhetoric with actual figures. Sold subject to contract does not mean sold.’

Jefferies reiterated its advice to investors to steer clear of the shares, saying that Purplebricks’ ‘model remains unproven’.

Shares fell by up to 6.3pc in early trading, but later recovered to end the day up 0.1pc, or 0.2p, at 318.8p. Purplebricks, which has painted itself as the saviour of homeowners sick of traditional estate agents, also revealed that the number of ‘local property experts’ it employs was down to 630 from 650 six months ago.

The online estate agent focused on the fact that it had built up UK profit from £1.1m to £6.5m.

Its chief executive Michael Bruce said: ‘We have doubled revenues in tough markets... as we continue to win over consumers.’

a bigger hit came for cyber-security company Sophos, as its shares slumped an alarming 20.9pc, or 128.9p, to 486.6p.

Its update for the three months ending in June showed that billings grew by only 6pc, or an even weaker 2pc if currency fluctuations were eliminated. Nicholas hyett, an analyst at hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘Sophos is meant to be a high-growth stock, so a 2pc underlying increase in billings was never going to cut the ice with investors.’

Britain’s blue chip companies fared a little better on the whole, as the FTSE 100 ended the day up 0.4pc at 7603.22 points.

ahead of the introduction of tariffs in the US and China today, trade fears kept stocks such as the major miners among the biggest risers. russian firm Evraz topped the rankings, as investors got excited when it said it could spend more than £227m on dividends this year. It shares rose 3pc, or 14.6p, to 504.8p.

Anglo American followed close behind, closing 2.8pc higher, up 47.2p at 1721.6p, helped along by the sale of its 33pc interest in the Bafokeng rasimone platinum mine for £104m.

Sterling rose to its highest level in more than a week just before lunch, after Bank of england governor Mark Carney sounded upbeat on UK growth at a summit in Manchester. By the evening, it had slipped back to around $1.32.

Meanwhile, a row was breaking out at housing and social care firm

Mears Group. German fund manager Shareholder Value Management, which owns 8.9pc of the business, demanded that chairman Bob holt step down.

The firm said holt – who holds ten board seats including six chairmanships – ‘is unable to devote sufficient time to the company’.

It also claimed that the fact he had been at the company for 21 years meant he was not independent, and that this was leading to poor board decision-making.

It proposed andy hogarth, the former boss of Staffline, which gets people off benefits and into work, as a replacement. Shares ended the day up 0.3pc, or 1p, at 346p.

Drug discovery company Hvivo’s shares were given a shot in the arm as it revealed fund manager Neil Woodford had upped his firm’s stake to more than 24pc.

hvivo ended the day up 17.4pc, or 15p, at 101p.