Purplebricks FY losses more than halve as revenue surges

AIM-listed hybrid estate agent Purplebricks said on Thursday that its full-year losses more than halved as revenue surged and the company lifted its UK revenue expectations for the current year.

In the year to the end of April, operating losses fell to £6m from £11.9m in 2016 as revenue jumped to £46.7m from £18.6m. In the UK, revenue was up 132% to £43.2m and the number of local property experts rose 118% to 448.

The UK business reported its first full year operating profit and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of £1.7m, versus a loss of £9.7m a year ago. Purplebricks sold and completed on over £5.8bn of UK property and its online market share increased to 72% from 62%, with a sale agreed every nine minutes.

Chief executive Michael Bruce said: "This has been a very successful year in the early development of the Purplebricks model and brand. We have materially grown our national footprint and have built a growing brand awareness and reputation for delivering customers a more convenient, transparent and cost effective service.

"In tandem with our growth we have invested in the business and strengthened the management team. This has allowed us to significantly grow our number of positive reviews on the independent review site Trustpilot (currently with over 20,000). We have retained our rating of excellent. Purplebricks is now in a strong position to become the no.1 estate agent in the UK for both listings and sales. "

As far as the outlook is concerned, the company said it is stepping up its recruitment of local property experts to meet demand and increasing its UK marketing spend in the second half by around £3.5m year-on-year, so UK revenue expectations for the current year are lifted by approximately £80m, up significantly from the £43m reported for FY17.

For Australia, expectations for revenue of £12m remained unchanged following good progress to date.

At 0910 BST, the shares were up 4.3% to 416p.