Purplebricks on track for FY expectations, CFO stepping down

Online estate agent Purplebricks said on Thursday that it is on course to meet its full-year expectations as it announced that chief financial officer Neil Cartwright is stepping down due to ill health.

In an update for the year to the end of April, the company said trading in the UK has been strong, with year-on-year instruction growth in the second half up 83%. As a result, it expects the UK business to record an adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation profit for the full year.

Meanwhile, progress in Australia continues to be "very encouraging" with recent launches in Perth and Adelaide, adding to the existing states of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

The company said the recruitment of high quality local property experts (LPEs) remains a central element of the strategy. At the end of April there were 525 LPEs, of which 448 were in the UK and 77 in Australia, exceeding the 360 target set in January last year.

Chief executive Michael Bruce said: "This has been a year of great progress across the board. The UK business continues to go from strength to strength and the decision to increase marketing spend in the spring market has been successful. We have demonstrated that the business model works, with the first expected full year profit in the UK, while our early success in Australia highlights our ability to execute and the broad appeal of the Purplebricks customer proposition."

Purplebricks said Cartwright will be succeeded by James Davies, who was most recently CFO of William Hill Online, with immediate effect. Cartwright will leave the group at the end of June to facilitate a smooth handover.

Chairman Paul Pindar said Davies' "broad international experience in consumer brands, technology and capital markets, will prove invaluable as we continue our rapid evolution".

At 1045 BST, the shares were up 0.6% to 320p.