Purplebricks loss narrows in first half as revenue grows
Pre-tax losses at hybrid online estate agent Purplebricks narrowed in the six months to the end of October as revenue grew and sales exceeded its full-year target.
PURPLEBRICKS
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The company reported a pre-tax loss of £2.8m compared to a loss of £6.4m the year before. Meanwhile, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation came in at £300,000 compared to a loss of £6m as revenue grew to £18.7m from £7.2m, exceeding the group's sales target of £18.6m.
Average revenue per customer was up 20.6% to £1,000 and Purplebricks sold and completed on £2.59bn of property in the first half of 2017 compared to £2.77bn for the full-year 2016.
Purplebricks also said on Monday that its launch in Australia was more successful than any of the initial regional launches in the UK.
Chief executive officer Michael Bruce said: "Our strong results are testament to the seismic shift that is underway in the estate agency market. We continue to win over an increasing number of customers by offering them a complete and seamless high quality estate agency experience at an attractive fixed fee. I am especially proud that currently we are agreeing a sale every 16 minutes, 24 hours a day and the number of properties sold in the first half is similar to the total number of properties sold during the whole of the previous year.
“These results demonstrate that the business model is working, with the UK generating a maiden half-year adjusted EBITDA profit whilst growing market share.”
The company acknowledged that the UK market backdrop is tough, but said it continues to have a confident outlook for the future.
“We have momentum, a superior, low fixed cost flexible business model and a strong balance sheet, which we will leverage further in the early part of the busier spring market so as to build on our success to date."
At 1010 GMT, the shares were up 21% to 127.70p.