Purplebricks shareholders overwhelmingly back £1 deal
Purplebricks shareholders have voted strongly in favour to sell the online estate agency for £1 to rival Strike.
At meeting held today (Friday 2), 91% of votes were in favour of the deal with Strike, a company backed by Carphone Warehouse and TalkTalk founder Sir Charles Dunstone.
Purplebricks’ name will now be changed to Bricks Newco plc and it will be delisted from trading on AIM on June 16.
The Solihull-based company put itself up for sale in February, to see if new ownership could steer the struggling firm in the right direction.
Activist investor Lecram Holdings had offered to acquire the entire issued, and to be issued, share capital of Purplebricks at a price of just 0.5p per share, valuing the company at £153.4m on Friday (26), but withdrew its offer, citing that the financial condition of Purplebricks was found to be significantly worse than expected.
Purplebricks said the Strike deal was the only one which had the “certainty of funding and necessary speed of delivery” and was supported by all its directors as well as major backer Axel Springer.
Chairman Paul Pindar, said whilst he was “disappointed with the financial value outcome” this deal “provided a better return for shareholders, with the same certainty of funding and speed of delivery necessary to provide the stability the company needs”.
