Shares in Purplebricks crashed 35% when the stock market opened on Thursday morning, wiping more than \u00a3150m off the company’s value.<\/p>\n
The share price briefly dropped below 100p, which was the price it floated at in December 2015, before recovering some ground to close at 125p.<\/p>\n
The online estate agent had earlier revealed its international businesses were underperforming, causing the group to reduce its revenue guidance by \u00a335m and now expects it to be between \u00a3130m-\u00a3140m.<\/p>\n
Thursday’s slump continued an 18-month decline in the group’s share price. In July 2017 the company had a market value of \u00a31.5bn, but was valued at \u00a3380m at the close.<\/p>\n
The largest shareholders in Purplebricks are Woodford Investment Management, which has 27%, Axel Springer with 12.5%, and co-founder Michael Bruce, who owns 11%.<\/p>\n
Bruce is to take over the day-to-day running of the group’s American business. Its US chief executive Eric Eckardt is leaving after two years after the division missed its revenue targets.<\/p>\n
Purplebricks’ Australian operation has also failed to hit its revenue targets.<\/p>\n