After announcing earlier this year their intention to exit the Australian market, Purplebricks have confirmed to investors that the group will withdraw from the US business which began trading in 2017.
In the financial year just ended (April 30) Group revenue increased by 55 per cent to GBP 136 million and UK revenue was up 21 per cent to GBP 90.1 million.
But the company’s operating loss for the year ended April 2019 doubled from FY 2018, amounting to GBP 52.3 million.
The Canadian business contributed GBP 23.7 million of revenue to the result.
Former Chief Operating Officer and now CEO Vic Darvey remained upbeat about the opportunity to focus on the core businesses of the UK and Canada.
“It’s been another year of strong revenue growth and we continue to build a highly relevant disruptive brand and defensible position in the market.
“We have taken the difficult decisions to exit our businesses in both Australia and the US as it is very important that we now focus our resources on the UK and Canada, where we have a strong established presence and where there are significant opportunities to grow market share and deliver profitable growth for shareholders.”
Mr Darvey also said that both exits would be conducted in an orderly manner with the expectation of completion by the end of this year.
Purplebricks stock priced gained 3 per cent yesterday afternoon as shareholders welcomed the decision to focus on the company’s more established markets, but remains below the company’s 2015 listing price of 100p.
