MartinCo buys EweMove for £15m to increase online foothold

AIM-listed property company MartinCo bought estate agent EweMove Sales and Lettings and its subsidiary Ewesheep for £15m, to increase its foothold in the online market.

Payment would consist of £5m in cash and £3m from the issue of 2.3m new ordinary shares on AIM at 1p each.

A further £7m would follow, dependent on the acquisition’s performance meaasured in terms of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the financial year ending 31 December 2018.

The acquisition, which will operate as a subsidiary, offers a new growth vector, with the property market capable of accommodating about 800 local property experts which could be filled by EweMove, MartinCo said. The acquisition will also add 90 franchises to the company's 287 trading offices.

For the year ended 30 June, EweMove generated revenues of £1.65m and profit before tax of £120,000, and had no gross assets.

The company said it was attracted to EweMove’s hybrid online and high street model, which now accounts for about 3% of all listings.

Chief executive of MartinCo, Ian Wilson, said: "This acquisition provides the group with a strategically important foothold in the rapidly developing market for online estate agency and letting services. We see the acquisition as complementary to the wider group strategy with the hybrid model, a people business which combines an online platform with truly local presence and customer service focus, differentiating it from other online offerings.

"The acquisition is also a logical development of the group's multi-brand strategy. Our stable of six property brands now includes a UK-wide lettings business, four strong regional players with brand provenance dating back to 1850 and now a hybrid agency.”

EweMove’s management will join MartinCo’s senior executive team and take responsibility for technology and marketing across the company.

David Laycock and Glenn Ackroyd, founders and managing directors of EweMove, said in a joint statement: "MartinCo is a forward looking company and we are hugely excited about the opportunities that this transaction brings.

“We look forward to working with the MartinCo team and are confident that the enlarged group will be able to progress strongly with its broadened range of offerings within the marketplace."

Shares in MartinCo were up 4.69% to 145p at 0825 BST.