16th May 2019 10:54
LONDON (Alliance News) - Belvoir Lettings PLC on Thursday reported the retirement of co-founder and Chair Mike Goddard and said that it remains confident for 2019 following "robust" first quarter trading.
For the three months ended March, trading was described as being "robust". The property lettings company emphasised it was "outperforming" in its three key markets: property sales, residential lettings and financial services.
Belvoir explained management services fees from lettings had grown 6.3% on the year prior. This was considerably ahead of the 1.2% growth from the UK rental index market. Property sales management services fees also jumped 10.3% on the year before, despite property transactions falling 1.5%.
In financial services, net banking revenue was up 20% on the year prior on a like-for-like basis.
Belvoir added that acquisitions remained "integral" to its growth strategy. In 2019 to date, Belvoir supported six of its franchisees to acquire local competitors through its assisted acquisition programme. This added a total of GBP1.2 million in network revenue and GBP100,000 in managed services fees per annum.
A further GBP2.0 million in acquisitions through the programme were still in process, with a "strong" pipeline of further opportunities.
"The board is very encouraged by trading in the first quarter with our franchise model proving that, even in a challenging year for the property market, it has the resilience to overcome and indeed benefit from changes in the sector," Belvoir Chief Executive Dorian Gonsalves said.
In addition, Belvoir announced Chair Mike Goddard has retired from the firm to be replaced by Michael Stoop.
"Belvoir was founded by Mike in 1995 with his wife Stephanie, and I have had the pleasure of working alongside Mike since 2005," Gonsalves added. "Through his entrepreneurial spirit and his passion for franchising, Belvoir has become the largest property franchise group in the UK. I would like to express my personal and the board's sincere gratitude for all that Mike has done and achieved as founder, CEO and chairman over the past 24 years."
Shares in Belvoir were 1.3% higher at 119.00 pence on Thursday.
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