7th Jul 2021 15:34
(Alliance News) - Foxtons Group PLC Chair Ian Barlow will step down by the end of 2021, the company said Wednesday, after a major shareholder called for "radical" changes to the board following years of share price declines.
Barlow will step down a year before the usual nine-year term for company directors ends, having been a board member since the London estate agent's IPO in September 2013. He took the role of chair in March 2020. Foxtons said it will start the search for his successor.
Under the UK corporate governance code, a director is not considered to be independent if they serve for more than nine years.
Shares in Foxtons were down 1.7% to 58.00 pence in London.
Foxtons has faced investor dissatisfaction after years of share price declines since a peak of almost 400p in 2014. The Times reported in June that Hosking Partners called for "radical board-level changes" and wrote to Barlow. Hosking owns an 11% stake in Foxtons worth around GBP21.5 million based on the current share price.
In April, shareholders voted 40% against a pay plan for directors which included GBP958,000 in bonuses for Chief Executive Nic Budden.
Barlow said: "A series of challenges to the London property market since the Brexit referendum, compounded more recently by the pandemic, have impaired our recent trading performance.
"However, the business has huge potential and I am confident that the refreshed growth strategy, agreed by the board last year and set out in the capital markets day presentation in June, will result in a substantial rebound in performance.
"Our strategy will take time to deliver and with only one further year to serve under UK governance rules I consider this is the right time to hand over to a successor to oversee its execution."
Josh Ponniah, a partner at Catalist Partners which owns 2.3% of Foxtons, said: "We hope the company takes this opportunity to supplement the board with specific industry expertise and the entrepreneurialism required to ensure Foxtons is able to restore the market share lost since 2015, pursue growth in new areas, leverage its technological advantage and realise the untapped potential we see in the business."
By Ivan Edwards; [email protected]
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