12 December 2019 – acquisition and trading update

Belvoir Group, which is the UK’s largest property franchise, has announced that wholly owned Belvoir Group subsidiary Newton Fallowell Limited has agreed to acquire the business and assets of the estate agency business operated by Lovelle Estate Agency Limited and Lovelle Bacons LLP.  This is a privately owned independent predominantly franchised estate agency network operating in Lincolnshire and the Humber region with 19 branches.  The overall consideration is £2.0m, to be satisfied in cash from existing cash reserves.  The acquisition will be earnings accretive in 2020. In the year to 31 March 2019 the acquired business made an operating profit of £500k and at that date had net assets of approximately £100k.  The shares remain cheap and are a BUY.

 

 

 

 

The legal form of the Acquisition is split into the acquisitions of specified parts of two separate legal entities Lovelle Estate Agencies Ltd (“LEA Ltd”) and Lovelle Bacons LLP (“LB LLP”) which are under the common ownership of the vendors.  Completion is expected to take place on 6 January 2020 in respect of LEA Ltd and on 20 January 2020 in respect of LB LLP.  LB LLP will continue to operate its surveying and commercial arms.

 

Current trading

Trading in the second half of the financial year to date continues to be strong, and the Board is confident that the Group is in line to comfortably achieve market expectations for the full year.