OnTheMarket plc (LON:OTMP), the majority agent-owned company which operates the OnTheMarket.com property portal, has provided the following statement ahead of its Annual General Meeting to be held today.
Christopher Bell, Non-Executive Chairman, will make the following remarks at the AGM:
“Our financial year to 31 January 2021 was a year of strong performance and considerable progress. We were delighted to achieve our first year of profitability since admission to AIM, notwithstanding the onset and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is particularly pleasing to report that, from the foundations established, our strong performance has continued in the current year with further operational progress made and trading in line with the Board’s expectations.
We have a clear vision in place to build a differentiated, technology-enabled property business providing services for agents, housebuilders, advertisers and consumers that offers ‘best in class’ products and platforms across the broader property marketplace. Our strategy will be focussed around four key pillars, consisting of:
· an engaging and relevant property portal;
· software solutions to meet evolving customer needs;
· the provision of market leading data and market intelligence; and
· a leading property communications and marketing capability, both on behalf of, and in conjunction with, our customers.
We have previously reported on early but significant progress towards delivering our vision, including technological and commercial developments such as:
· the acquisition of the remaining 80% of Glanty Limited that we did not already own bringing a range of additional products, services and capabilities;
· commercial partnerships with Reach plc, Canopy and Sprift Technologies to support our offering; and
· the in-house development and release of new products and services to drive greater interaction between agents and consumers .
Our focus now is integrating these developments into our proposition and to maximise the opportunities they present. At the same time, we will continue to explore new partnerships and roll out further enhancements in order to continue differentiating our offering and provide ever increasing value to our customers.
Early indications of the success of these initiatives can be seen in key operational metrics:
· At 30 June 2021, total advertisers1 had grown to 13,289, an increase of 4.5% from 31 January 2021, principally due to an increase in agency branches listing, up 4.9% to 11,169.
· Visits2 to the portal in June 2021 were the second highest achieved by the Company, at 28 million.
· Throughout June, the portal generated more than 1.8 million leads – an average of 137 per advertiser, an increase of 5.4% from the average of 130 leads per advertiser per month for the six months ended 31 January 2021, a period that benefitted from the intense market activity following the lifting of restrictions in May last year.
Residential property markets remain very active. Despite the changes to the stamp duty holiday from the end of June, our Property Sentiment Index launched earlier this month highlights a continued pent-up demand, a re-evaluation of housing needs arising from the impact of COVID-19 and continuing low mortgage interest rates.
We will continue to invest in the business to take advantage of our growth opportunities whilst remaining focussed on careful management of cash. Our balance sheet remains strong and at the end of June, our cash balance, after completing the acquisition of Glanty Limited, stood at £9.7 million and we had no borrowings.
We would like to thank our agent shareholders and all our loyal advertisers for their continued support, as well as our colleagues for their dedication and hard work in challenging times. We continue to strive to provide the highest levels of service and innovation to our customers, at sustainably fair prices.”
1 Advertisers are either estate and lettings agent branches or new homes developments listed at OnTheMarket.com.
2 Visits comprise individual sessions on OnTheMarket.com’s web based portal or mobile applications by users for the period indicated as measured by Google Analytics.
