Sell yourself, activist tells ‘underperforming’ Foxtons

London-focused estate agent Foxtons is being urged to sell itself by an activist investor. Converium Capital, a Montreal-based investment fund, said Foxtons had failed to take advantage of a red-hot property market and should sell itself to realise value for shareholders. Converium has built up a 2% stake in Foxtons over the past six months. It has sent a letter expressing its demands to the company’s chair, Nigel Rich. “As the London property market has started to rebound following its Brexit and Covid-19-induced malaise, Foxtons ought to have risen to its potential. Unfortunately, Foxtons has continued to underperform,” wrote Michael Rapps, managing partner of Converium, in the letter. “Converium believes that the better path for Foxtons is to pursue a formal process to sell itself, and we believe that in a sale Foxtons should command a significant premium over today’s depressed share price,” it read. Foxtons’ share price has fallen by around 40% over the last six months, closing last night at 31.5p. Converium believes a sale could bank shareholders as much as 100p per share. At its IPO in 2013, Foxtons shares were valued at 267p each. The FT (£)