The EG Interview: Grenville Turner steers BidX1’s international expansion

“I’m not particularly out there looking for roles at this moment in time, so the normal answer, if the phone rings, is ‘thank you, but no thank you’.” In fairness to Grenville Turner, the 65-year-old former chief executive of Countrywide, he has already said “yes” to a lot. Last year he retired as chair of developer Watkin Jones, just one role on a CV that includes retail banking, high street and online estate agency, student housing, advising government, joining the board of English National Ballet and providing angel investment to a craft beer start-up.  But there’s more to come. We meet to discuss his latest role as chair of online auction house BidX1, which he took up in April. What does it take for a call to get him interested now? “Firstly, it operates in the space that I feel I know quite well – property and, increasingly, international property,” says Turner, who was a founder of Rightmove in 2000 and joined rival Zoopla a decade later. “Secondly, it plays to some of my experience in terms of the digital aspect of property transactions.”  Digital also became a big part of his retail banking career, and he is currently non-executive chair of hybrid online estate agency YOPA, in which Savills and the Daily Mail are investors. “I wouldn’t say digital is exclusively the future, but I think it is a big part of the future of property and property transactions,” he says. BidX1 also appealed because of its private equity ownership, he adds – something many of the businesses he has helped steer over recent years have shared. The most high profile was the rollercoaster ride that is Countrywide. Turner joined the UK’s largest estate agency chain in August 2006 to become group chief executive in January 2007, a time when private equity firms Apollo and 3i, which sought to back a buy-out, were circling.  Apollo won out, with a £1bn deal mostly funded by debt at the height of the housing boom. As the market tanked and Countrywide struggled under its debt burden, Oaktree Capital – the so-called ‘granddaddy of distressed investment’ – ended up in control of the company. With Turner at the helm, Oaktree, Apollo and a third private equity investor – Alchemy – refloated Countrywide in 2013, as the market moved into recovery at the start of an IPO frenzy. “My experience is that you can make decisions far faster and implement them far faster in a private equity environment,” Turner says. Exit options Countrywide’s investors profited handsomely from the £750m float, which raised £220m. Turner himself, who had invested £1.25m of his own wealth in the business at its lowest ebb, saw his stake grow to more than £10m on the first day of trading, according to reports at the time. As you would expect, he is investing in BidX1 too. “I probably wouldn’t get involved without that,” he says with a grin. “I’m fortunate, so it won’t change my life from the financial point of view, but I think it’s important to have a stake in a business because it just strengthens your commitment and it can change your approach.”  This time, the private equity backer is Pollen Street, the London-based firm which made a strategic investment in BidX1 in 2018, becoming a shareholder alongside the auction platform’s founder Stephen McCarthy. Last year, Italian-based doValue, which provides credit management and real estate services for banks and investors in southern Europe, and Oliver Wyman, a global management consulting firm, acquired minority equity stakes.  DoValue bought a 15% equity stake for a €10m capital injection, and entered a strategic partnership with BidX1 to support its growth in southern Europe as an independent platform. Oliver Wyman – which has a prowess in business restructuring – took about 5% in exchange for proprietary technology in the shape of an online platform for the transaction of non-performing loans. Those investments – each with board representation – marked the beginning of another phase of strategic growth for BidX1, targeting expansion of its geographical footprint and product offering.  So what do BidX1’s shareholders – including McCarthy and chief executive Mike Murphy – want from Turner? Presumably his guidance towards the exit at some point – even an IPO? “I think if you work in the world of private equity, one of the things that is always in the back of your mind are the exit options that face you,” Turner says. “It is certainly far too early to rule in or out any of those options.  “But I think the most important thing is that whatever is right for the business, you need a team that is capable of executing on those options. I’ve done take-privates. I’ve done three, four or five IPOs, either as a chair, as a board member or as a CEO. And I’ve done refinancing and I’ve done trade sales.” That breadth of experience is important, he adds, because “if all you have in your kitbag is a hammer, then you’ll be desperately searching for a nail”.  Is there a time frame? “There hasn’t been one even discussed with me. And it wouldn’t be a question at this stage that I would ask. And I think the main reason for that is the board are excited by the growth,” Turner insists. Jet setting BidX1 currently operates across five markets – the UK, Ireland, South Africa, Spain and Cyprus – and last year sold €500m of residential and commercial stock. More than 36,000 bids were placed, with a total value of €1.4bn. Bidders hailed from 33 countries. Expansion in Spain – its newest market – and southern Europe more widely, is a key focus. It sees demand in Portugal, Italy and Greece, where distressed portfolios need unpacking. The challenge is to select the right partners and opportunities, Turner says.  In terms of product offering, BidX1 is working on tech solutions that allow it to be as integrated into the businesses of its vendor clients as they want it to be – clients like private equity firm Cerberus, which again has made its name investing in distressed assets. BidX1 is putting itself in a position to offer them much more than simply executing that final point of sale by electronic auction. For some clients that could mean providing them with a platform to hold and then process the loans and process the transactions.  “Quite often these businesses are not designed to do what they’re doing,” Turner says. “They can acquire loans and portfolios, but they don’t necessarily have the infrastructure [to process them]. Some do, but many don’t, and they will outsource that to other people. “The question is, are we able to provide much of that service through one relationship? And the answer is, ‘we’ll work with you to see whether that’s possible’.”  BidX1 has also been working in partnership with agents Foxtons and Savills to bring assets to market. This could be another growth area for the business.  With such a wealth of experience, a steely focus, relationships with an array of private equity companies and the backbone to invest alongside them, it’s easy to see why BidX1’s shareholders picked up the phone to Turner.  One of the “smartest guys” he has ever worked with or for, he says, is Marc Rowan, chief executive at Apollo. “Marc said to me that the most important thing in private equity is to run the business as if you own it forever,” Turner says. “Doing that means you’ll make the right decisions for the business as opposed to constantly focusing on this year, next year in terms of an exit. And I’ve always tried to make the right decisions by thinking, ‘if I’m still here in five years’ time, would I still be comfortable executing on this particular course of action?’” Looking back At some point, however, you have to hand over the reins. Asked how he feels about the most recent twist in the track for Countrywide, he looks crestfallen. The business he helped salvage, sought to integrate and then led to such a successful IPO was caught out by its debts again, finding itself vulnerable to takeover after amassing more than £90m in loans for acquisitions. Alison Turner, his successor as chief executive, resigned in 2018 after Countrywide’s second profit warning in three months; Peter Long, his successor as chairman, resigned in 2020 after investors rejected a rescue plan that would have handed control of Countrywide to Alchemy. In the end, smaller rival Connells won the bidding war with a £134m takeover offer.   “I look back on it and try to remember the business that we brought through the global financial crisis in really good shape, making a £120m profit and being the largest of its kind in the UK and having a great team,” Turner says.  He won’t comment on its more recent history, but will say that he thinks Connells executive chairman Stephen Shipperley and group chief executive David Livesey are a “class act”. “The acquisition they made was outstanding. I speak to people [at Countrywide] more now than I did in the interim period, and they tell me that the business is in great shape. I genuinely wish them all well.”  His current portfolio of roles – including chairing BidX1 – no doubt comes with plenty of ups, downs and sharp turns. Just hopefully not quite so many. To send feedback, e-mail julia.cahill@eg.co.uk or tweet @EGJuliaC or @EGPropertyNews © Portraits by Tom Campbell