BidX1 names entrepreneur Grenville Turner as chairman
Property and tech entrepreneur Grenville Turner is taking on a new role in the sector as chairman of digital auction platform BidX1, signalling ambitions for a new growth phase for the business.
Turner, formerly chief executive of Countrywide, was a founding director of Rightmove and a past director of Zoopla. He has more than 40 years of experience in retail banking, the property sector and online businesses. He was CEO of agency giant Countrywide from 2007 to 2014, during which time he took the group private and subsequently oversaw its return to the public market in 2013 as part of a £1bn+ IPO.
Countrywide – also the parent company of commercial agency Lambert Smith Hampton – was more recently taken back into private ownership by smaller rival Connells in early 2021 for a bid of £130m. The larger company had struggled to reduce its £92m debt, amassed through acquisitions, amid a period of weak performance.
Property and tech entrepreneur Grenville Turner is taking on a new role in the sector as chairman of digital auction platform BidX1, signalling ambitions for a new growth phase for the business.
Turner, formerly chief executive of Countrywide, was a founding director of Rightmove and a past director of Zoopla. He has more than 40 years of experience in retail banking, the property sector and online businesses. He was CEO of agency giant Countrywide from 2007 to 2014, during which time he took the group private and subsequently oversaw its return to the public market in 2013 as part of a £1bn+ IPO.
Countrywide – also the parent company of commercial agency Lambert Smith Hampton – was more recently taken back into private ownership by smaller rival Connells in early 2021 for a bid of £130m. The larger company had struggled to reduce its £92m debt, amassed through acquisitions, amid a period of weak performance.
Prior to Countrywide, Turner held several executive roles at Halifax Bank of Scotland, including chief executive of business-to-business banking and chief executive of Intelligent Finance, a role which saw him develop HBOS’s internet offering into a full-service online banking platform.
He is currently non-executive chairman of Yopa, the hybrid online real estate agency, where he has overseen a strategy that has resulted in the company increasing its share of listings nationally and boosted revenue by 38%.
BidX1 has its origins in a joint venture between Stephen McCarthy’s Space Property Group and Allsop in Ireland in the last property crash, which saw the partners hold large-scale auction events.
Space bought Allsop out in 2017 and rebranded the auction operation as BidX1 to focus solely on online sales. BidX1 entered the UK market in 2018, when it secured strategic investment from private equity firm Pollen Street Capital and bought auction house Andrews & Robertson. It has since expanded into South Africa, Cyprus and Spain.
Last November, the company announced strategic investments from two new shareholders: doValue, the leading servicer in Southern Europe for loan and real estate management services, with €160bn of assets under management; and Oliver Wyman, a leading global management consulting firm.
BidX1 offers both residential and commercial properties on its platform, across a broad range of asset types, which attracted more than 1.5m visitors last year. The fully digital process has proven popular with small to medium investors, with more than 30% of those who purchased a property through the platform last year being repeat buyers.
More than 36,000 bids were placed through the platform in 2021, with bidders hailing from 33 countries. The result was a gross transaction value of €500m (£417m) last year, while the total value of bids placed came in at €1.4bn.
Michael Murphy, who took over as BidX1 chief executive from founder Stephen McCarthy in February, said: “BidX1 will benefit from Grenville’s extensive experience in the property, proptech and retail banking sectors at both executive and board levels, where his strategic vision and digital acumen have helped so many businesses achieve their growth potential.
“Growth in Southern Europe is a near-term priority for BidX1, while in more established markets we will be focused on building strategic partnerships, as well as rolling out adjacent products and services to our buyers and sellers. Grenville’s perspective will be invaluable as we seek to identify new opportunities in existing and new markets, and continue to scale our platform.”
Turner said: “BidX1’s growth trajectory has been impressive, and that growth is underpinned by equally impressive fundamentals: an experienced management team, deep property sector expertise and a digital-first model which puts transparency, efficiency and user-experience at its core.”
Turner will join existing board members McCarthy and Lindsey McMurray, managing partner at Pollen Street Capital, as well as James Scott, a partner at Pollen Street. Vicente Vázquez Bouza, partner in corporate finance and restructuring at Oliver Wyman, and Daniele Della Seta, head of M&A and strategic finance at doValue, joined BidX1’s board of directors following the recent investments.
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Photo © BidX1
