Foxtons launches £3m share buy-back

Foxtons is to buy back up to £3m of its shares by 2 March after finding itself with “excess cash”. In a trading update the agent said it expects its cash balance to exceed more than £30m by 31 December. Broker Numis Securities has been appointed to manage the programme. Foxtons added that it is also anticipating an adjusted operating profit of between £1m and £1.5m for its financial year off the back of an improving revenue trend and tighter cost controls. The firm said total revenue was down by 15% like-for-like to £83.6m for the 11 months to the end of November, but total revenue for October and November was up by 2% to £14.8m compared with the same period last year. Sales revenue for the two months was also up by 11% to £5.4m, but revenue from its lettings business was down 1% to £8m due to a decline in average rents. To send feedback, e-mail louise.dransfield@egi.co.uk or tweet @DransfieldL or @estatesgazette