OnTheMarket Share Price Jumps on the Back of Healthy Trading Statement

The British #3 property portal OnTheMarket has had its ups and downs since its debut on the London Stock Exchange in 2018 at a price of 165GBX. Its share price has bumbled along at around the 100GBX per share mark for much of its time on the free market, falling to a nadir of 30GBX at the height of the pandemic in March. Now though things just might be looking up for the portal's share price as, along with many property portals around the world, confidence in its business has translated into sustained gains in price since March.

Yesterday saw OnTheMarket's price hit 145GBX on the back of an announcement by the agent-backed company that business has been going better than expected. The update concerned revenue and adjusted operating profit for the 12-month period to 31 January 2021 which is reported to be no less than £22.5m and £1.5m respectively. The portal company has also stockpiled cash reserves of some £10.9 million which is expected to be plunged into marketing campaigns in the new year to drive consumer awareness and challenge Rightmove and Zoopla.

Clive Beattie, OTM’s chief financial officer, commented: “As we approach our financial year end, I am pleased to report on a strong performance since our interim results announcement, achieved through the continued hard work and commitment of my colleagues and the support of our loyal customers.

“Our revenue growth and financial discipline form the strong platform from which we will continue to provide increasing value to our customers, whilst our agent ownership and support, and our commitment to fair pricing, will continue to differentiate OnTheMarket."

The company recently became one of few leading property portals around the world to appoint an ex-agent to its top position in the form of ex-Foxtons man Jason Tebb. On joining, Tebb vowed to shake things up at the agent-friendly portal and will have his work cut out for him with new well-heeled challenger Boomin set to make an entrance in January.