Countrywide plunges as it warns of new equity issue

Property services outfit Countrywide (LON:CWD) has announced plans to cut its debt levels by around 50% through the issue of fresh equity. Management said that the plans were still at an early stage and that more information would be released along with the interim results in late July, but that they had the support of the firm’s major shareholder and financiers.

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The company also said that the market had been subdued during the first half of the current financial year with transactions also taking longer to complete. As a result, management have once again adjusted their EBITDA guidance for the first half and now believe that it will be roughly £20 million lower than in the same period of the prior year. The company has already taken some steps to cut costs, including reducing head office expenditures by a third. Shares in Countrywide had fallen by 24.08% to 59.60p at 11:30 BST.