OnTheMarket down as losses persist

AIM-listed property search portal OnTheMarket (LON:OTMP) has seen its share price drop by 4.19% to 80p (as of 12:00 BST) after its post tax loss for the six months to 31st July widened by 22%. Revenues for the period were up by 14%, but this was outpaced by rising costs as the company extended its IT and sales teams.

CEO Ian Sprigett commented: “Our results for the six months to 31 July 2019 were in line with our expectations.

“Our recent guidance indicated that agents had not committed to full-tariff, long-term paying contracts at the pace expected, however they have responded positively to the changes to our offering.

“We continue to convert agents to full-tariff, long-term contracts with share issuance. 42% of branches signed to new paying contracts since conversion began have been under these contracts. Following the share issuance arising from these contracts, over 3,000 agent firms operating over 6,000 UK agency branches will be OnTheMarket shareholders, increasing the strong core membership around which we are building OnTheMarket. Their backing for their portal in a variety of practical ways is key to creating an edge over our rivals in the portals market.

“We have recently supplemented our offering to agents with the introduction of lower-priced, short-term offers, with the aim of maximising the number of paying agents and migrating all to full-tariff contracts progressively. Take-up of these short-term offers has led to an encouraging acceleration in the rate at which agents are converting onto paying contracts.

“The continued strong growth in the operational performance of the OnTheMarket.com portal provides encouragement for the future. We have delivered another set of record-breaking traffic and leads results for our estate and letting agent shareholders and customers“.