Belvoir Group PLC is a major UK property franchise group, supporting a network of 487 offices across seven distinct brands, specialising in residential lettings, property sales and property-related financial services. The company is listed on the AIM market and has a market cap of £77m.
We were delighted to welcome the CEO, Dorian Gonsalves and CFO Louise George, to a webinar for private investors to introduce the company and talk about the opportunities that lie ahead. A recording of the webinar is available here.
By way of introduction Dorian has been at Belvoir for 18 years and has been in the property sector for over 25 years. He has a deep knowledge of franchising, people management and property. His interests are very much aligned with shareholders as he owns 646k shares and options over a further 348k shares. Louise has 20+ years’ experience working at board level at AIM companies and 9 years at Belvoir. She owns 418k shares and holds options over a further 300k shares. Her expertise covers financial management and franchising. In total management own 5% of the shares with institutions accounting for 50% and private investors 45%.
Belvoir group operates in three areas: Residential Lettings; Financial Services and Estate Agency. Residential Lettings is the core of the group and accounts for 60% of gross profit. The key brands here are Belvoir and Northwood. A typical landlord client will own 1-5 properties and wants someone to manage these for them. On average Belvoir will charge a fee of 10%-12% for this service. Estate Agency contributes 20% of gross profits and is represented by Newton Fallowell and Lovelle. Humphreys was acquired in 2021 and serves the student lettings market and Mr & Mrs Clarke was acquired in 2022 and is a home-managed estate agent. Financial Services also accounts for 20% of gross profits and the company is the largest appointed representative of the Mortgage Advice Bureau.
The Belvoir Group has a strategy of both organic and acquisitive growth and has acquired 6 property businesses and 4 financial Services Businesses. They also help their own franchisees make acquisitions by finding suitable deals, putting the deal together and generally facilitating the transaction. The two covid years saw little activity on this front but the number of transactions doubled to 14 in 2022 and added £300k in Managed Service Fees (MSF). The level of assisted franchise acquisitions is expected…
