Belvoir Share Discussion Threads

[standish11] 04/9/2020 18:10

Interims on Monday.

[riverman77] 31/7/2020 16:32

What a superb little company. Very impressive resilience and solid growth, yet still very cheap. I'm hanging on to these.

[death by donut] 30/7/2020 18:18

fwiw Finncap up target from 169p to 233p

[2wild] 30/7/2020 18:04

'Both revenue and operating profit is comfortably ahead of 2019 with net profit in line with management's pre-Covid expectations'

Almost unbelievably excellent first half performance. Expect these will be tipped and much higher after reinstating the dividend in September.

[danielinnes74] 30/7/2020 08:38

Not got bundles of these but pleased to hold some. Great bounce back after Covid unlike a lot of my others!

[melton john] 30/7/2020 08:08

Great. Should be back on the radar now and reach a wider range of investors.

[firtashia] 30/7/2020 08:05

Super trading statement today.

[metis20] 09/7/2020 09:10

Strategic Estate Agency alliance with The Nottingham Building Society

Belvoir Group PLC (AIM:BLV), the UK's largest property franchise, today announces that it has entered into a strategic alliance with The Nottingham Building Society ('The Nottingham' or the 'Society'). The alliance will see Belvoir's established network of franchisees, trading under the brands Belvoir, Northwood, Newton Fallowell and Lovelle, extending their estate agency and lettings services to new locations sited in co-branded existing building society branches.

Under the agreement, the vast majority of The Nottingham's estate agency and lettings activity will transfer over to the Belvoir Group and the Society will cease trading as its own estate agency and lettings operation for new business by the end of August 2020.

Franchisees within the Belvoir Group will have the opportunity to offer The Nottingham's members high quality estate agency services, either from existing building society branches or from Belvoir's stand-alone offices throughout the UK. In the first instance this opportunity will be extended to a number of franchisees to increase their footprint by taking a presence in up to eleven of The Nottingham branches, to be co-branded, based in Nottingham, Leicester and Cambridge.

Dorian Gonsalves, Chief Executive Officer of Belvoir Group, said:

"This strategic alliance represents a very exciting and mutually beneficial opportunity for both the Belvoir Group and The Nottingham, and is expected to pave the way for further joint initiatives in the future.

"I am confident that this innovative alliance will prove to be a great success, as Belvoir and The Nottingham already share many core principles, including a determination to ensure that the customer remains very much at the heart of all aspects of the business."

[thorpematt] 26/6/2020 10:17

Did nyone view the one to one interview yesterday?

[geovest] 15/6/2020 11:33

Crispfin,

This is how I see the issues you have raised:

MSF from lettings: The company already stated in their trading update that they have done a full rent roll review. Only 5% of rents are in arrears (compared to 2% normally). Discounting the MSF from rent roll by 5% for the year should be more than adequate imo.

MSF from sales: Offices were closed for about 2.5 months. Since reopening, demand has been strong. Even house builders say their forward reservations have recovered to 70% of normal within 2 weeks. My view is to discount MSF from sales to 0 for 3 months and discount by 20-30% for the rest of the year to be on the safe side.

Financial products is slightly different. They don't receive MSF. Instead they receive the fees for arranging the transactions, then pay MSF to MAB and commission to the Advisers. During lockdown they concentrated on renewals and re-mortgaging with the result that March and April was on par with last year. Only about 40% of their income is dependant on new house sales. I would discount net income by 50% for 3 months and 20% for the rest of the year to be on the safe side.

Overheads are mostly salaries and property related cost for the offices they own themselves. Higher employee numbers assume relate to mortgage advisers that are counted as employees as they earn commission. Overheads are scaled anyway with advisers as no sales, no commission. Furthermore, BLV still owns at least 4 of the sales offices directly, therefore employees.

As to your question about going bust. Virtually no chance at all. MSF from the rental income on its own is enough to keep the business solvent. It's like an annuity that keeps paying every month.

Hope that helps. Feel free to ask. Disclosure, I own shares in BLV but have no other dealings or contact with the company.

[crispfin] 14/6/2020 13:22

Quite interested in establishing a position in this one. Valuation is near levels that appeal to me. Just trying to do a bit of analysis on what the business might make this year to get comfortable its not in any risk of going under (which I don't think it is). Think it is only wise to heavily discount MSF from lettings and nearly completely discount sales MSF and income from financial products for 2020.

Trying to get a feel for what makes up the overhead base to see what, if anything, can be cut. Of the £7.5m o/heads in 2019, £5m plus relates to staff. Belvoir has 113 heads on the payroll - much higher than I was expecting. Particularly when you compare to Property Franchise Group which only has about 50 heads!

Would love to know what are they all doing and if the business will change its cost base post Covid...

[phar lap] 21/5/2020 10:38

FinnCap morning note;



April significantly stronger than anticipated.
In a positive AGM statement, Belvoir has confirmed that Q1 was strong and in line with management expectations but more importantly that early indications for April trading are that the franchise networks have shown considerable resilience. Less than 5% of tenants are in arrears on their rent, only a small increase on the 2% seen in normal times,and sales transactions of around a third of usual levels were able to complete. Remortgage activity and income and life protection sales have enabled the financial services division to deliver April sales on a par with 2019. With restrictions on the housing sector now lifted, feedback suggests that the pipeline of agreed house sales has held up well and that there is pent-up demand from tenants looking to move. Cash generation has continued and net debt was £6.9m at 20 May 2020, flat on December 2019 post the £2m cost to acquire Lovelle and a £0.5m VAT deferral. Overall, the Board is confident of achieving its revised forecasts for 2020 and we reiterate our view that Belvoir is in good financial shape to weather the storm and support its franchisees before returning to normal activity

[geovest] 21/5/2020 10:33

Very well run company. It is good that Management never over promises or gets too over optimistic and tend to deliver ahead of expectation. Good value.

[thorpematt] 21/5/2020 09:42

Extraordinary perfomance reported by BLV this AM.

Not wholly un-expected from my POV given the track record, but nevertheless noteworthy.

[roddyb] 13/5/2020 22:16

I'll answer that one for you.

When a resi tenant defaults there are fees for taking possession, the agency fees are added to the debt that the tenant is pursued for. There is the reletting fee. There is the deposit to draw on as well.

Finally, the DIY-er Landlords find out at this stage in the market that they probably need an agent because it is legitimate to withold your rent when the Landlord breaches his covenant. That means in lay speak, when you can't pay - make up a spurious claim against the Landlord for a few extra rent free months. Hence - no agent - you are playing roulette.

BLV is progressing nicely, unlike Foxtons or Countrywide.

[standish11] 07/4/2020 14:21

Belvoir could potentially take a hit in that they obviously would not get the 11% commission if the tenant does not pay the rent. Fingers crossed that few tenants will be unable to meet their lease obligations.

[geovest] 07/4/2020 11:43

OnJohn is an idiot going from board to board posting rubbish

[riverman77] 07/4/2020 11:26

Please don't spread misinformation. BLV runs a capital light franchise model. It does not own the properties it rents out and therefore has no exposure to bad debts. A large part of its earnings are recurring in nature and very resilient.

[geovest] 06/4/2020 16:52

Really? and you think the letting agent takes the bad debt hit?

[onjohn] 06/4/2020 13:11

Lots of bad debts as resi tenants don’t pay