OREANDA-NEWS. June 23, 2015. Hunters, one of the UK's leading estate agency business, is pleased to announce its intention to seek admission ("Admission") of its shares to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange ("AIM").  Numis Securities is Nominated Adviser and Broker to the Group.  The expected admission date is 02 July 2015.

Hunters operates one of the largest national sales and lettings estate agency businesses in the United Kingdom.  As at 31 May 2015 the Group had 151 branches, of which 140 are franchised branches, with the remaining 11 branches being owned by the Group.  The Group has traded under the Hunters brand since inception in 1992. 

Highlights:

Established brand with a UK-wide network

§ Hunters offers a national, whole of market proposition across both sales and letting with the benefit of a franchise business model, growing at more than 20% per annum.

§ Significant potential for geographic growth.  In addition to this, the Group is not over-exposed to the performance of any one local property market.

Proven track record of organic growth and market consolidation

§ Successful track record of acquiring and integrating acquisitions.

§ Following the Group's strategic move into franchising in 2006, its organic growth has been driven largely by Franchisees.

§ The Company will continue to grow organically through attracting new franchisees, conversions of independents and acquisitions of agency networks.

§ The Directors believe that the Group has an opportunity to grow significantly and that market consolidation can be achieved through both organic growth and acquisition. 

Strength in both sales and lettings

§ The combination of the two income streams reduces cyclicality in the Group's revenues which provides a more stable business.

§ Lettings provides a recurring revenue stream, whilst sales provides exposure to higher gross margin sales commissions.

Proven franchise model

§ Expansion via growth of the Group's franchise network requires limited start-up capital and is therefore more scalable then owned branches.

§ The Group is guaranteed a minimum level of income through the 8% Management Service Fee (MSF) and its monthly minimum fee

Experienced management team

§ The Group's executive management team have a long track record of both operating estate agencies as owners, and developing estate agency franchises.

§ Instrumental in successful track record to date with in-depth understanding of the skills required to manage an estate agency business and the challenges that their Franchisees may encounter.

Commenting on the listing, Kevin Hollinrake, Chairman said:

"Hunters is a highly ambitious company. Our success to date has been born out of our focus on providing our customers with an exceptional service combined with local market knowledge.  The Group is excited about its next chapter as a public company.  This status will help to further enhance the Hunters brand and provide access to capital to accelerate business growth."