Axel Springer increases participation in Purplebricks

Axel Springer this month is increasing its minority interest in Purplebricks from around 12.4 percent to approximately 26.6 percent. The German publisher is investing 49 million euros, buying 43.7 million shares of Purplebricks from various founding shareholders at a price of GBP 1.00 per share.

Purplebricks was launched in 2014 and operates purplebricks.co.uk. Purplebricks is one of the leading British hybrid real estate agent platform. Purplebricks also owns the leading hybrid real estate business in Canada and operates selectively in the US.

The first investment from Axel Springer in Purplebricks started around 1 year ago, in March 2018, when Axel Springer paid a price per share of 3.60 GBP, and gain a participation of 11.5 percent.

Purplebricks has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since December 2015 and is currently valued at 869 million GBP (995 million EUR as at 26 March 2018).

“Under the leadership of its founder Michael Bruce, Purplebricks has created a highly innovative digital real estate platform and has become the clear market leader in the UK in a short space of time. For Axel Springer, this minority stake offers the opportunity to participate in an innovative, fast growing business model in new markets,” said at the time Andreas Wiele, President Classifieds Media Axel Springer SE.