(Alliance News) - online estate agent Purplebricks PLC on Wednesday reported a widened annual loss despite revenue rising sharply, as it revealed plans to exit the US market.
The troubled AIM listing previously had announced plans to leave the Australian market, leaving it operating only in the UK and Canada.
Purplebricks said sales grew by 55% to GBP136.5 million in the financial year that ended April 30 from GBP87.8 million the year before. However, the company's pretax loss widened to GBP56.0 million from GBP29.2 million.
This was as administrative & establishment costs nearly doubled to GBP61.0 million from GBP35.1 million, while marketing costs increased substantially to GBP70.7 million from GBP42.1 million.
"With a base of clear brand leadership in both the UK and Canada and a differentiated, technology-led proposition driving business model advantages, we now have a clear plan to unlock the next wave of growth and extend our market leadership," said Chief Executive Vic Darvey.
"We have taken the difficult decisions to exit our businesses in both Australia and the US as it is very important that we now focus our resources on the UK and Canada, where we have a strong established presence and where there are significant opportunities to grow market share and deliver profitable growth for shareholders," he added.
In Australia, market conditions became "increasingly challenging". A decision was taken in May to close the business, with this due to be completed before the end of the year.
In the US, meanwhile, the company said it still sees a "significant opportunity" to disrupt the market, but this would take significantly more management time and resources than the company is able to presently commit.
In the US during the year, revenue rose to GBP11.3 million from GBP1.6 million, but the company's operating loss there gapped to GBP34.1 million from GBP16.8 million.
In May, Purplebricks said it would begin a strategic review of its US operations in order to examine both the opportunities and risks associated with expansion in the region.
Looking ahead, the company said it is "excited" to drive forward its UK and Canadian businesses and reiterated its medium term objective to gain a 10% share of the UK market.
