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and here's the brilliantly researched story from the daily mail about foxtons record breaking 2024 final results :-

'we have 'more to do' to improve life at work after sexual harassment scandal, says foxtons boss

by jessica clark '

'foxtons has ‘more to do’ to improve life at work, the estate agent chain’s chief executive said after it was rocked by sexual harassment claims.'

guy gittins said a ‘respectful and inclusive culture is of the utmost importance’ – after it was plunged into scandal.

his comments followed reports that male employees had groped, sexually propositioned, and sent explicit texts to junior female colleagues.

staff at the london property broker also made ****** and anti-semitic jibes, a bloomberg investigation found.

and foxtons was accused of having a culture of heavy drinking and drink-driving.

the probe uncovered incidents where staff had driven foxtons’ green, branded mini coopers while under the influence.

one worker said she had been injured when a drunk colleague crashed the car as he gave her a lift home

gittins, who started his career at foxtons before stints with rivals savills and chestertons , rejoined as chief executive in 2022.

he vowed to ‘bring back the fun’ and reinvigorate the sales culture. foxtons chairman nigel rich backed gittins yesterday, saying he had been ‘instrumental’ in changing the workplace.

foxtons has 50 branches in london and the home counties and around 1,300 staff.

gittins said the company had introduced ‘mandatory annual respect and inclusion training’, and strengthened its equality, diversity and inclusion policies and whistleblowing processes.

there has been a 25 per cent increase in female managers over the last two years and a 12 per cent increase in employee retention rates, he said.

‘while progress has been made, we recognise there is more we can and should do,’ gittins said.

bloomberg spoke to current and former employees, mainly junior female staff, who said they had faced unwanted physical contact, requests for sex or other explicit and offensive comments over a four-year period.

thirteen described racism or anti-semitism and 16 claimed heavy drinking and drink- driving happened regularly.

and the majority said they had been ignored when they reported the behaviour, which took place between 2021 and the end of 2024.

gittins comments yesterday came as foxtons reported an 11 per cent rise in revenues in 2024 to £164million, while profit soared 121 per cent to £17.5 million.'

yep, 16 paragraphs about that alleged bloomberg/jp morgan report and one paragraph about foxtons record breaking 2024 finals !!!

the final part of my post to follow....................

ok, here's the link in case you missed it :-

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14514199/from-pimping-***-worker-older-men-throwing-teenage-staff-shoulders-former-foxtons-employees-tell-real-estate-office-like-wolf-wall-street.html

what i found telling was that this story was published on the daily mail wesite at 8.30pm on tuesday evening and within say a couple of hours there were around 300 comments on the article and some 350 comments in total as of today.

the following day, the stock didn't budge at the open and just around 12,000 shares were traded before 09:00am.

the day after that bloomberg/jp morgan report in february the stock opened down 2.5p and just over 1million shares were traded by 09:30am after the open !

and not only that, this article from the daily mail was nowhere else to be seen apart from on the property industry eye website together with a photo of the closed down office of the hampstead branch of foxtons and that was it !!!

now the timing of this tale before the q1 numbers in a few days time is very similar to the timing of that bloomberg/jp morgan nonsense story a week before those impressive 2024 final results from foxtons...............coincidence or what ????

i think not !

its also worth recalling how the daily mail reported foxtons 2024 final set of results........

part 5 follows...............

I mentioned last month that I wasn't going to comment further on that numpty Bloomberg/JP Morgan report about Foxtons just before the publication of its 2024 Annual results, enough was said at the time and the Foxtons management also made a further statement in the set of results :-

'Estate agency is a people-first business and maintaining an engaging, respectful and inclusive culture is of the utmost importance to us. We are focused on creating an environment which attracts, motivates and retains a diverse team of talent that can together deliver excellent customer outcomes. Although significant progress has made over the last two years, including the introduction of mandatory annual respect and inclusion training, strengthened ED&I policies and enhanced whistleblowing and speak up processes, there remains more to do. This is particularly important to me and we remain steadfast in our commitment to an inclusive, professional and respectful culture and we will continue to seek further improvement and progress............'

So that pretty much draws a line under that bogus report you would have thought but no, The Daily Mail, yes that well respected financial reporting media source decided to ignore all that and this week effectively copied and pasted that Bloomberg/JP Morgan nonsense but with a slightly different wording to make it appear as though it came from yet another 'reliable source'.

Here it is in case you missed it.............

Part 4 follows................

Okay, that's the share price performance and institutional 'interest' in Foxtons shares out of the way.

So here we are as of 11th April 2025 and next on the horizon is Foxtons 2025 Q1 statement in a few days time.

Mr Gittins has already mentioned that a large proportion of the sales element of the business was still to be factored in the 2024 results as the tail end of last year was exceptionally busy for most estate agents including Foxtons and together with probably the best ever Q1 sales ahead of the stamp duty changes this month, we could see another set of record numbers from the company.

The market and the media chose to ignore (by design !) that Foxtons had factored in a £2m increase in national insurance contributions for its staff for this financial year and is on track for an increased operating profit target of £28m -£33m which included this increase.

Maybe the management could re-iterate this point once again for those that always seem to focus on any negatives from the company, not that there have been many. More on this later.

So as I mentioned Q1 sales will probably be Foxtons best ever set of numbers, Alexander Hall will also report equally good numbers and rentals will still provide a number comparable to last year if not slightly better.

So, still looking good for Foxtons !

Part 3 follows.............

I have been asked for an update with regards to my thoughts and ideas with regards to Foxtons especially as there has been a hell of a lot of news flow since the beginning of this year, so I will try to break it all down if I can across a few posts here now.

Okay, lets kick off with a snapshot of the 2024 bumper final results, which is on page 1 of the Foxton's 2024 Annual report and is on here under the RNS announcements :-

Revenue + 11% - £163.9m (The biggest revenue number in Foxton's history)

Adjusted Operating profit + 38% - £21.6m (The best profit figure since 2015/16)

Net free flow cash + £9.8m

Profit before tax +121% - £17.5m

Adjusted EPS +47% -5p

Total Dividend +30% - 1.17p

After those impressive results the market called the stock down once again and at one point this week the stock was down some 30% since the beginning of the year and today it is back at 55p or thereabouts, the same price as the stock was at back in January of last year.

Yes, that's 14 months of 'ZERO' price share performance from the stock despite the company posting ever impressive interim and final results as well as bullish trading statements since late 2022 culminating in that bumper 2024 financial performance.

So, since the company was floated back in September 2013 and reached a share price high of £4.02 in February 2014, the company has lost just over 86% of its value and at one point in late 2022 it had nearly lost some 94%.

The media and presstitutes have heralded Foxtons remarkable achievements and highlighted the improved share price performance saying how its more than doubled since 2022, but what they fail to mention is that even as of today the company has still lost 86% of its market value no less !!!

Since late 2022 until now, we've seen the departing of most UK institutional holders of Foxtons shares with just a couple of household names left only to be replaced by US Banks and hedge funds and now accounting for the top 20 institutional holders that we know of at least. BC partners is still silent on their holding and the likes of JP Morgan et al are very economical with the truth when it comes to disclosure of their holdings.

So who knows what the actual real and true register of shareholdings is , page 125 of the latest Foxtons annual report includes the caveat, '......This information was correct at the date of notification, however the date it was received may not have been within the current financial year......' and it goes on to mention the late trade reporting from JP Morgan.

So after 14 months of nil share price why are these US Banks and hedge funds 'loading up' as it were with no sign of any panicking sellers despite the stock hitting the 49-50p level twice now in just six months when its clearly in its best financial health since it was first floated back in 2013 ?

Even Coverium Capital and Mr 4% whom were clamouring for the company to be sold have gone strangely quiet !

Part 2 follows.......

Especially as a US delegate including the chief of staff meets with Iranian officials in an unknown destination over the weekend.

What price Gold if talks fail and more importantly what price Greatland after that RNS on Monday as well.

Those ducks are lining up.nicely ( old reference ) !!

🦆🦆🦆

Otherwise known as :-

DE-,GLOBALISATION

Yeah, lets carried away......its fun !!!

Besides, last time I go carried away the price went to 37p no less !

$3225.

My goodness !

Especially as £ Sterling is a bag of sh!!te !!!

Morning Daz, I remember you too, when I was first in here there were only three of us posting back in 2017, Apples, Mercedesman and myself.

We've come along way since, the seed was planted back then by Gervaise and Callum and its amazing how incredulously people and and analysts were looking at both of them thinking, 'the largest Gold find of the decade !!! ' are you joking or been on the Fosters again !!!!

Well played both !

Who's laughing now !!!!!!

Element1, yes there is logic totally agree.

Sadly there is no real and true price discovery in shares any more, JP Morgan and all their hedge fund mates have made sure of this and being bank rolled by the FED's 24- hour US Dollar printing press, they can pretty much keep the price where they want it.

Just keep on adding if funds are available, add to your ISA's and keep your shares in a SIPP, also a tax free wrapper but there is no limit.

That's what I've done from 0.002p back in 2017 !!!!

....and we'll all be toasting to one of these (if not beforehand that is ! ) :-

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/history-in-pictures-on-instagram-the-largest-72kg-gold-nugget-ever-found-called-the-welcome-stranger-today-this-nugget-would-be--324962929368717993/

And is now sipping the Champagne !!

3000 points on the Dow tonight ???

Don't rule it out.

🍾🍾🍾

Just watching Karoline Levitt speaking, my goodness she's great.

We've got Rachel from accounts.

God help us !

Trump didn't blink he's retaliated to China with 125% tariffs !!

And some 75 countries are now to sit and discuss tariffs with Trump.

All part of his master plan, who's the daddy ???

Must be a record for the Dow to record +2300 points !!

🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑

I mentioned earlier about the Dow possibly closing over 1000 points up.......

Make that 2000 points !!!!!!!

Hi Sageman yeah apologies for that. I meant that anything and everything associated or 'backed' by physical Gold will be settled in cash at the prevailing spot Gold price at that time and will not be liable for receivership of physical Gold.

Just my thoughts , lets get the Fort Knox inspection out of the way first :)

Hi Speedie, good point but there will be a shedload more buyers in the next year or so than sellers and poor old Rachel from accounts (her voice reminds of the teacher in those Charlie Brown cartoons !) can't see that far ahead sadly !