More sign of London house price woes? Foxtons share price falls as BC Partners halves stake
Foxtons may have been the darling of the London property boom, but as house price growth in the capital has fallen, so have the estate agent's shares.
BC Partners, the investor that had its fingers badly burned when it bought Foxtons off founder Jon Hunt at the top of the housing market in 2007 before leading its IPO last year, reduced its stake in the estate agent by half to just seven per cent this morning. Its nominee to Foxtons' board, Stefano Quadrio Curzio, is due to step down later this month as BC Partners scales back its involvement in the company.
This is the second time the investor has reduced its stake in Foxtons; in May it sold 7.8 per cent of the company.
Shares in the business fell three per cent to as low as 232.7p, only slightly above the 230p they were priced at when the company listed a year ago.
With a focus on the London property market, Foxtons is seen as particularly vulnerable to the capital's property market. At the end of August, data by Hometrack showed the number of new buyers registering in London had fallen 3.9 per cent during the month, despite a 0.4 increase in the number of properties listed.