Mashroom has bought the failed online estate agent out of administration in a deal believed to be worth around £300,000.
The deal comes just eight months after the group was valued by Cenkos Securities at up to £125m.
Emoov’s home listings were purchased by Pattinson Auctions last month, leaving Mashroom to buy the remaining brands and technology that supported the site’s online services.
Emoov will go back online in late January 2019 under the ownership and guidance of the Mashroom team and its founder Stepan Dobrovolskiy, who was managing partner in Europe and Asia for Russian venture capital firm Kite Ventures until June last year.
Mashroom’s chief operating officer (COO) will extend her role to COO of Emoov.
Before collapsing into administration on 4 December, Emoov had been seeking a buyer for its enlarged group, having completed a merger with fellow online agents Tepilo and Urban.co.uk last May.
Founder Russell Quirk said that some of the £15m investment expected to come in as a result of the merger was withheld by one investor, leading to the group running out of cash. The company has been loss-making every year since launching in 2009 and reported net liabilities of £583,824 for the year to the end of last April.
During the merger with Tepilo and Urban.co.uk, Quirk was receiving advice from Cenkos on a float on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. In a letter to Emoov’s board, seen by Property Week, Cenkos wrote the group could complete an IPO by the end of 2018.
Stephen Keys, head of growth companies corporate finance at Cenkos wrote: “A 50:50 merger with Tepilo would indicate that the enlarged group could achieve a value on IPO of circa £140-160m and that such IPO should be able to complete by the end of 2018.”
However, Keys went on to advise the enlarged group would need to come to the market at a discounted valuation to Purplebricks.
“Based on Purplebricks’ revenue multiple of 5.8 times 30 April 2019 projected sales, this would indicate that a post new money valuation of the enlarged group of circa £110m to £125m (representing 4.75 – 5.25 times projected enlarged group 2019 revenues) is more realistic,” added Keys.
Mashroom confirmed it hoped to relaunch with some of Emoov’s former tech and sales staff onboard.
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