Credit Suisse slashes Countrywide target after heavily discounted placing
Analysts at Credit Suisse upgraded Countrywide to 'neutral' on Wednesday, but slashed its target price on the London-listed firm from 77p all the way down to 17.2p.
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16:35 05/03/21
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17:08 19/04/24
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Credit Suisse refrained from "turning more optimistic" on the UK's largest estate agency group after its decision to offer an 80% discount to its share price in its highly anticipated equity raise.
Countrywide proposed a placing and open offer to raise £140m last week and, while the quantum of the placing was "broadly in-line with market expectations" of £100-150m, the size of the discount required to raise the funds was not.
While CS said Countrywide's current share price "looks depressed", the broker still saw some headwinds ahead of the group and, in the eyes of its analysts, the risk/reward trade-off had not yet swung to the upside.
Should the group's drastic capital refinancing plan not be approved by shareholders at the group's AGM on 28 August, Countrywide will be forced to repay or renegotiate its £275m amended credit facility and, in the event that neither of these could be achieved, CS warned that it was a very real possibility that the company could go into insolvency.
"Without greater clarity beyond 28 August, we move our forecasts in-line with management guidance," said CS.