At the risk of being a pot accusing the kettle of being black, there is not normally a lot of sympathy for estate agents.
Even among the estate agency trade, sympathy for those who work for Foxtons Group PLC (LON:FOXT) is about as rare as a jargon-free house listing (what does “well appointed” mean, anyway?).
So, expect plenty of crocodile tears to be shed over today’s news that the company’s performance has, in the words of that streetwise slang user the Daily Telegraph, been clobbered by London’s property slowdown.
Foxtons profits to slump after Brexit and stamp duty impact https://t.co/MkVkCAODWi
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 11, 2017
The estate agency has been the subject of protests in the past from anarchist activists fighting “the decisive battle against gentrification”.
Time for Robert Lindsay to reprise his role of Wolfie Smith and reconvene the Tooting Liberation front, perhaps.
A load of old Cobhams
When it comes to profit warnings, Foxtons could learn a lot from aerospace systems provider Cobham PLC (LON:COB), which has had a lot of practice at issuing them.
The FTSE 250 firm saw its shares slump after it said it would scrap its final dividend after issuing its third warning on 2016 profits because of poor trading.
$COB - Long Set up on Cobham - https://t.co/dxbxC2CDNl
— TradingView UK (@uk_tradingview) January 11, 2017
The shares have halved over the last year, and while it looks in no danger of losing its FTSE 250 status, a return to the FTSE 100 is not looking on the cards any time soon.
National Express, or International Express?
It looks like National Express PLC (LON:NEX) is getting out of the trains business in the UK, with the provisional sale of its c2c franchise to Italian operator, Trenitalia.
The stock market announcement from the group was a masterpiece in how to pat oneself on the back, with the group chuntering on about how it is immensely proud of its record at c2c, where under its tenure “services have been transformed to become consistently the UK's best performing rail operation”.
Not being a user of c2c’s services on what used to be called the Misery Line, I am in no position to comment, but if it has been that good at running the franchise, it seems a pity that it will be selling up, but apparently the price is right.
It does mean that angry commuters, already having fun in newspaper letters pages with crude alterations of Abelio’s name, will have similar opportunities to mangle Trenitalia’s name.
Breaking: National Express Group confirms £70m agreement in principle to sell its UK #c2c franchise to Italy's Trenitalia. More to follow pic.twitter.com/JamyAfkODL
— Railway Gazette (@railwaygazette) January 11, 2017
Barbara Morgante, chief executive of Trenitalia, said: "We see significant chances to invest in UK Rail and this in principle agreement with National Express allows us to foster these ambitions.
“We will work closely with customers and local stakeholders to apply our vision and deliver improvements that will be visible and valuable; we are confident that British customers will benefit from our skill and capabilities developed in the highly competitive Italian market.”
Clearly, the Italian firm, which is part of FS Italiane Group, regards this as a platform for growth in the UK.
"We are also closely monitoring the Railways Franchising Programme as we intend to participate in tenders issued by the DfT to strengthen our presence in UK," Morgante confirmed.