In 1986,
financial services company
Hambros plc, having de-merged its banking arm, acquired two estate agents,
Bairstow Eves and
Mann & Co, to form a new company called
Hambro Countrywide plc, which was listed on the
London Stock Exchange. In 1988, the company created Hambro Assured, then the UK's largest
life insurance broker. The group then grew through acquisition, buying Nationwide estate agents and surveyors from
Nationwide Building Society in 1994, Spencers from
National and Provincial Building Society in 1995 and London firms Faron Sutaria, PKL and
John D Wood & Co. in 1997. In 1998 the business was renamed
Countrywide Assured plc and demerged from Hambros plc. After creating a franchise opportunity under the Bairstow Eves brand, the group then restarted its acquisition trail acquiring
Friends Provident estate agents and surveyors (in return for a long term licence to resell Friends Provident financial products) in August 2002. Friends Provident Estate Agencies operated 104 offices across the South of England, trading as: Fulfords, Chappell & Matthews, Palmer Snell and Carson & Company and had been acquired by Friends Provident as an 80-strong chain in 1998 as part of their takeover of London and Manchester Group plc. The life assurance business was demerged as
Chesnara in May 2004. In 2004 it acquired Freeman Foreman group as well as the estate agency business of
Bradford and Bingley Building Society. This business had been originally formed as Black Horse Agencies Group by
Lloyds Bank in 1982, and purchased as 370 strong chain (including TSB Property Services and Slater Hogg & Howison) by Bradford and Bingley from the then owners Lloyds TSB in April 1998. Slater Hogg & Howison had been acquired by
TSB Scotland in 1988 having been established in 1975 by Roy Slater, Iain Hogg and Geoff Howison. The Black Horse name was dropped by Bradford and Bingley in 1999. In 2007, Countrywide was 100% acquired by
Apollo Management for a sum over £1bn, and de-listed from the London Stock Exchange. Following
debt restructuring, the owners included Apollo Management,
Oaktree Capital Management and
Alchemy Partners. In March 2013, Countrywide plc was re-listed on the London Stock Exchange. In November 2013, Countrywide acquired national commercial property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH). Countrywide acquired the southwest Wales estate agency John Francis in 2015. In January 2018, an unscheduled profits warning sent Countrywide's share price plummeting by nearly 19 per cent, and CEO
Alison Platt stepped down, to be replaced by
Peter Long, appointed executive chairman until a new CEO is found. In August 2018, the share price fell by 60% after an emergency cash call (in the form of a
rights issue), and after having downgrading profit forecasts four times in eight months. In December 2020
Connells Group agree to buy the company at a valuation of circa £82 million. On 8 March 2021
Connells Group acquired Countrywide Plc. ==Brands==