John McGrath announces 12 percent revenue increase in first year as veteran steps aside from listed company leadership
Estate agent John McGrath is stepping away from the daily operations of the recently listed McGrath group.
The company has revealed the company’s current joint chief executive Cameron Judson will take Mr McGrath’s role.
It came as McGrath Limited (ASX: MEA) announced a 12 percent revenue increase in their first year as a listed company.
Their revenue increased to $137 million, which was in line with their guidance range of $136 million to $140 million.
The chairman David Mackay, who oversaw the listing last year, will retire from the board and be replaced by Cass O’Connor, who has been on the board for 15 years.
Elizabeth Crouch is the board's latest appointment. Elizabeth is currently Deputy Chancellor of Macquarie University and on the Board of the Macquarie University Hospital and the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. She chairs the Audit and Risk committees of the City of Sydney and the NSW Government’s Health Infrastructure and is a Non-Executive Director of SGS Economics and Planning. Elizabeth has served as Chair of Railcorp, Non-Executive Director of Chandler Macleod for 4 years and CEO of the Housing Industry Association for 9 years.
John McGrath, who remains an executive director, said his new job would focus on growing the company’s “brand, growth and innovation”.
“As the company grows rapidly it’s important to focus my attention and efforts on the business that I add most value,” Mr McGrath said.
The McGrath group continued to grow sales, agent numbers, offices and market share in FY16.
Their number of property sales rose 11 percent to 12,232, with the value of property sales seeing a 14 percent increase to $13.2 billion.
Agent numbers increased by 77, rising to 642 across the country, and the number of McGrath offices increased by 20 to 87.
Joint-CEO and founder John McGrath was pleased with the business model strength despite the difficult market.
“Notwithstanding the challenging market environment for the real estate industry, given the low volume of listings and sales in the second half, the strength of our business model saw us deliver a solid result," he said.
“We have successfully grown into new and emerging markets by opening our first four franchise offices in Victoria, and another eight in Queensland.
McGrath Estate Agents were made the exclusive selling agency for the Property NSW's Millers Point sell-off in FY16.
“Property NSW’s appointment of McGrath Estate Agents as the exclusive selling agent for two phases of the Millers Point program was a key milestone for the company.
"Our ability to achieve a 100 percent clearance rate with 58 properties sold for $179.9 million is a testament to the capabilities of our people and the strength of our offering.
John also spoke of the appointment of joint-CEO Cameron Judson, whom he had shared the chief executive position with since July.
“Our team has been further strengthened with the appointment of Cameron Judson as Joint-CEO on 14 July 2016.
"He brings a wealth of professional services industry experience and new perspectives to McGrath.”
Judson spoke on the strategy and outlook, suggesting despite the short term challenging market conditions, the long term fundamentals of the real estate industry remain attractive.