Last week the sudden death of Tony Pidgley, Chairman of Berkeley Group (BKG), was announced at the age of 72. He founded the company and grew it to be one of the largest housebuilders in the UK.
He had a difficult childhood being adopted by travelers but left school at the age of 15. Only a few years later he founded Berkeley, building just one house initially. The company announced its results on the 17th June which showed revenues of £1,920 million last year and profits of £503 million, albeit they were down by 35%. Altogether a remarkable success story over many years by riding the peaks and troughs of the housing market very successfully. It is undoubtedly the case that Tony Pidgley knew a great deal about the building industry and how to make money in it.
I held shares in the company prior to 2017 and there were reports on the company AGMs written by me and my son in 2016 and 2014. These meetings were not good examples of how public companies should be run with Pidgley clearly dominating the business as Executive Chairman. For example there were complaints about directors’ remuneration, and the AGMs were treated as trivial affairs. ShareSoc members can read those AGM reports on the ShareSoc web site.
Perhaps it’s a typical example of how all very successful people have more than one side to their personality.
Berkeley have traditionally focused on building up-market houses or apartments in London and the South-East. But is this market changing? There was an interesting article in the Financial Times last week about the movement of people out of central London into the suburbs. It was headlined “Dalston is out, Twickenham is in; why Londoners are dreaming of the suburbs”. It explained how the success of home working, but the inconvenience of doing so in small houses or flats, has made people look to move out of central London to the outer London suburbs where I live. That is particularly so as they may not need to go into the office every day.
I can well believe it. Not only did my neighbour manage to sell her house in record time, but we received a personal letter sent to all of our street asking whether we wanted to sell. This was not the normal estate agents letter touting for business which we get occasionally.
I can see the merit in such moves as central London house prices are still astronomic in comparison with the suburbs and the quality of life is substantially better. Less crime and fewer riots for example.
Will Berkeley have to transition to a slightly different model under a new leader I wonder?
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
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