The CEO of home sales site Funda, Quintin Schevernels, will resign at the end of this year. The housing site has announced this. In his own words, Schevernels is leaving with “pain in the heart”, because of a long-running discussion between shareholders about the course to be pursued.
This discussion takes place between, on the one hand, a group of shareholders who wants to get rid of their shares through a partial or complete sale. But that requires real estate association NVM. He is the majority shareholder and has control over the group. The other shareholders have no voting rights.
Plan of NVM
Last month it became clear that real estate association NVM does not want to lose control of the site yet. The association only wants to sell a small interest of the minority shareholders. That group wants a new investment (the company would be worth between 340 and 410 million euros) or to be floated on the stock exchange. The NVM’s plan is “unacceptable”, according to the group.
Schevernels then said against the Financieel Dagblad that the “best thing for Funda is that a party comes along that can add something substantively to our strategy”. He himself preferred to see a party with experience with platform technology. According to the business newspaper, there has been a battle for years around the housing site, which is very profitable.
Lots of tension and uncertainty
Funda’s chairman of the supervisory board, Marc Renne, says of Schevernel’s departure that he is “thankful to Quintin [is] for the good work he has done over the past three years”. The supervisory board states in its own words that there is “a lot of tension and ambiguity” between the various interests of Funda and the shareholders.
The board plans to talk to shareholders in the near future to ensure clarity. A profile of the new CEO will also be drawn up on the basis of this.
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