Estate agent Foxtons and BC Partners, its private equity owner, have appointed NM Rothschild to carry out a review of the business, according to reports.
Options being considered for the estate agent include a renegotiation of current short-term loans into longer-term debt. This would help Foxtons improve its cash flow and provide more available working capital. Another option involves branch closures and redundancies.
Foxtons, the London-based estate agency, was sold to BC Partners for £390 million in May 2007.
BC Partners is to refinance £250 million of debt put up by the Bank of America and Japanese bank Mizuho, which costs £26 million a year in interest payments.
Foxtons was established by Jon Hunt in 1981 from Notting Hill. The business made itself well-known with the Minis driven by its staff across the UK. The business has 1,500 staff and 24 branches.
Estate agents are feeling the decline in the housing market as banks knocked by the credit crunch are more cautious with mortgage lending, hitting property transactions.
