Countrywide
[2] It employs circa 8,500 personnel nationwide, working across 650+ estate agency or lettings offices operating under 50+ brands.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.[5] In 2004 it acquired Freeman Foreman group[6] as well as the estate agency business of Bradford and Bingley Building Society.[14] In November 2013, Countrywide acquired national commercial property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH).[18] 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.