Foxtons recovery brings buyback bid from BC Partners

A revival in the fortunes of ultra-aggressive estate agency Foxtons has prompted a bid from private-equity company BC Partners to buy back some of the debt in the firm it lost control of last year, reports say.

BC Partners is in talks with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Japan's Mizuho to buy around
£20 million of debt in Foxtons, which founder Jon Hunt sold for £370 million at the peak of the housing boom in 2007, according to the Financial Times.

A restructuring saw BC Partners lose control of Foxtons in a debt-for-equity swap which cut the estate agent's debts from £300 million to around
£125 million, although it injected £50 million in fresh equity to remain the biggest minority shareholder.

BC Partners is said to want to buy the debt in order to prevent it falling into the hands of an unwelcome investor such as a hedge fund.

Foxtons saw profits recover to £16.7 million in 2009 after the slumping housing market pushed it into the red the previous year.

It now plans to almost double the size of the chain over the next 10 years.

Foxtons, BofA and BC Partners all declined to comment.