ANGI’s first earnings as public company disappoint Wall Street

ANGI Homeservices’ first quarterly earnings it reported as a public company failed to impress Wall Street.

Colorado-based ANGI debuted as a public company Oct. 2 in a merger of the formerly local Angie’s List and rival HomeAdvisor.

The company on Wednesday reported a loss of $71.8 million in the third quarter, compared with a $5.1 million profit in the year-ago period. ANGI attributed much of the loss to expenses related to the Angie’s List transaction.

The loss translated to 17 cents per share, compared to a 1-cent profit in the third quarter of 2016. Losses, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were 2 cents per share.

The consumer reviews service posted revenue of $181.7 million in the third quarter, compared with $133.6 million at the same time last year, falling short of Wall Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $206.6 million.

Still, ANGI CEO Chris Terrell is bullish on the new company.

“I would tune out the sort of one-time charges that were merger related and if you just look at revenue growth, everything was very strong and was either on plan or ahead of plan,” he told IBJ in a Thursday morning phone interview.

Shares of ANGI were trading late Thursday morning at $11.27 each, down 4 percent from the stock’s opening price.

ANGI employees 1,000 people in Indianapolis and has no plans for further reductions, Terrell said.

The company in early October listed for sale the entire 17.5-acre Angie’s List headquarters site that has helped anchor and revitalize the Holy Cross neighborhood and adjacent areas on the near-east side of Indianapolis.

The campus, headquartered at 1030 E. Washington St., is made up of 41 parcels with 25 buildings, 1,000 parking spaces and 190,000 square feet of office space.

Bids were due Friday, and ANGI received two proposals. IBJ has learned the property received a bid from at least one group, led by former Angie’s List CEO Bill Oesterle. His team includes John Chuang, an early investor in the company, as well as Peter Coolidge, a founder of Angie’s List.

Also involved are Mickey Maurer, a co-owner of IBJ Corp. and a former Angie’s List director; Nathan Feltman, an IBJ Corp. co-owner and former secretary of commerce and CEO of the Indiana Economic Development Corp.; and John Thompson, chairman and CEO of Thompson Distribution Co.

Terrell declined to comment on who submitted bids or the process.

“We’ll treat each group fairly and equally,” he said.

Whatever happens with the Angie’s List site, ANGI still intends to have a large downtown presence, Terrell said.

“I’ll be surprised if over the next 12 to 24 months, we aren’t growing our presence in Indy,” he said.

Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor are separate brands under ANGI Homeservices. Both entities plan to maintain separate operations in Indianapolis—at least for now. HomeAdvisor's local operations are based downtown at 1 Virginia Ave.