A defiant John McGrath has vowed to stick with the listed company bearing his name, McGrath Ltd, for the long run, telling investors he "shares the pain" of the struggling agent's performance.
Mr McGrath founded the company and initially served as its chief executive before stepping aside in August after the newly floated company ran into trouble.
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Why investors turned on John McGrath
Listed real estate agency McGrath has struggled since its IPO, and bad timing is just one cause.
He now serves on the company's board as an executive director and told the audience at its maiden annual general meeting that the group was doing what "was in its control" to rebuild its reputation and share price.
"When we went to the market with the IPO, none of us had any idea this would happen," Mr McGrath said. "This was not opportunistic. I started the company 27 years ago and I intend to be here for another 27 years.
"I didn't go to the IPO to disappear nor to have the share price stay at the listing level, not decline."
Sell down
When the group floated, Mr McGrath sold down his stake and, in the process, received about $32 million.
He said the drop in the share price was due to a "macro economic issue ... not a structural or internal issue".
"So as the prior CEO, founder and largest shareholder in the business, I share the pain and I apologise for anyone in this room and not in the room, who has invested in good faith in our business and our brand and has suffered the current loss in their share," he said.
"Those who continue to believe in the company, like myself, and have faith in the company, will be rewarded."
But he acknowledged it was up to the board and new chief executive Cameron Judson, who had been in the job 100 days, to work to restore investor faith.
"We as the board and senior management, we can't blame nobody and have to accept responsibility and do what we have to do to move forward."
Vendors on strike
It came as the group's chairman Cass O'Connor, explaining why things had gone so horribly wrong for the real estate group since it listed in December last year, said :"It was as though every vendor woke up in the New Year and made a resolution not to sell."
She told investors on Wednesday that rocketing real estate prices had created "an environment in which vendors are reticent to sell, fearing they will not get back into the market."
This was bad news for real estate operators like McGrath, which was heavily reliant on property sales turnover for its earnings.
She cited data showing that listing volumes as a percentage of total property stock were at levels not seen since the industry started collecting this data.
A decade ago, homeowners in capital cities would move every 6.7 years. Today that was 10.7 years, Ms O'Connor said. For apartments it was every 5.9 years, but had now stretched out to nine years.
After the meeting, Mr Judson said the company had employed more staff and opened offices with an intention to have about 100 shop fronts by June next year.
"We have a great brand, great people and professional agents to extract the maximum return," Mr Judson said.
He repeated the chairman's comments that it was "unprecedented times" but there was some evidence of a rise in listings coming into the new year.
The shares closed up 3¢ to 91¢, still well short of the December 2015 listing price of $2.10.