COUNTRYWIDE, the listed chain of estate agents, may be taken private as the result of the government’s u-turn on its plans to introduce home information packs for the sellers of residential property.

Harry Hill, the chief executive of Countrywide, whose share price plunged on news that Hips would be watered down, said the market now so undervalued the firm that it was “hard to justify the expense of being a public company”.

“We’re pretty annoyed that the government u-turn on Hips has caused such a big drop in our share price,” he said. “We’ve spent a lot of time and effort on preparing for this. We have our results next month and they are expected to be quite good. If the City’s response is subdued and the share price does not improve, then I will have to recommend to the board that we consider all options, including going private.”

Countrywide — the owner of regional estate agency chains such as Bairstow Eves, Bridgfords and Mann & Co — saw its share price fall by 11% from 440p at the beginning of the week to close at 389p. The FTSE 250 company has a market value of £682m.

The stock had been strong in the expectation that estate agents would help sellers of houses to gather Hips, or information for buyers.

On Tuesday the government said it had decided not to make it mandatory for the packs to include a survey — their most expensive element.

Hill said: “Having the information packs without the surveys would be a bit like having a hotdog without a sausage. It’s just not worth it.”

Countrywide suffered a further blow when shares in Rightmove, the online estate agency in which it has a 22.5% stake, plummeted, losing a fifth of its stock-market value, or £90.5m.

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