Savills bucks trend with revenue up
Simon Shaw of Savills reports revenue rose 9% across its global business despite a slowdown in Britain.
Savills has bucked the trend of flat results with group revenue up 9% in the first half and growth reported across all parts of its business.
The international agency did, however, admit “activity slowed” in Britain in the second quarter after a fast start to the year.
Political change
“Sentiment in the UK market was more affected by the escalation of the Middle East conflict and its impact on interest rates, and after a positive Q1, activity slowed as investors assessed its implications and latterly those of anticipated political change in the UK,” Savills said in its interim results statement.
“H1 investment in the UK declined by 12%. Transaction timeframes remained elongated and investor demand selective, with strong pipelines but limited new stock coming to the market,” it said.
The group completed the acquisition of investment bank Eastdil Secured last month.
Pipelines strong
Simon Shaw, Group Chief Executive at Savills, (pictured), says: “I am delighted with the significant improvement in Savills performance, and for this, I thank our people for their focus on delivering sound advice and rigorous execution, and our clients for their trust.
“Looking forward, the enlarged group’s pipelines are strong, and although transaction timelines are hard to predict in the current environment, I am confident that we are well positioned to deliver value to our clients, colleagues and shareholders.”
Profit decline
In May, Savills was reporting delays to property transaction completion times, but no rise in fall-throughs.
In March, the company revealed group revenue rose 6.1% to £2.55billion last year, while underlying profit before tax increased 11% to £145.3million. Savills said growth was reported across all four business areas and all three regions globally.
However, UK residential transactional revenue fell 4% to £199.7million during the year, with underlying profit declining 9% to £18.1million.
Britain remained a core market for the business, accounting for around 40% of group revenue – while the British residential agency operation makes up 68% of the company’s residential transactional revenues.
