High-end international property group Savills has reported a 10% rise in revenue for the 2019 financial year, with profits before tax stable at £143.4m.

The company also reported a strong first two months to 2020, but expressed concerns for the outlook because of the Coronavirus outbreak.

The company’s annual report said performance had been “resilient” through 2019 thanks to its global spread of business operations.

Group revenue was up 10% to £1.93bn, compared with £1.76bn in 2018, driven by a strong increase of 16% in non-sales business such as property management, which represented 57% of annual revenue.

Underlying profit before tax was £143.4m, down by £300,000 compared with 2018. However the figure included a £3.5m cut in profit from the implementation of the IFRS 16 accounting standard, which changes the way leases are accounted for on the balance sheet.

Statutory profit before tax increased by 6% to £115.6m compared with £109.4m in 2018.

Underlying basic earnings per share are 78.0p, up from 77.8p in 2018. Statutory basic earnings per share increased 8% to 60.6p from 56.2p.

Final ordinary and supplementary interim dividends are up 3% to total 32.0p per share from 31.2p.

Operating highlights

Transaction advisory revenue grew by 2%, led by North America, Europe and the Middle East.

Property and facilities management revenue was up 17% while consultancy revenue grew 15%.

UK profits increased by 7% to £81.9m, led by property management and consultancy.

Savills UK residential arm grew revenues by 6%, outperforming the decline in UK market volumes.

Meanwhile continued growth in North America, driven by residential sales, saw revenue up 11% and underlying profit up 35% to £17.3m.

Savills Investment Management reported a record year with revenue up 19%, profits up 65% to £18.1m and assets under management up 8% to £17.7bn. There was an increase of £3.1bn in inflows, up 29% on 2018 (£2.4bn).