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Savills stage H2 recovery to swing to FY profit of £13.2 million
Global real estate consultant Savills Plc said today it had swung into a full-year pretax profit after a significant improvement in trading in the second half of the year, but said it was cautious in its outlook and expects its overall performance in 2010 to be similar to 2009.
Savills posted a full-year pretax of £13.5 million compared with a pretax loss of £7.7 million in the same period a year earlier from revenue which fell to £560.7 million from £568.5 million.
Jeremy Helsby, Group Chief Executive of Savills plc, commented:
"I am pleased to report a resilient performance across the group with significant improvement in the second half of the year. In particular, UK Residential performed strongly as markets recovered and the performance of our Asia Pacific businesses, which now represent 38% of the group's revenues, endorsed our strategic decision to expand in this region.
"Notwithstanding the improvement in the second half, market conditions remain unpredictable. We have reduced costs significantly across the Group whilst maintaining the operating capacity of our transaction teams around the world to take advantage of improvements in market conditions.
"Against this backdrop we maintain a cautious stance and anticipate that our overall performance in 2010 will be similar to that of 2009, although the relative contributions of our individual businesses may be somewhat different. We remain, however, well positioned with a strong balance sheet to continue our strategy of building the business and pursuing selected investment opportunities should they arise."
The firm said there is potential for the U.K. market to become stale around the General Election as well as uncertainty over whether the strong Chinese influenced markets in Asia can carry on at 2009's levels.
However, Savills expects a better year for U.K. commercial and fund management, reduced losses in continental Europe, and a broadly flat performance in the U.S.
Savills, which competes globally with CB Richard Ellis and Jones Lang LaSalle, said it achieved cost savings of £62 million in the year. It said it would pay a 6 pence second interim dividend, taking the total for the year to 9 pence--the same as in 2008.
Savills posted a full-year pretax of £13.5 million compared with a pretax loss of £7.7 million in the same period a year earlier from revenue which fell to £560.7 million from £568.5 million.
Jeremy Helsby, Group Chief Executive of Savills plc, commented:
"I am pleased to report a resilient performance across the group with significant improvement in the second half of the year. In particular, UK Residential performed strongly as markets recovered and the performance of our Asia Pacific businesses, which now represent 38% of the group's revenues, endorsed our strategic decision to expand in this region.
"Notwithstanding the improvement in the second half, market conditions remain unpredictable. We have reduced costs significantly across the Group whilst maintaining the operating capacity of our transaction teams around the world to take advantage of improvements in market conditions.
"Against this backdrop we maintain a cautious stance and anticipate that our overall performance in 2010 will be similar to that of 2009, although the relative contributions of our individual businesses may be somewhat different. We remain, however, well positioned with a strong balance sheet to continue our strategy of building the business and pursuing selected investment opportunities should they arise."
The firm said there is potential for the U.K. market to become stale around the General Election as well as uncertainty over whether the strong Chinese influenced markets in Asia can carry on at 2009's levels.
However, Savills expects a better year for U.K. commercial and fund management, reduced losses in continental Europe, and a broadly flat performance in the U.S.
Savills, which competes globally with CB Richard Ellis and Jones Lang LaSalle, said it achieved cost savings of £62 million in the year. It said it would pay a 6 pence second interim dividend, taking the total for the year to 9 pence--the same as in 2008.
Thu, 18th Mar 2010