Savills plc, the international real estate advisor, today announces a strong performance across the Group reflecting improved transactional activity and the benefit of business development activities of recent years.

Key financial highlights

• Group revenue up 12% to £904.8m (2012: £806.4m).
• Underlying Group profit before tax* up 28% to £75.2m (2012: £58.6m restated for IAS 19).
• Group profit before tax up 35% to £70.1m (2012: £52.0m restated for IAS 19).
• Underlying Pre-tax profit margin increased to 8.3% (2012: 7.3%).
• Underlying basic EPS up 27% to 43.1p (2012: 33.9p restated for IAS 19).
• Total dividend for the year up 19%. Final ordinary and supplementary interim dividends total 15.5p per share (2012: 12.7p) taking the total dividend for the year to 19.0p per share (2012: 16.0p).

* Underlying profit is calculated on a consistent basis in accordance with Note 5 to the preliminary statement.

Key operational highlights

• UK Commercial transaction profits up 58% reflecting increased market share in Prime Central London transactions and a progressive recovery in the regional markets.
• Asia Pacific Commercial transaction profits up 14% with growth in Australia, Korea and Japan mitigating the anticipated slow down in Hong Kong.
• UK Residential transaction profits up 34% reflecting higher market volumes; three new offices opened during the year.
• Continued revenue growth of over 9% in Property Management segment; underlying profits down 2% through reorganisation costs in Europe and investment in business growth.
• Consultancy profits up 26% with strong performances in the UK and Continental Europe
• Cordea Savills investment management business increased Assets Under Management (‘AUM’) by 17% to £4.2bn.

Commenting on the results, Jeremy Helsby, Group Chief Executive, said:

“I am delighted to report a strong set of results with  revenues up 12% to a record high of £904.8m  and underlying profits up 28%. These results demonstrate the strength of our position in the prime Residential and Commercial markets of the world's key cities and the benefit of the investment that we have made across the business to expand our service lines.

We have made a solid start to 2014 with performance in line with management expectations. In the UK, we expect continuing demand for London property and recovery in the regional markets, although availability of commercial stock, in particular, is increasingly a challenge. In Asia, whilst we expect the reduction in trading volumes in Hong Kong to persist for at least the first half of the year, this should be mitigated, in part, by the strength of other regions across Asia. We also expect to show a continued improvement in our businesses in Continental Europe and the US. Looking ahead, we are well positioned with a clear strategy for extending the depth and breadth of our services in the world’s key markets.”

Read the full preliminary results

For further information, contact:

Savills, 0207 499 8934
Jeremy Helsby, Group Chief Executive
Simon Shaw, Group Chief Financial Officer

Tulchan Communications, 0207 353 4200
Peter Hewer
Will Smith

There will be an analyst presentation today at 9.30am at Numis Securities Limited, The London Stock Exchange Building, 10 Paternoster Square, London, EC4M 7LT.
 
A video interview with Jeremy Helsby, Group CEO will be available from 11.00am today at www.savills.com.