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Preliminary results for the full year ended 31 December 2017
15 March 2018
Savills plc, the international real estate advisor, today announces strong results from continued growth across its global network.
Key financial highlights
- Group revenue up 11% to £1.6bn (£1.55bn in constant currency*, 2016: £1.45bn)
- Underlying profit** up 3.5% to £140.5m (£136.6m in constant currency, 2016: £135.8m)
- Statutory profit before tax up 13% to £112.4m (£109.6m in constant currency, 2016: £99.8m)
- Underlying basic earnings per share (‘EPS’) grew 5% to 75.8p (2016: 72.5p)
- Statutory basic EPS grew 20% to 58.8p (2016: 48.8p)
- Final ordinary and supplementary dividends total 25.55p per share (2016: 24.6p) taking the total dividend for the year up 4% to 30.2p per share (2016: 29.0p)
* Revenue, underlying profit and statutory profit before tax for the year are translated at the prior year exchange rates to provide a constant currency comparative.
** Underlying profit before tax (‘underlying profit’) is calculated on a consistently reported basis in accordance with Note 3 to this Preliminary Statement.
Key operating highlights
Strength in key commercial markets, geographical diversity and the resilience of our residential businesses drove an improved performance for Savills in 2017.
- Transaction Advisory revenues up 13%. Strong performances in the UK and Asia Pacific including Hong Kong, China, Australia and Japan.
- Growth in revenues in Continental Europe, with profits impacted by start-up costs in the Czech Republic and recruitment there and in the Netherlands.
- Savills Studley revenue up 6% but profitability impacted by investment in a new capital markets team in New York.
- Further growth from our less-transactional services with Consultancy revenue up 14% and Property Management revenue up 9%.
- Savills Investment Management performed ahead of our expectations. Assets under Management (‘AUM’) up 5% to £14.6bn.
Commenting on the results, Jeremy Helsby, Group Chief Executive, said:
“Savills has delivered another strong performance in 2017. Revenue and profits grew in each of our global Transaction Advisory, Consultancy and Property Management businesses despite challenging conditions in a number of markets. The strength of our business in key transactional markets across the globe, including a highly resilient performance in our UK residential business, were key to this result.
Throughout the year we maintained our focus on delivering exceptional service to our clients and continued to build on our global network through complementary acquisitions and new team hires.
We have made a solid start to 2018 with a pipeline of business carried over from last year in many markets, although this is against the backdrop of heightened market uncertainty, geopolitical risks and rising interest rates. We anticipate a tempering of the strong transaction volumes of recent times in some markets; however, at this early stage in the year our expectations for 2018 remain unchanged.”
