Savills plc, the international real estate advisor, today announces growth in both revenue and underlying profits in 2018.

Key financial highlights

• Group revenue up 10% to £1.76bn (2017: £1.6bn)
• Underlying profit* up 2% to £143.7m (2017: £140.5m)
• Statutory profit before tax decreased 3% to £109.4m (2017: £112.4m)
• Underlying basic earnings per share (‘EPS’) grew 3% to 77.8p (2017: 75.8p)
• Statutory basic EPS decreased 4% to 56.2p (2017: 58.8p)
• Final ordinary and supplementary interim dividends total 26.4p per share (2017: 25.55p) taking the total dividend for the year up 3% to 31.2p per share (2017: 30.2p)

* Underlying profit before tax (‘underlying profit’) is calculated on a consistently reported basis in accordance with Note 4 to this Preliminary Statement.

Key operating highlights

The diversity of the Group, both geographically and in our service offering, and the integration of recent acquisitions delivered growth in both revenue and underlying profits in 2018.

• Transaction Advisory revenues up 9%. Further growth from our less-transactional services with Property and Facilities Management revenue up 14% and Consultancy revenue up 8%. 
• Strong growth from Europe & the Middle East, both organic and through the integration of Aguirre Newman in Spain and the acquisition of Cluttons Middle East in May 2018.
• North America delivered significant growth in the occupier-focused business with revenue up 18% and underlying profit up 64%.
• Savills Investment Management successfully mitigated the expected significant decline in activity relating to disposals from liquidating the SEB Open-Ended Funds, raising £2.4bn in new funds, with AUM up 12% to £16.4bn.

Commenting on the results, Mark Ridley, Group Chief Executive, said:

“Savills delivered both revenue and underlying profit growth in 2018, driven by a robust second half of the year. In addition to maintaining or growing our share of transactional markets, the performance of our less transactional business lines was key to this performance.

We have made a solid start to 2019; however, the year ahead is overshadowed by macro-economic and political uncertainties across the world. It is difficult accurately to predict the impact of these issues on corporate expansionary activity and investor demand for real estate. At this stage, we expect to see declines in transaction volumes in a number of markets and growth in our less transactional business lines; accordingly we retain our expectations for the Group's performance in 2019.”