Savills is scaling down its facilities management (FM) joint venture with US broker Trammell Crow after writing off the costs of failed pitches for major outsourcing deals.
In a trading update this morning, Savills said its Trammell Crow Savills joint venture “has had a frustrating half-year” pursuing two potentially large German outsourcing contracts, neither of which materialised.
Accordingly Savills said it was forced to write-off pursuit costs and capitalised costs from 2001. It said it was reviewing the joint venture and in future was likely to concentrate on smaller scale outsourcing projects.
Otherwise, Savills was cautiously optimistic: “The current strength of the property markets in which we operate gives us grounds for cautious confidence about the likely underlying performance for the year,” it said.
Despite a fall off in tenant demand in London and the South East due to the TMT downturn, Savills said demand remained “robust” elsewhere in the UK.
It added the property investment markets throughout the UK remained strong with significant demand for property from domestic, private and institutional as well as overseas buyers.
Savills shares remained unchanged at 182.5p this morning.
EGi News 02/07/02
