JLL’s chief executive says the agency is “poised to lead in a post-pandemic environment” after posting a set of results that underlined the struggles the sector has faced during the coronavirus crisis.
The group recorded a 12% year-on-year fall in revenue during the final three months of 2020 to $4.8bn. That left full-year revenue at $16.6bn, 8% lower than in 2019. Fee revenue stood at roughly $2bn for the quarter and $6.1bn for the year, both double-digit percentage falls.
Chief executive Christian Ulbrich described the results, which also included a record full-year operating cash flow of $1.1bn, as “resilient”.
By division, the sharpest annual revenue falls globally were in leasing – down by a quarter – and project and development services, which were down by a fifth. Property and facility management revenue nudged up by 2%.
In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, every business line posted year-on-year falls in fee revenue for both the final quarter and full year. That contrasted with the performance in the Americas, where property management posted gains, and Asia-Pacific, where property management was flat and advisory and consulting revenue ticked up.
Total EMEA fee revenue of almost $1.4bn for 2020 was down by 18%, while Q4 revenue dropped by 19% to $476m.
The agency said that falling EMEA capital markets revenue, which dropped by a fifth over the year to $313.7m, was most apparent in Germany, France and Spain. The depressed office markets in the UK and Poland, meanwhile, were significant drivers of a similar fall in leasing revenue, to $239.2m.
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