Savills has reported a £7.7m pretax loss for the year to 31 December, down from a profit of £85.5m last year amid a property market that has fallen to “unprecedented” lows.
The agent’s underlying profits – excluding exceptional items and impairments – fell 60% to £33.2m.
It said revenue was marginally lower in the year, at £568.5m, down from £650.5m.
In the UK, the company’s commercial transactional businesses fell 35% to £51.9m and underlying profit before tax fell 56% to £7.8m (2007: £17.7m).
Savills said it had made cost savings of £22m during 2008, partly due to redundancies, office closures and tighter control of overheads.
Jeremy Helsby, group chief executive of Savills, said: “This is a resilient performance in unprecedented global property markets. Today’s results demonstrate the strength of our business model and ability to deliver value for shareholders in both strong and weak markets.
“With 2009 looking to be another challenging year, our robust balance sheet and committed bank facilities until October 2011 are a major strength. The steps we are taking to reduce costs combined with our strategy of reducing dependence on transactional income will continue to serve us well.”
Savills also announced today that Simon Shaw will join the board as group chief financial officer on 16 March. He will replace Mark Dearsley, who left the company on 13 February to join Partnership Assurance.
