Knight Frank saw its performance squeezed in its latest annual results, with political uncertainty in the UK and further afield having an impact.
Bilfinger GVA reported a bumper 38% rise in profits during 2015 but, like Knight Frank, said that the result of the EU referendum was likely to have an adverse impact on the performance of the business.
Alistair Elliott, Knight Frank’s group chairman and senior partner, said the company’s performance was ok rather than exceptional. He said during its reporting period of the 12 months to 31 March “we had increasing economic uncertainty in China and increasing political uncertainty around the world and then in Europe. Closer to home we had Brexit.
“The culmination of those things means the market has adapted generally and volumes and pricing are down.”
| Turnover | Mar 16/Dec 15 | Mar 15/Dec 14 | % change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knight Frank | 460.9 | 443.1 | 4 |
| Bilfinger GVA | 190 | 174 | 9 |
| Operating profit | Mar 16/Dec 15 | Mar 15/Dec 14 | % change |
| Knight Frank | 150.5 | 157 | -4.1 |
| Bilfinger GVA | 23.5 | 17 | 38 |
Despite Bilfinger GVA’s growth during the 12 months to 31 December its chief executive Gerry Hughes said: “Brexit will have a direct effect on our market in the short to medium term. Nevertheless, our consultancy-focused business model ensures a robust, more sheltered platform when compared with many of our brokerage-based competitors who remain more exposed to economic headwinds.”
Knight Frank’s pension liabilities decreased during the period from £16.5m to £11.8m following scheduled repayments.
Last week Cluttons reported a dramatic rise in its pension liabilities over the past two years to £42.9m but Elliott said there was no sense of concern at Knight Frank.
“Could it go up? Yes. Could it come down? Yes. Is it under control? Absolutely,” he said.
“We have been paying ours down and accepting that the pension world is difficult to predict because of longevity, stocks, market fluctuation and algorithms people in the pensions industry are using. All we are doing is making sure we are on top of it.”
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