Savills posted a 9% drop in pretax profit this week to £18.2m following a slowdown in US and Far East transactions in the first half.
The fall came on the back of a 5% increase in group revenue to £353.3m in the six months to the end of June.
The property services firm’s property and facilities management revenue rose by 12% and consultancy by 15%, offsetting a 4% decline in transactions.
Underlying group profit before tax was down 4%, and underlying basic earnings per share were up 6% to 12.5p.
By businesses line, transaction advisory posted the largest fall in profit, declining 37%, against an 81% increase from consultancy.
By geography, revenue in the UK was up 7% to £170.9m, followed by Asia, which delivered £148.2m, and continental Europe, which saw a rise of 8% to £31.6m. America posted a 26% fall – to £2.5m.
The UK delivered the most profit, at £16.3m – in line with the same time period year – as residential sales income fell 5% and commercial rose 7%. Profit in Asia Pacific dropped by 14% to £10.6m.
Both America and continental Europe were in the red, although group chief executive Jeremy Helsby pointed out that the firm had cut its losses on the Continent by 26% to £3.5m.
Helsby added that the firm had “a better first half performance than anticipated”, and saw “no material change in the overall outlook” in the second half.
The firm announced an interim dividend of 3.3p a share – up by 5%.
