Savills’ falling profits don’t phase markets

The price of shares in FTSE 250 estate agency Savills (LON:SVS) increased by 3.68% to 1,098p (as of 11:15 GMT) despite the company reporting a 28% drop in statutory pre-tax profits for the year ended 31st December. Revenues for the period dropped by 9% but the company gained market share in key areas during the year.

CEO Mark Ridley commented: “Savills delivered a robust performance in 2020 reflecting the strength and resilience of our global, diversified business. We continued to grow our less transactional service lines and increase our market share, outperforming in many of our transactional markets despite the challenging conditions. Much of this outperformance is due to our strategy of retaining the strength of our teams and focussing resolutely on addressing both the pandemic-related, and longer term, needs of our clients.

“We remain confident in the long term attraction of real estate as an asset class and although macro-economic uncertainty resulting from COVID-19 clearly remains, we see enhanced investor demand for income and improvements in leasing activity as occupiers increasingly seek to address their requirements. Savills has a strong balance sheet and we remain focused on growing our less transactional businesses, increasing our share of the global transactional markets and enhancing the resilience of the business overall. We have made a good start to 2021 and see opportunities for business development emerging during the course of the year“.