11th Mar 2021 10:02
(Alliance News) - Savills PLC on Thursday reported a sharp drop in profit in 2020 but declared a bumper shareholder payout on the back of promising results from its non-transactional business.
Shares in the real estate agent were 3.3% higher in London on Thursday morning at 1,094.24 pence each.
For 2020, pretax profit cratered 28% to GBP83.2 million from GBP115.6 million.
Total revenue dropped 9% to GBP1.74 billion from GBP1.91 billion. Transaction Advisory revenue fell 19% year on year to GBP667.2 million, and Consultancy revenue was down 5% to GBP320.6 million, while Investment Management revenue fell 11% to GBP70.8 million.
The lone bright spot, Property & Facilities Management revenue improved 2% to GBP681.9 million.
Chief Executive Mark Ridley said: "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."
Savills declared a final dividend of 17.0 pence, after cancelling its interim payout, which, the company said, reflects the resilience of its non-transactional business performance in 2020.
The company distributed 4.95p in 2019, after it cancelled its final payout the year before.
"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," Ridley continued.
He added: "We have made a good start to 2021 and see opportunities for business development emerging during the course of the year."
By Paul McGowan; [email protected]
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