Savills' first half strengthened by strong markets in UK, Europe

7th Aug 2014 09:52

Savills half-year results exceeded company expectations with revenue up 8% to £430.8m as a result of strong markets in the UK and Europe.The real estate group said first-half pre-tax profit rose 15% to £24.7m from last year's £21.4m. Meanwhile, underlying profit shot up 16% to £30.1m from the previous year's £26m.The firm declared an interim dividend of 3.75p per share, up 7% from 2013's 3.5p.The FTSE-250 group said that the Transaction Advisory division grew revenues by 12% with the UK growing 19% and Continental Europe up 39%, while Consultancy turnover was 14% higher.Chief executive Jeremy Helsby said: "Looking to the second half, we currently see no significant change in the overall outlook for our business and the board remains confident in its expectations for the full year."Stock brokers Numis said it was upgrading its profit forecasts on the back of the results. "The main driver of this upgrade is the US, where the Studley business has been integrated effectively and we now expect annualised cost saving synergies of $1m due to the integration of the old Savills business into Studley's premises."The group acquired US real estate services firm Studley in May for £154m.As of 10:28 the share price had risen 3.05% to 591p.WS