Savills sees FY profit in excess of £40m

8th Nov 2010 07:49

Real estate advisor Savills expects underlying pre-tax profit for the year to 31 December 2010 to be in excess of £40m helped by a particularly strong performance in Asia and the UK.Transactions at its Prime London Residential business have continued at a healthy level, the group said, albeit fourth quarter will see lower volumes than the very strong final quarter of 2009. Savills noted an improvement in leasing activity, particularly in the London office market.Hong Kong revenues are expected to hit record levels for the full year. "Contrary to our expectations, the third quarter continued to show strong period-on-period revenue growth at over 65%," it said in a statement."Since June our UK and Asia Pacific businesses have continued to outperform and our European and US businesses, whilst continuing to face challenging market conditions, have performed in line with our expectations," it added.Business in Australia and Singapore also has continued strongly and as a result Asia Pacific real estate activity will be significantly ahead of company expectations for 2010.Meanwhile in Continental Europe Savills said there has been some improvement in market activity in Paris, certain German cities and in the Nordic region. "Although loss-making in aggregate, our businesses have continued to trade in line with our expectations," the group said.In the US the investment market has started to improve with its US capital markets business beginning to see an upturn in its transaction pipeline compared to the first half of the year and has performed in line with Savills' expectations.