Savills Share Discussion Threads

[cockneyrebel] 10/1/2005 15:11

Looking firm today - a nice breakout due here imo.

Ludicrously cheap - foreign property soaring and these are the experts.

'over 10%' ahead they say - what's next years forecasts going to be upped to?

CR

[doubleorquits] 06/1/2005 21:03

So the fun started today:

Savills purchased 100,000 of its ordinary shares for cancellation at 516.13
pence per ordinary share.

Now that improves the EPS a little and they save around £30000 in dividends

[cockneyrebel] 06/1/2005 19:03

Goodie, just what I thought :-)

CR

[doubleorquits] 06/1/2005 19:01

Bang on - beginning of March. If they are as good as they say these will be moving ahead of them AND after them.

I reckon these will move to 550p quite quickly - ahead of the closed period - to £6 ahead of results and who knows, £6.50 after the results on added institutional interest.

[cockneyrebel] 06/1/2005 12:34

I read that Double - must be good for firming the price even more as the results approach.

Looks like the current market cap is enough to get them in the 250 so 10% more come the results should nail it on. I think their results are just before the next revision in March? Is that right?

CR

[doubleorquits] 05/1/2005 23:41

There was an announcement after the close today re. buybacks:

Savills plc announces that, in accordance with its established practice, it has instructed Hoare Govett to commence a non-discretionary programme to re-purchase its own shares during the close period, which commenced at the start of business on 1 January 2005, in accordance with Chapter 15 of the Listing Rules and Savills plc's general authority to repurchase shares. Up to 1,000,000 shares may be purchased at a price of up to 525p until the close of business on 1 March 2005.

Looks as though the company see 525p as a good price so we could see a few buybacks in the next few days I reckon. TPT and MBY did this well - I wonder if SVS manage it as well. Good way to boost shareholder value with better earnings per share for those left in the reduced issue and the company will save a bit on paying the final and special dividend. Can see a quick 10% in these from here with more to come just ahead of the results. By then this could be a FTSE250 stock with the benefits that that brings.

[cockneyrebel] 22/12/2004 10:42

Sorry badtime, didn't realise you replied here.

SVS - still a buy I reckon. They will do 52p eps or more this year. Subtract the special divi and you buy today at 490p and get about 56p or more eps next year at least at a guess - pe 8.7 or less equivalent and a business sounding rather positive.

And you get the final divi on top of this :-)

Not as exposed to the UK propert sales as much as most, more into the letting side and foreign markets so quite mis-understood perhaps.

Worth reading the statement imo

CR

[badtime] 13/12/2004 20:45

o...lol..u speaking to typo?..cos i wanna chat to him re TCP

PS..nibbled here? :)

[cockneyrebel] 13/12/2004 19:21

Does anyone have any idea what that 3m trade was on 24/11 ?

That's 5% but I haven't seen an RNS.

The company keeps buying shares back, director Richard Hope keeps buying and the chart looks wll bullish having just broken up through that June high.

CR

[trader horne] 10/12/2004 17:00

after a worrying weakness, a neat 100,000 share buyback at 440p
and then zoomed 5% - lovely jubbly.

[mike24] 27/11/2004 12:43

4 months after spending 3.6ml blairs lost aprox 300k and struggling to find
tenants to finance 15k a month morgage, john wrigglesworth said at the top
end of the market prices have dropped around 10/15% add on 15k a month
repayments, 360k loss divided by 20wks = only 18k per wk

[trader horne] 22/10/2004 12:37

Good to see some rare news. Isn't a lot of SVS biz letting to rich clients, not selling, so they are somewhat insulated from property price squeeze ?

[taffychaff] 16/10/2004 13:51

countrywide have issued their 3rd profit warning within details of an aquisition of loss making b and b estate agents.

Expect Savills to be mauled on monday



===========================================================
"Current trading conditions remain, regrettably, very subdued, and we do not
now see any upturn in activity occurring before the beginning of 2005 -- with
recovery then probably heavily dependent on any interest rate adjustments that
may take place in the meantime," said Christopher Sporborg, chairman of
Countrywide.
===========================================================

[handycam] 14/10/2004 10:30

Savills were lying in September, saying how wonderful life was and how clever they were. Well, in their core market, they haven't sold a house for four and a half weeks. Perhaps they will tell the truth in their November update.

[blondviking] 01/10/2004 09:53

SVS get bigger!
Sunday papers are sure to run with this news

ACQUISTION OF SMITH-WOOLLEY

Savills plc announce today that its wholly owned subsidiary FPDSavills Limited
has acquired Smith-Woolley, Chartered Surveyors. The deal follows the
acquisition of Smith-Woolley's rural asset management business in Norfolk in
June last year.

Founded in 1777, Smith-Woolley is one of the oldest and most respected land
management practices in the UK with both consultant and resident land agents in
place on some of the country's finest rural estates. The offices being acquired
by FPDSavills are: Oxford, Woodstock, Bath and Newark (Collingham), and include
staff and departments specialising in commercial and residential agency, as well
as farm management, planning, building consulting and facilities management.
The business was acquired for a total consideration of #2.375m of which #750k is
by way of deferred payment.

Paul Lindon, Senior Partner of Smith-Woolley, based at Woodstock, Oxfordshire
said: "Smith-Woolley has expanded in recent years and I am delighted by this
further step forward. While preserving our distinct approach with clients and
our philosophy of providing management excellence tailored to our clients needs,
the link into FPDSavills will provide increased opportunities for our clients
and allow access to a range of services that only one of the big firms can
deliver. We have considered this very carefully and have decided to amalgamate
with FPDSavills as they are the best in their class."


Rupert Sebag-Montefiore, Managing Director of FPDSavills and Savills plc
Director commented: "This is an important move forward that reflects
FPDSavills' very strong commitment to expansion in property services in the UK.
The transaction with Smith-Woolley gives greater depth to our land management
business as well as the scope to provide clients with a range of well developed
support services through FPDSavills' network of professionals in over 50 offices
in the UK.

"Importantly, this is a very significant expansion of our Oxford business, with
some 52 staff joining our 80-strong office there. When combined with our local
offices the acquisition will also deliver the strongest multi-practice firm in
Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire".

[chrisg] 26/9/2004 12:26

Not significantly, it would seem. Also, SVS is widely diversified. Only 75% of profits come from the UK, and even within that figure, far from all is estate agency. It seems rather likely that upswings from other activities will more than compensate for any softening in the sector of the housing market where they operate. A quick check of the broker forecasts should confirm that. With SVS at their present p/e rating, I'm long on these, and sleep incredibly well at night!

This is an AFX release quoting from an intervbiew:
LONDON (AFX) - Savills PLC, the up-market real estate agency, delivered a
sharp jump in first half profit as property markets recovered strongly after
being hit the year before by the war in Iraq, and the company sought to allay
fears that recent rises in UK interest rates could hurt business.
Savills posted pretax profits for the six months to June 30 up 54 pct to
15.1 mln stg on sales up 22 pct to 140.3 mln.
House broker ABN Amro had forecast pretax profit of 15.5 mln stg.
"2003 was quite a difficult half-year because of all the problems there were
then -- Iraq, SARS and everything else and we've seen a very strong bounce
back," chief executive Aubrey Adams told AFX News.
He said conditions had improved across the markets in which Savills
operates.
Adams went on to say that the recent series of interest rate rises in the UK
-- where Savills makes around three-quarters of its profit -- was not expected
to have much impact on business, with demand for exclusive properties likely to
prove resilient.
"We think there's been a bit of slowing up in the market but it's certainly
not a crash," he said, adding that turnover had been considerably higher than
the same period last year.
Savills did admit though that demand from buy-to-let investors, who were
taking a more cautious view as interest rates moved up, had dropped off.
The company said leasing markets in London and the south east of England had
started to pick up, with demand increasing as a result of a more optimistic
outlook from corporate tenants, while regional UK markets remained "resilient".
It added that demand for property from institutional investors and overseas
buyers remains strong, as does demand for retail warehouses where Savills is a
market leader.
Savills went on to report that the Hong Kong property market -- it earns a
further 18 pct of profit in Asia -- had performed "exceptionally well" in the
first half, contrasting the poor performance of last year when the business was
badly affected by the SARS outbreak.
Adams said the company is aiming to expand its operations in continental
Europe, where it confines its activities to the commercial property market,
after the business swung back into profit in the first half.
The group hiked its interim dividend 67 pct to 6.0 pence per share.
[e-mail]

[harvester] 24/9/2004 20:59

I think so too . Gone short @ 425 . Hope I got the timing right.
Property at present precariously poised . Will the millionaires served by Savilles notice that ?

[charlie100] 14/9/2004 15:43

I think they may trade off abit, we will see

[trader horne] 01/9/2004 14:44

Here we are folks:-

Premium property boom continues, says Savills
Published: 13:05 Wed 1 Sept 2004
By Cliff Feltham, Companies Correspondent

Savills' broker raise its forecast for full-year profits after the estate agent claims that interest rate rises are unlikely to slow down house prices at the premium end of the market.

Chief executive Aubrey Adams told Citywire that prices of £1 million-plus properties were 'still moving up'. He said: 'There is a limited supply of properties at this end of the market so we don't believe the rate increases will have any impact at all.'

He was commenting after the firm unveiled first half pre-tax profits of £15.1 million, an increase of 54%. The interim dividend is raised 67% to 6p.

House broker ABN Amro raised its full-year estimate by 10% to £35.5 million. The shares (SVS), which have nearly doubled in the last year, gained a further 10p at 421.5p.

Chairman Richard Jewson said: 'Continued underlying confidence in property as an asset class is expected to underpin the market and means that we are well placed to achieve a good result for the full year.'

Savills' residential business saw a pick up in demand from corporate tenants, resilient regional markets particularly in the Thames Valley, while sales of new homes no longer being dominated by buy to let investors.

©2004 Citywire
Companies in the news
Company Mid Change Approximate price on day of publication Price Change From Publication
Savills PLC ( SVS ) 421.25 9.75 422.38 -1.13

The market was nervous about property last week but idiotically so concerning SVS.

[charlie100] 26/8/2004 16:07

figures next week, likely to be good, would'nt fancy being short of this one.

[superdealer] 26/8/2004 13:57

Big jump today.

[trader horne] 13/8/2004 15:32

and energyi - why not say WHY you go short at this point?
Anyway you seem to represent Mr. Market while I have been asleep.
Extract from today's Daily Reckoning:

- This morning, July's break is clear to see. Estate
agency group Countrywide yesterday reported making a
pre-tax profit of £30.2m in the six months to June. That
was up 38% from the first half of 2003. But come July,
and it arranged 25% fewer sales than in the same month
last year.

- A property crash? Mr Market thinks so. Countrywide's
shares fell 35 pence on the news...down 10.9% for the
day to 285p. Fellow home-huckster Savills also ended
Thursday sharply lower. It closed 7% lower for the day,
14% off for the week, and 27% down from its top back in
May.

- The headline data is sure to confuse plenty more
investors yet, however. In total, the FTSE's Real Estate
Sector closed just 0.3% off yesterday. Construction &
Building Materials slipped 0.2%. The Banking Sector
actually rose, up 0.5% for the day as the FTSE All-Share
crept 0.3% higher. The FTSE100 rose 16 points to 4,328.

- "[But] looking at the plunge in estate agency stocks,"
says our friend, Zurich Club advisor David Guthrie in a
note, "Mr Market is clearly telling investors and
homeowners where those Halifax and Nationwide numbers
will be heading." A report from the Council of Mortgage
Lenders agrees. The top is in - and the nation's estate
agents are point the way down...

- According to both Nationwide and Halifax, annual house
price growth in July hit its highest for over a year.
Hometrack reckons average national house prices fell one
tenth of a percent in July, while the number of new
buyers dropped by 4%, "practically wiping out the excess
demand that had prevailed previously," says the CML.

- But Rightmove collects 'asking price' data from estate
agents, rather than mortgage approvals, which lag by up
to 10 weeks. Its latest report shows that in the 3-week
period to July 31, the average asking price fell by 0.5%
- "incontrovertible evidence that prices are coming off
their peaks," according to Miles Shipside, Rightmove's
commercial director.

- The wider impact of falling property values on UK Plc?
We've warned countless times that Britain's economic
growth now depends on the strength of house-price
inflation. Gordon Brown, the Bank of England and
property-show TV producers have conspired to ensure the
feelgood factor scours the property pages every day,
before jumping into his car each weekend and heading
straight for B&Q.