Savills PLC Trading Statement (0583N)

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RNS Number : 0583N

Savills PLC

15 January 2019

15 January 2019

SAVILLS PLC

("Savills" or the "Group")

Year-End Trading Update

Savills plc, the international real estate advisor, publishes the following trading update in respect of the year ended 31 December 2018.

Savills experienced a robust closing quarter in most of our business lines to deliver growth in both revenue and underlying profits for the full year. In addition to maintaining or growing our share of transactional markets, the performance of our less transactional business lines was key to this performance. This was achieved against a backdrop of heightened uncertainty through the last quarter as Brexit, US trade policy and higher long term treasury yields, particularly in the benchmark US 10 year Treasury Bond, began to have a discernible impact on investor sentiment in a number of markets across the Globe.

The Group anticipates that underlying results for the year to 31 December 2018 will be in line with the Board's expectations.

The UK delivered a resilient performance in the Commercial Transaction businesses in an environment of relatively robust occupier demand and continued strong investment interest, particularly from the Asia Pacific region, albeit that the market volume of trade declined in comparison with 2017. Our Residential business continued to perform well growing market share in challenging conditions and our less transactional Consultancy and Property Management businesses, in the UK and globally, performed in line with our expectations.

Our Asia Pacific and Continental European transactional businesses performed as anticipated, with particularly strong results from Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Ireland and Germany. In addition we benefited from an encouraging maiden year performance from Savills Aguirre Newman in Spain.

In the US, we delivered significant growth in the Occupier Service business (including tenant representation brokerage). This led to an improved performance overall for the year, even after the continued costs of investment in the business including significant investment in management and in our central office platform.

Savills Investment Management successfully navigated the expected significant decline in activity relating to disposals from liquidating the SEB Open-Ended Funds. The business launched a number of new products, raising significant new capital, increasing its Assets Under Management and achieving a result in line with our expectations for the year.

The performance of our existing businesses together with a deliberate reduction in business development investment under current market conditions, led to a stronger year-end net cash position than originally expected for the Group.

Prospects for 2019 are overshadowed by macro-economic and political uncertainties across the World. It is difficult accurately to predict the impact of these issues on corporate expansionary activity and investor demand for real estate. At this stage, we expect to see declines in transaction volumes in a number of markets, the impact of which, to Savills, should be largely mitigated by growth in our less transactional business lines; accordingly we currently anticipate that the Group's performance in 2019 should be broadly consistent year-on- year.

Savills will report 2018 full year results on 14 March 2019.

For further information, contact:

   Savills    020 7409 8934 

Mark Ridley, Group Chief Executive

Simon Shaw, Group Chief Financial Officer

   Tulchan Communications    020 7353 4200 

David Allchurch

Elizabeth Snow

Inside Information

This announcement is being disclosed in accordance with the Market Abuse Regulation (EU596/2014) and has been determined to contain inside information in line with the definition therein.

Forward looking statements

Certain statements in this announcement are forward-looking statements relating to the Group's operations, performance and financial position based on current expectations of, and assumptions and forecasts made by, management. They are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Group to differ materially from any outcomes or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Group's principal risks are described in the 2017 Savills plc Annual Report which can be viewed online at http://www.savills.com. Such forward looking statements should therefore be construed in light of such risks, uncertainties and other factors and undue reliance should not be placed on them. They are made only as of the date of this announcement and no representation, assurance, guarantee or warranty is given in relation to them including as to their accuracy, completeness, or the basis on which they are made. No obligation is accepted to publicly revise or update these forward-looking statements or adjust them as a result of new information or for future events or developments, except to the extent legally required. Nothing in this Statement should be construed as a profit forecast.

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact [e-mail] or visit www.rns.com.

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January 15, 2019 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)