Directors’ pay dips at Savills as profit and turnover edge higher

Directors at estate agent Savills are not expecting a downturn in the commercial property sector any time soon and continue to enjoy the rewards of a recovering market.

However, newly-filed accounts for Savills Commercial (Ireland) Limited show that while profits continued to rise in 2015 it was at a slower rate than in previous years, resulting in a slightly lower payout for directors.

In 2014, the firm’s 16 directors enjoyed aggregate remuneration totalling €8.2 million, coming after pay rose 102 per cent a year earlier. In 2015, directors’ emoluments, including pension payments, totalled €7.4 million, which was shared between 17 people.

Profit increase

Pretax profit for the year ending December 2015 totalled €5.85 million, up from €5.6 million in 2014. A year earlier, profits had climbed from just €2.7 million.

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Revenue, which in 2014 rose by nearly 50 per cent from €20.3 million to €30.4 million, edged up to €32.5 million last year.

“The outlook for 2016 and 2017 is positive based on continued improvement to trading as the transactional market recovers,” the directors said in a note.

The company, which saw headcount increase to 219 from 212 during the year, recorded employee-related costs of €23 million, as against €20.6 million a year earlier.

Separate accounts filed for the group’s residential division for the same period show it slipped into the red again last year after returning to profit in 2014.

Savills Residential (Ireland) Limited reported a €416,654 pretax loss last year, compared with a €119,066 profit a year earlier as turnover fell to €1.6 million from €2.09 million.

The unit employed 21 people and had staff costs of €1.15 million in 2015, compared with €995,281 in the prior year.

Savills Ireland parent company, Savills plc, which employs more than 30,000 people worldwide, announced group revenue of £622.7 million (€743 million) for the first half of 2016, up 14 per cent compared with the same period a year earlier. However, profits at the group’s British commercial property business more than halved due to the Brexit referendum.