Tipping the shares of a company best known as a high-end estate agent may seem unusual as mortgage rates surge and housebuilders batten down the hatches. But Savills (SVS) is, in reality, a wide-ranging property services business with an increasingly global reach following a transformative acquisition.
While Savills’ £685mn acquisition of real estate investment bank Eastdil Secured on 12 March surprised the property world, the strategic rationale made sense. Savills is underexposed to real estate investment activity in the US, the world’s largest and most lucrative market. Eastdil, which has 13 offices in the US, has a strong record of advising on both mergers and acquisitions and debt refinancing.
The higher-margin nature of these activities meant that Eastdil generated underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of $113mn (£85mn) in 2025. This is half the amount of the stand-alone Savills business but at triple the underlying Ebitda margin (18 per cent versus 6 per cent).