LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - First-half profits at London estate agent Foxtons tanked 64% as the company highlighted "unprecedented" economic and political uncertainty.
In the six months to the end of June, pre-tax profit slumped to £3.8m from £10.5m in the first half of last year as revenue dropped 15% to £58.5m. Group adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation fell to £7.1m from £13.1m and basic earnings per share came in at 1.2p from 3.0p the year before.

Lettings revenue was down 2% to £32.1m while sales revenue declined 29% in the half to £22.2m, mainly due to the surge in the first quarter last year.

Chief executive officer Nic Budden said: "Our performance has been resilient in the context of a London property market that has been further impacted by unprecedented economic and political uncertainty.

"During the last six months we have maintained our relentless focus on delivering a market leading service for our customers and that remains our priority. We recently launched MyFoxtons for tenants and buyers, a sophisticated online portal to complement the equivalent for landlords and vendors launched last year, and early feedback has been encouraging. We have several new and exciting initiatives underway designed to build our lettings portfolio and strengthen our customer offer further. While conditions remain challenging, we are confident that these initiatives, together with the strength of our network, our balance sheet and our brand will support long term growth for our shareholders."

The company said it expects trading conditions for the rest of the year to remain challenging, but longer term, it reckons London will remain a "highly attractive" property market for sales and lettings.

At 1035 BST, the shares were down 5.1% to 91.08p.

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