Savills beats profit expectations as UK business holds up despite Brexit

LONDON, March 22 (Reuters) - International estate agent Savills (Stuttgart: 1YZ.SG - news) reported a 12 percent rise in underlying profits last year as demand for property in Britain held up, helped by the Brexit-induced slump in the pound boosting investor interest.

Underlying profit for 2016 was 135.8 million pounds ($170 million), ahead of expectations in a Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) poll of analysts, helped by overall revenue rising 3 percent in Britain, which accounts for Savills' biggest proportion of turnover.

"We benefited from the scale of our operations across the globe, which have grown substantially over recent years, as well as a highly resilient performance in the UK," Chief Executive Jeremy Helsby said.

($1 = 0.8006 pounds) (Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by David Clarke)