DTZ dividend safe despite alert

FEWER transactions and lengthening time periods between instruction and completion of deals has led international property consultants DTZ Holdings to issue a profits warning for the first time.

Continental Europe has proved to be a problem for the agency services of DTZ, especially countries where the property market is less sophisticated than in Britain.

Chief executive Mark Struckett has warned that results in the second half of the financial year ending this month would be below first-half figures of £7.73m. Full-year figures would inevitably be hit by the slowdown in transactional activity across a number of its key markets, he said.

Despite the setback, Struckett says that DTZ will continue to invest in both people and infrastructure as it expands into Europe. He is sticking to his stated aim of building up the company with more stable earnings in order to ride out the sector's cyclical swings.

Struckett promised that the dividend for the year would be maintained. DTZ shares fell back 21% to 118 1/2p, a 32p tumble