March 19 (Reuters) - International estate agent Savills Plc posted a 21 percent rise in pretax profit for 2014,helped by a record performance in Britain, led by London, andits acquisition of U.S. group Studley in May.
The group also on Thursday agreed to buy Germany's SEB AssetManagement for up to 21.5 million euros in cash to create agroup with 15 billion euros worth of European assets undermanagement.
Savills on Thursday reported group pretax profit of 84.7million pounds ($126 million) on revenue which was 19 percenthigher at 1.08 billion pounds.
It said it made a "solid start" to 2015 in line with itsexpectations, but added that the timing of a recovery in theHong Kong commercial market and a subdued UK residential marketahead of a national election in May meant its performance wouldbe weighted towards the second half.
($1 = 0.6730 pounds) (Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Sarah Young)