Christie Group profit growth gathered pace in the year to December 2025, with the London-listed advisory and services group reporting a 95.5% surge in operating profit to £6.9m from £3.5m a year earlier, according to its preliminary results announcement published on Investegate.
Revenue from continuing operations rose 19.2% to £70.6m, while earnings per share from continuing operations jumped 87.9% to 19.37p. The group ended the year with net funds of £9.4m and no external borrowings, against just £1.3m of cash two years prior.
Christie Group Profit Growth Driven by Divestment Strategy
The turnaround reflects two years of deliberate portfolio pruning. Christie Group sold Orridge, its retail stock-audit business, to RGIS Inventory Specialists Limited on 4 November 2024 for a cash consideration of up to £5.0m, according to its Christie Group Annual Report 2025.
Vennersys, its visitor-attraction ticketing software unit, followed. The business was formally classified as a discontinued operation on 19 December 2025 and sold to Digital Ticketing Systems, completing on 16 January 2026. Total consideration reached up to £1.4m: £0.5m paid on completion and up to £0.9m in deferred payments due within 18 months, subject to post-completion performance conditions. Vennersys held gross assets of £1.43m but had reported a pre-tax loss of £1.57m, according to the London Stock Exchange announcement.
Together the two disposals have generated over £5.5m in cash and lifted the operating margin from 5.9% to 9.7%. The Annual Report’s strategic section cites a slightly different presentation of 10.3%; the preliminary results and the chairman’s letter both use 9.7% on a continuing-operations reported basis. The group’s stated target is margins in excess of 10%.
Profit before tax from continuing operations reached £6.0m, up from £2.6m in 2024, a 133% increase, according to the group’s LSEG issuer filing. The group’s return on capital employed reached 39%, placing it, by its own assessment, in the top 5% of London-listed companies.
Two Divisions, One Cross-Referral Engine
The Professional & Financial Services division, which generated around 84% of group revenue, recorded revenue of £59.6m in 2025, up from £48.8m the prior year, a rise of 22%. The division houses Christie & Co, the specialist agency and advisory business; Christie Finance, its Financial Conduct Authority-regulated brokerage; Christie Insurance; and Pinders, the business appraisal specialist.
The cross-referral dynamic within the division is central to the model. In 2025, 59% of Christie Finance’s commercial mortgage and debt advisory instructions came via Christie & Co, and 12% of all Christie & Co brokered deals involved Christie Finance.
In Europe, fee income rose 37%. Christie & Co’s French team completed a record 57 hotel sales, and the group brokered the sale of the 328-room Vienna Marriott on the Ringstraße to an international investor consortium, one of the most consequential hotel transactions in the Austrian market in 2025. MSCI’s 2025 Global Brokerage Rankings named Christie & Co the most active hotel property agent across the UK and the Eurozone.
Christie Group sold 1,164 businesses in 2025, worth nearly £2bn in aggregate, up 45% in value on the prior year, with the average brokerage fee rising 26%. Christie Finance secured £292m of debt for clients, up 38%. Venners, the hospitality stock audit unit, conducted 35,024 stock audits during the year and grew revenues 5.4% despite difficult conditions in the hospitality sector.
In childcare, Christie & Co brokered the sale of Perfect Start Day nurseries to Kids Planet. In healthcare, the group advised Omega Healthcare Investors on acquiring 47 former Four Seasons care homes. The UK nursery market counts around 15,090 settings, the majority independently owned, a fragmented base that management expects to generate sustained deal flow.
Dividend and Outlook
The board recommended a final dividend of 2.75p per share, a 57% increase on the prior year, taking the full-year payout to 3.50p, up from 2.25p. The interim dividend paid during 2025 was 0.75p. Subject to shareholder approval at the AGM on 16 June 2026, the final dividend is due for payment on 10 July 2026 to shareholders on the register on 12 June 2026, per the Christie Group investor update via Investor Meet Company.
At June’s AGM, management reported UK agency pipelines up 14% by value and 19% by deal volume, with Christie Finance fee income 23% ahead. The group expects to sell over 1,000 businesses for a third consecutive year, with profits second-half weighted given extended deal timelines.
The binary near-term question is whether further Bank of England rate reductions materialise: management said borrower demand and lending appetite remained robust through the first quarter, but any resumption of cuts would directly accelerate Christie Finance’s pipeline conversion.
