Jones Lang LaSalle come up with a decent result

If only Jones Lang LaSalle had not bought Staubach last year and if only the investment management arm had not co-invested with clients the firm would have made a small profit in the first nine months of 2009. 

But the purchase of Staubach in the summer of 2008 has cost $37m this year in restructuring charges. The falling value of property has cost LaSalle Investment Management $48m. So a loss of $56m would have been a profit of $15m on turnover down 12% to $1.7b, according to Q3 accounts released last night. 

Of more interest perhaps are the fresh numbers for June to September. In Q3 revenues were down 12% at $595 over Q3 2008. But JLL actually made $20m profit, despite a one-off hit of $8m. This can be put down to falling costs, which were $546m in Q3 compared to $643m in Q3 2008 - a 14% drop. In the first nine months of 2009 costs at $1.6b are $200m less than in the same period last year.

In the EMEA bit that interests UK readers revenues were down 26% to $154m in Q3. Operating expenses at $158m were down 22%. The result; a $4m loss for the UK and European operations, which is now showing a $26m loss in the first nine months on revenues down from $627m to $444m.

But JLL managed to pay off $100m in debt and the quietly effective CEO Colin Dyer says he sees "initial signs of recovery." Perhaps not a bad set of results given what a bad time was being had by all in the first six months of 2009.