Property firm DTZ yesterday put on a brave face - despite a 24 per cent plunge in first half pre-tax profits.

The firm, which has a major operation in Birmingham, said that for the six months to the end of October pre-tax profits came in at £11.7 million, down from the previous figure of £15.4 million.

Revenues, however, rose 58.5 per cent, from £125 million to £198.1 million.

The company, which declared an unchanged interim dividend payment of 3.5p per share, said it had been affected by the prevailing economic uncertainty, but it was still confident its strategy would strengthen its long-term earnings potential.

Chairman Rim Melville-Ross said: "Recent events and investor uncertainty concerning the economic outlook and the potential impact on the property market have caused shares in property and property related companies to fall considerably.

"The group has inevitably been affected by this uncertainty and we expect the full year results to reflect these challenging conditions.

"We are confident that our strategy to broaden both the geographical spread of our business and the services we are able to offer gives some valuable protection to the group in difficult markets."

Geoff Thomas, the company's Birmingham-based regional chairman for the Midlands and South West, said: "Despite the impact of the credit crunch, which has had a significant effect on commercial property investment, there are some positive signs coming from the regional commercial property market.

"The occupier market remains strong with some large office lettings recently completed in Birmingham and others in the pipeline."

He added: "The breadth and size of our business - we are part of a worldwide company with over 11,000 staff in 45 countries operating in a range of sectors - means we are very resilient to fluctuations in particular markets and locations.

"Regional centres are generally far less volatile than the London markets and in uncertain times like these, Birmingham really comes into its own.

"Following the acquisition of Donaldsons in July, we now have over 300 professional staff working from Birmingham in our two main offices.

"In addition, we directly employ a further 100 staff on sites in the West Midlands.

Key deals for DTZ during the past six months included the letting of 30,000 sq ft at Tiger Developments' Chadwick House in Solihull to LaSer UK, one of the UK's leading providers of innovative credit and customer programmes.

DTZ also acted for mobile phone company Vodafone in taking 80,000 sq ft at Etruria, a state-of-the-art contact centre in Stoke-on-Trent.

Mr Thomas continued: "Fort Dunlop is another local success story for DTZ, with just four per cent of the 400,000 sq ft of commercial space still to be let at the iconic building.

"Companies recently signed up include serviced office provider Regus (16,500 sq ft) and insurance broker Premium Choice (12,500 sq ft).

"Businesses already there include ICT provider Service Birmingham, media group Trinity Mirror, construction company Fitzpatrick and international manufacturing technologies company MAG."