We had a solid financial performance in fiscal 2008. The challenging U.S. and global economies demonstrated the importance of our diversification across service platforms and international markets. FirstService revenues grew 33% to US$1.57 billion, EBITDA was up 9% to US$120 million and earnings per share were down 3% to US$1.02.* Revenues and EBITDA from our Residential Property Management and Property Services divisions were up sharply over the prior year while results from our Commercial Real Estate division were impacted by market conditions, especially in the 4th quarter.
We take pride in our disciplined approach to operating our business as defined by 7 principles we call "The FirstService Way." Our goal is to be a global diversified real estate service company that delivers consistent growth in earnings and shareholder value. The FirstService Way guides our leadership team in practices and behaviours we believe are essential to achieving success. Our principles underline our commitment to each other to be generous partners, innovative entrepreneurs and responsible managers dedicated to creating value for our shareholders.
FirstService enters fiscal 2009 well positioned
to take advantage of global real estate service
markets ripe with opportunity.
During the past year, FirstService operated in the fullness of its mandate as we grew through acquisitions, added depth and breadth to our service offerings, initiated a significant divestiture creating substantial value for our shareholders and increased our financial capacity to fuel future growth. Despite results that were weaker than expected, we are very pleased with our accomplishments in fiscal 2008 which set the stage for a strong performance down the road when market conditions improve.
In Commercial Real Estate Services, we completed 8 acquisitions with important additions in Australia, Eastern Europe and Russia. In North America we strengthened our brand with the acquisition of Colliers Meredith & Grew in Boston and Colliers Monroe & Friedlander in Hawaii.
In Residential Property Management we completed 5 important acquisitions as we added to our US market coverage. We grew in the Northeast with the acquisition of Planned Companies and we finally entered the California market with the acquisition of highly coveted Merit Companies, the market leader in the region.
In Property Services we completed a strong strategic play with the addition of Field Asset Services to our extensive portfolio of franchise and contractor networks. We expect this new acquisition to double its revenue in its first full year with FirstService, but more importantly, to add a counter-cyclical balance in property preservation and foreclosure management at exactly the right time in the business cycle.
We also made an important decision about our security services operation. In accordance with our operating principles, we decided to divest ourselves of a very successful business because it had reached the point where we could no longer expand the business through acquisitions that met our criteria. Over the years we have been approached by several large industry players interested in acquiring FirstService Security, which operates as Intercon Security in Canada and Security Services & Technology in the United States, and is one of the top integrated security services players in North America. We were very pleased to find the right buyer for this highly sought-after asset and are confident that industry-leading ADT Security will take this business to the next level.
Despite a very challenging economy that is demanding more from great companies everywhere, FirstService enters fiscal 2009 well positioned to move decisively to take advantage of global real estate service markets ripe with opportunity. As a result of the security divestiture, FirstService has approximately US$300 million in available capital to drive the growth of its core service areas without having to raise additional equity.
Our goal is to become the largest and most admired real estate services company in the world in the years to come. We have three great businesses with strong recurring and repeat revenue streams, three great management teams operating in a decentralized way, following the 7 principles of The FirstService Way, and three industry-leading service divisions with unlimited growth opportunities on a global scale. FirstService is truly ready to take its place among the great global companies.
On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank all our business leaders and operating partners for their inspired work this past year and our employees for their dedication and commitment. We look forward to continuing our strong growth in the coming year while creating value for our shareholders.
