St. James’s Place plc (LON:SJP), the wealth management group, today issued its new business and financial results for the six months ended 30 June 2018.
New Investment and Funds under Management
· Gross inflow of funds of £7.9 billion (2017: £6.9 billion), up 15%.
· Continued strong retention of client funds – 96%.
· Net inflow of funds of £5.2 billion (2017: £4.3 billion), up 21%.
· Group funds under management of £96.6 billion (2017: £83.0 billion), up 16% over the twelve months.
Financial Highlights
· EEV new business profit £437.0 million (2017: £343.0 million), up 27%.
· EEV operating profit £489.6 million (2017: £397.3 million), up 23%.
· Underlying IFRS profit before shareholder tax £115.4 million (2017: £106.3 million), up 9%.
· IFRS profit before shareholder tax £82.5 million (2017: £79.6 million), up 4%.
· Underlying cash result (post-tax) £147.1 million (2017: £123.1 million), up 20%.
· Underlying cash basic earnings per share of 28.0 pence (2017: 23.5 pence per share), up 19%.
· Interim dividend of 18.49 pence per share (2017: 15.41 pence per share), up 20%.
Other Highlights
· Total number of advisers at 3,810, up 4%.
· Successful migration of pensions drawdown business onto Bluedoor.
· Launch of an international Discretionary Fund Management service in Hong Kong.
· New investment manager appointments to Alternative Assets and European equity mandates.
· Launch of a new Diversified Assets Fund.
St James Place, Andrew Croft, Chief Executive, commented:
“Following last year’s exceptional growth, I am delighted to report continued strong growth across all key areas of our business. Gross inflows grew by 15% during the first half to £7.9 billion, net inflows of £5.2 billion were up 21% reflecting the continued and improving retention – a testament to the Partnership, whilst funds under management closed the half year at just under £97 billion, up 6% since the end of 2017 and 16% higher over the past year.
Naturally, this strong new business performance is reflected in the Group’s financial performance, with growth in all our financial KPIs for the half year. Of particular note was the strong growth in the Underlying cash result, up 20% to £147.1 million.
The first half of 2018 has also seen St. James’s Place make good progress on other counts. The number of advisers grew by 4% to 3,810 which bodes well for future growth. We have made significant progress on our back-office infrastructure project and continued to broaden our client offering with the addition of a Diversified Assets Fund managed by KKR.
Individuals face considerable challenges when planning for and managing their wealth, both before and after retirement as well as when considering the transfer of wealth to their next generation. Consequently, we continue to see a growing demand for highly personalised and trusted face-to-face financial advice and service. At the same time there are not enough qualified individuals to meet this growing demand and an advice gap exists. With the strength and depth of our technical resources and the Partnership, St. James’s Place is well placed to address these needs.
Furthermore, we, and very importantly our Partner businesses, continue to invest in our respective infrastructure and capacity ensuring we are well placed for future growth. We are also investing in our client service, our investment management approach, both our new Asian and DFM businesses and very importantly an increasing investment in our Academy. The Academy will play an important and growing role in developing our next generation of financial advisers thereby supporting Partner succession and aiding the retention of long-term client relationships as well as building intergenerational relationships.
The environment we are operating in, together with these investments, provides us with the confidence that we can continue to achieve our medium-term growth objectives.
Supporting the above, we have a strong balance sheet and the knowledge of a growing income from our existing business both of which underpin the growing return to shareholders as shown by the 20% increase in the interim dividend.”
