Half Year Results Announcement

STRONG GROWTH IN NEW INVESTMENTS, NET INFLOWS, FUNDS UNDER MANAGEMENT,

TOTAL ADVISER NUMBERS AND UNDERLYING CASH PROFITS



INTERIM DIVIDEND INCREASED BY 40%

Watch the video below and hear from our Chief Executive, David Bellamy, as he talks about our half year results for the six months to 30 June 2014.

New Business and Funds under Management

• Total single investments of £3.92 billion (2013: £3.23 billion) - up 21%
• Continued strong retention of existing client funds - 95%
• Net inflow of funds under management of £2.44 billion (2013: £1.99 billion) - up 23%
• Funds under management of £47.6 billion (2013: £39.9 billion) - up 19% over the twelve months and 7% since the start of the year
• SJP new business, on an APE basis, of £447.9 million (2013: £373.9 million) - up 20%

St. James’s Place Partnership

• Partnership numbers at 2,007 - up 5.4% over the twelve months and 2.5% since the start of the year
• Total number of advisers at 2,688 - up 9% over the twelve months and 4.6% since start of the year

Profit

EEV basis

• New business profits of £181.3 million (2013: £152.4 million) - up 19%
• Operating profit at £260.7 million (2013: £233.6 million) - up 12%
• Net asset value per share 604.9 pence (2013: 524.1 pence) - up 15% over the twelve months and 5% since the start of the year

IFRS basis

• Profit before shareholder tax of £82.4 million (2013: £81.2 million, excluding one-off items) - up 1%
• Net asset value per share 178.8 pence (2013: 165.8 pence) - up 8% over the twelve months and 2% since the start of the year

Cash result

• Underlying post tax cash result of £78.5 million (2013: £66.9 million) - up 17%

Interim Dividend:

• Interim dividend 8.93 pence per share - up 40%

David Bellamy, Chief Executive, commented:

“I am very pleased to report another strong performance from St. James’s Place.

As I have commented previously, we believe that there is a growing market for trustworthy, personal advice in the UK marketplace and these results once again demonstrate that fact. They also demonstrate that the scale and quality of the company’s relationship based approach to wealth management, twinned with our distinct investment management proposition, which has been positioned to serve this market, is doing so.

In the first half of this year, our Partners introduced over 27,000 new clients to St. James's Place who, together with our existing clients, entrusted us with over £3.9 billion of new investments, some 21% higher than for the same period last year. Furthermore, the long term retention of client funds under management remains consistently strong at 95%, increasing our net inflow by 23% to just over £2.4 billion, taking our funds under management to a new record high of £47.6 billion.

As anticipated, following two years of disruption in the adviser marketplace, growth in the size of the Partnership has returned to what we regard as a more normalised level. However, we are increasingly attracting larger businesses that consist of more than one qualified adviser and consequently, the growth in total qualified adviser numbers is up a little higher than Partner numbers at 4.6% year on year.

In order to complement our normal recruitment, since 2012 we have also been investing in the development of new advisers though the St. James's Place Academy and I’m pleased to welcome our first ‘graduate’ advisers to the Partnership this year. Alongside that, the recently completed acquisition of the Henley Group means we will soon be welcoming a new team of advisers enabling us to extend our advisory approach to UK expatriates living in the Far East.

Closer to home, we are encouraged by the pension and savings initiatives announced in the budget earlier this year and indeed we fully support steps that seek to simplify the current regime and encourage savings for the future. We expect our advisers to play an increasingly important role in helping their clients to understand the options available to them leading up to, at and post retirement, in order that they can make the right decisions and plan accordingly.

Finally, the scale, growth and maturity of our funds under management has resulted in a growing underlying post tax result in recent years, which has supported the significant increase in dividends. This growth has continued in 2014 and given this performance and our confidence about the future, the Board has agreed an increase in the interim dividend at the top end of the range signalled earlier in the year of 40% and anticipate a similar increase in the full year dividend.”

Enquiries:

View the full press release.