St. James's Place Half Year Results 2019

NET INFLOWS AND STRONG MARKET RETURNS INCREASE FUNDS UNDER MANAGEMENT TO A RECORD £109.3 BILLION

St. James’s Place plc (SJP), the wealth management group, today issues its new business and financial results for the six months ended 30 June 2019.

Watch the video below to hear from our Chief Executive, Andrew Croft, and Chief Financial Officer, Craig Gentle, as they discuss our half year results.

The value of an investment with St. James’s Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds selected and may fall as well as rise. You may get back less than the amount invested.

New Investment and Funds under Management

• Gross inflow of funds of £7.4 billion (2018: £7.9 billion)
• Continued strong retention of client funds – 96%
• Net inflow of funds of £4.4 billion (2018: £5.2 billion)
• Record Group funds under management of £109.3 billion (2018: £96.6 billion)

Financial Highlights

• EEV new business profit £386.3 million (2018: £437.0 million)
• EEV operating profit £465.7 million (2018: £489.6 million)
• IFRS profit before shareholder tax £57.3 million (2018: £82.5 million)
• Underlying IFRS profit before shareholder tax £81.5 million (2018: £115.4 million)
• Underlying cash result (post-tax) £125.1 million (2018: £147.1 million)
• Underlying cash earnings per share of 23.7 pence (2018: 28.0 pence per share)

Interim Dividend

• Interim dividend of 18.49 pence per share (2018: 18.49 pence per share)

Other highlights:

• We are now represented by 4,096 qualified advisers across the Partnership, with a further 446 individuals in training across the Academy programme
• The successful migration of all UK business onto Bluedoor has been completed

Andrew Croft, Chief Executive, commented:

Given the uncertain macro-economic and political environment that continues to prevail in the UK, I am pleased to report a solid set of results for the first six months of 2019, once again demonstrating the resilience of the St. James’s Place business.

Whilst our new business continues to perform well compared to others in the wealth management sector, we are not immune to the challenging external factors that prevailed during the first half of the year. Consequently, gross new inflows for the period, at £7.4 billion, were some 7% lower than the first half of 2018, and we are encouraged that gross flows improved in the second quarter versus the first quarter.

Importantly, the continued strong retention of existing client funds meant that we attracted £4.4 billion of net inflows for the period, equating to 4.6% of opening funds under management, 9.2% on an annualised basis. These positive net flows, together with the recovery in investment markets, increased funds under management over the period by 14% to a record £109.3 billion.

Experience tells us that whilst inflows may be impacted from time to time by external factors that are beyond our control, our clients’ financial planning requirements remain unchanged and if anything, the need for advice is more pronounced in times of uncertainty. Therefore, in the short term as the current external environment remains uncertain, confidence towards investing may remain tempered. However, it is at times like this that relationships between client and adviser are strengthened.

We continue to attract experienced high-quality advisers to the Partnership and have increased the investment in our Academy programme. As a result, during the first half of the year the total number of fully qualified advisers increased by 3.6% to 4,096, with a further 446 individuals in training across the Academy.

Looking further ahead, the fundamental financial planning requirements of individuals remain considerable whilst, at the same time, the availability of high quality professional financial advice continues to be limited. We are therefore confident that the strength, depth and quality of the growing Partnership, together with the investments we are making in the business and our distinctive investment management approach, mean that we remain well placed to continue to grow our business.

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View the full press release.