29th Jul 2015 07:02
LONDON (Alliance News) - St James's Place PLC Wednesday said it has agreed to acquire Rowan Dartington Holdings Ltd, a stockbroker and discretionary investment manager with more than GBP1 billion in funds under management.
"The supplementary services, which include advisory portfolio management, direct equity, trust and charity portfolio management, will broaden the range of investment options we can offer to existing clients and enable us to access new clients who value such service," Chief Executive David Bellamy said in a statement.
"In addition to establishing a direct presence in the DFM market this acquisition will provide our Partners with the ability to meet a wider set of clients' investment needs including the management of existing portfolios and direct equity ownership. It also opens opportunities to meet the specific investment requirements of the growing trust and charity sector," Bellamy said.
The FTSE 100 wealth management and financial advice company said it the provision of a discretionary fund management service has been on the cards for some time, with the acquisition of Rowan Dartington giving it a platform from which to do just that.
Rowan Dartington, based in Bristol, England, has been around since 1990, one year before St James's Place itself was established, and employs about 100 people.
The acquisition was revealed as St James's Place said it had a net inflow of funds under management of GBP2.67 billion in the six months to the end of June, compared with GBP2.44 billion in the corresponding period the prior year. That helped funds under management to increase by 6.7% to GBP55.5 billion during the first six months of 2015.
Pretax profit for the first half fell to GBP103.7 million from GBP110.4 million year-on-year. Underlying profit before shareholder tax, a closely watched measure, fell to GBP72.9 million from GBP78.3 million year-on-year. New business profits on the basis of European Embedded Value increased to GBP205.9 million from GBP181.3 million year-on-year.
"Disappointingly, our profits have been impacted by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme levy, which has almost trebled from GBP6.9 million to GBP20 million," Bellamy said.
"We are naturally concerned about the scale of this year's levy and the burden on shareholders and will be actively engaging in the FCA's review of the allocation and application of the future levy," Bellamy said.
St James's Place increased its interim dividend by 20% to 10.72 pence per share.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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