29th Jul 2014 07:59
LONDON (Alliance News) - St James's Place PLC Tuesday raised its interim dividend for the half year to end-June and pledged further dividend growth for the full year, as it saw strong growth in its net inflow of funds under management but a sharp fall in half-year pretax profit.
The financial services company posted an interim dividend of 8.93 pence, up 40% from 6.38 pence. St James's said it expects to increase its full-year dividend by a similar amount, signalling its confidence for the future, it said. The company said it plans to continue its progressive dividend policy, growing its future dividend in line with its underlying performance.
The company said that in the first half of the year its partners introduced 27,000 new clients, who together with its existing clients, made GBP3.92 billion of new investments, up from GBP3.23 billion a year before. As a result of strong work from its partners, St James's said it saw a strong retention of existing funds, leading to net inflows of GBP2.44 billion, up from GBP1.99 billion in the previous year.
Funds under management were up to GBP47.6 billion from GBP39.9 billion, up 19% from the previous year and 7% since the start of the year.
The company posted a pretax profit of GBP110.4 million, down from GBP249.5 million in the previous year, as revenue declined to GBP1.76 billion from GBP3.87 billion, hampered by a reduction in investment return.
Partnership numbers were 2,007, up 5.4% from the previous year, and its total number of advisers was 2,688, up 9%. After two years of disruption in the adviser marketplace, St.James's said, the growth in the size of the partnership has returned to a "more normalised level."
It is increasingly attracting larger businesses with more than one qualified adviser, it said, which boosted its total numbers of qualified advisers.
The company said it has been investing in developing new advisers through its St.James's Place Academy graduate scheme, and saw its first graduate advisers enter the Partnership during the period. Additionally, its recent acquisition of Singapore based The Henley Group' will bring in a new team of advisers to extend its reach to UK expatriates living in the Far East.
St James's said that it is encouraged by the pension and savings initiatives announced in the UK government's budget earlier in the year and said it fully supports plans to "simplify the current regime and encourage savings for the future."
It said that this, early indications from its Henley acquisition, and its early successes from its Academy initiative, and continued growth in its Partnership "bode really well for the future".
Shares in St James's were trading down 2.7% at 768.50 pence Tuesday morning, the biggest faller in the FTSE 100.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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