St. James’s Place funds under management top £102 billion

St. James’s Place plc, the Cirencester-based wealth management group, has revealed its annual results for the year ended 31 December 2018.

The company reported an operating profit of £1,002 million, up nine per cent on last year, and new business profit of almost £853 million, also up nine per cent on last year.

While funds under management hit £95.6 billion by the end of 2018, this has since tipped £100 billion, according to Chief Executive Andrew Croft.

He said: “I am pleased to report a good set of results for 2018, building on an exceptional outcome in 2017 and despite a difficult external environment in the last quarter of the year. This demonstrates once again the resilience of our business.

“The financial performance of the business reflects the progression of funds under management together with the contribution of new inflows in the year, resulting in good growth across all our key financial metrics.”

Andrew acknowledged the recovery in the global stock markets at the start of 2019.

This, together with on-going net inflows during January and February took St James’s Place’s funds under management to some £102 billion.

But challenging external factors, like those currently being experienced, are not in the company’s control, he warned. “The pace of fund flows has moderated compared with last year. I would note though that the inflows for the same period last year represent a very strong comparative and March typically accounts for around 50% of the first quarter’s flows.”

Financial highlights

•                      • EEV new business profit £852.7 million (2017: £779.8 million) – up 9%

•                      • EEV operating profit £1,002.0 million (2017: £918.5 million) – up 9%

•                      • IFRS profit before shareholder tax £211.9 million (2017: £186.1 million) – up 14%

•                      • Underlying cash result £309.0 million (2017: £281.2 million) – up 10%

•                      • Underlying cash earnings per share of 58.7 pence (2017: 53.6 pence per share) – up 10%

Other highlights

•                      • Gross inflows of £15.7 billion (2017: £14.6 billion)

•                      • Net inflow of funds under management of £10.3 billion (2017: £9.5 billion)

•                      • Funds under management of £95.6 billion (2017: £90.7 billion)

•                      • St James’s Place is now represented by 3,954 qualified advisers across the Partnership