St. James's Place takes £34m hit to profits as H1 inflows drop
Profits at British wealth manager St. James's Place took a £34m as weaker client sentiment weighed on inflows of new money in the first half of the year while costs rose.
Net inflows fell from £5.2bn to £4.4bn year-on-year, helping drive operating profit down to £465.7m. This was below analyst expectations of £480.2m and the £489.6m posted in the first half of 2018.
Underlying profit, before shareholder tax, dropped from £115.4m in 2018 to £81.5m.
Costs rose from £797.3m to £824.2m over the same period, with rising partner payments accounting for £10.m of this increase.
Total assets under management (AuM) hit a record high of £109.3bn, up 13.1% year-on-year.
Chief executive Andrew Croft said despite increasing cash being generated by the company's growing funds under management, SJP's profit had been hit by "more modest" gross flows and the cost of investment in its academy, expanding its partnership and operations in Asia.
SJP saw revenue from its advice charges take a slight dip in the first half of the year, coming in at £355.2m compared with £359.4m in the first six months of 2018.
Wealth management fees also dropped down from £333m in 2018 to £331.5m this year and investment management fees likewise decreased from £44.7m last year to £27.8m in the first half of this year.
Despite this, SJP saw its total income from fees and commission significantly increase, growing to £1.3bn this year and up from £876m in the first half of 2018.
SJP said it now has 4,096 qualified advisers in its partnership, with a further 446 in its training programme.
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