St.James's Place posts sharp drop in half-year profits despite record FuM
St James's Place
421.00p
16:40 25/04/24
Asset manager St.James's Place posted a sharp drop in half-year profits even as its funds under management swelled to a fresh record.
FTSE 100
8,078.86
17:14 25/04/24
FTSE 350
4,434.34
17:09 25/04/24
FTSE All-Share
4,387.94
16:49 25/04/24
Life Insurance
5,638.37
17:09 25/04/24
For the six months ending on 30 June, the firm reported a 29.4% drop in underlying IFRS profits before shareholder tax to £81.5m.
Underlying cash earnings per share meanwhile declined from 28.0p in 2018 to 23.7 for the present reporting period.
Commenting on the results, St.James's chief, Andrew Croft, described the macroeconomic and political environment in the Uk as "uncertain", telling shareholders that "we are not immune to the challenging external factors that prevailed during the first half of the year."
Hence, Croft said, the roughly 7.0% drop seen in gross new inflows, although they had improved during the second quarter versus the first three months of 2019.
Gross asset inflows slowed from £7.9bn over the comparable period one year before to £7.4bn while net funds inflows declined from £5.2bn to £4.4bn.
Yet thanks to improve markets, the group's funds under management jumped from £96.6bn to £109.3bn with the rate of client retention standing at 96%.
The interim dividend payout was kept at 18.49p per share.
As of 0929 BST, shares of St.James's Place were down by 5.41% to 956.60p.