St James's Place profits soar 60% in 2010

St James's Place (SJP) reported a group operating profit of £162.1m for the first half of 2010, up 60% on £101m for the same period in 2009.

The wealth manager highlighted growth in all areas of the business including investments and pensions.

Total new business for the six months (APE) rose 44% to £292.6m with a record £159.3m taken in Q2. SJP's own manufactured business represents 91% of flows.

New single investment and pension business over the first half of the year at £2.4bn was 60% higher than the same time last year.

These inflows together with the strong retention of existing client funds resulted in a net fund inflow of £1.5bn; an increase of 50% compared to the first half of 2009. Total funds under management for the group were £22.4bn at the half year end.

St James's Place also reported its partner numbers were up 3% since the start of the year to 1,506.

The group says: "We continued to attract high quality advisers to the Partnership in the first half of the year. This, coupled with our high retention rate of Partners, saw the size of the Partnership grow by 3% to 1,506. In addition to the growth in the number of Partners, productivity increased significantly during the first six months.

"At the same time, the Partnership made excellent progress towards the increased qualifications required of them by the forthcoming regulatory changes."

St James's Place also moved to dismiss rumours majority shareholder Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) could sell its stake.

"...discussions with LBG have taken place during which LBG made clear it is a strong supporter of St. James's Place and has warmly welcomed our recent very strong business performance. Furthermore, LBG has indicated that it has no intention to sell down, or dispose of, its stake in St. James's Place at this time," the results say.

On the back of the strong results, SJP raised its interim dividend by 10% to 2.025p per share.