Funds flow in at St. James's Place

29th Jul 2009 08:00

The downward trend in funds under management has been reversed at wealth management firm St. James’s Place.After seeing funds under management (FUM) slide 6% in the first quarter of 2009, the situation improved at the end of June to show a £600m (3.7%) improvement in the first half of the year at £16.9bn. FUM were 7.6% higher than at the end of June 2008.The company saw a net inflow of FUM of £1bn during the first half, compared to £0.8bn a year earlier, and continues to retain more than 95% of existing clients’ funds.Net asset value per share on a European Embedded Value (EEV) basis eased to 234.3p from 241.1p a year earlier. On an International Financing Reporting Standards (IFRS) basis net asset value per share improved to 107.8p from 97.1p.Total new business on an annualised premium equivalent (APE) basis was £023m, down from £220.7m in the first half of 2008.“Whilst total new business for the six months, on the annual premium equivalent basis, was down 8%, our own manufactured business was down only 2%,” the company said.Profit before tax tumbled to £20m from £32.8m at the interim stage in 2008.“In the short term we continue to see a difficult economic climate for all wealth management businesses,” the company said. “Looking to the longer term the size of the partnership has increased by 20% since the beginning of 2007, which puts us in a very strong position to resume growth in our new business once market conditions improve, in line with our longer term growth target of 15-20% per annum,” the statement added.The interim dividend has been maintained at 1.84p.