St James’s Place readies redundancies in cost-cutting push
St James’s Place is set to make around 500 redundancies next year as part of its sweeping cost-cutting plan, according to reports.
Around a sixth of the wealth manager’s non-financial adviser workforce are set to be laid off in February, an internal memo, seen by Citywire, revealed.
Over the summer, St James’s Place revealed it would embark on a plan to slash £100m from its cost base over the next two years, with cumulative cuts of around £500m expected by 2030.
Some 50 per cent of the cut in costs are set to be reinvested back into the business, with bosses hoping to double its underlying cash profits by 2030.
The job cuts are not expected to affect financial adviser partners at St James’s Place, which run their own businesses under the umbrella of the wealth manager.
Instead, those likely to be targeted are the 3,200 staff that work across areas such as administration and marketing. It is unclear which departments and staff will be affected.
“Our cost reduction plans are focused on simplification and standardisation of processes within the business, but a programme of this size and scale will inevitably impact colleagues,” a St James’s Place spokesperson said.
“We have now begun consulting with colleagues to share our proposal for how this might impact roles, the outcome of which will not be known until next year.
“In the meantime, we are fully committed to supporting all potentially impacted colleagues and to keeping them fully updated on key decisions and developments.”
When the wealth manager’s plans to rein in its cost base were announced earlier this year, CEO Mark Fitzpatrick said the cost-cutting would be done in a “controlled” and “measured” way.
The firm is also looking to balance a reduction in spending with efforts to overhaul its outdated bundled fee structure, which has fallen under the gaze of regulators this year. It has also faced criticism for the lacklustre performance on some of its funds.
St James’s Place last made a round of redundancies in 2021, when 200 jobs – ten per cent – of its workforce were cut.
Despite a rocky start to the year, St James’s Place’s cost-cutting programme and strong inflows have led the firm’s stock price to soar, leaving it on the brink of FTSE 100 re-entry later this week.
Last week, St James’s Place shuttered three of its property funds, citing lack of interest from investors and the residual effects of the pandemic.