St James’s Place swings to annual profit
St James’s Place swung to a profit in its annual results as the firm’s turnaround efforts continued to yield results.
Britain’s largest wealth manager recorded a £398.4m pre-tax profit, compared to the loss of £9.9m the year prior.
Gross inflows for the year totalled £18.4bn, compared to £15.4bn in 2023.
Total assets under management at the FTSE 100 firm hit £194.9bn, up from the £172.3bn recorded at the end of 2023.
The company also announced that it had hit the 1m client milestone.
Analysts at Panmure Liberum said: “The company has delivered underlying cash profits a small amount ahead of consensus estimates and reiterated that it is on schedule with both the planned new pricing structure and its review of past business written.
“There is an upbeat assessment of both the UK Wealth industry and St James’s Place’s position in that industry.
“The share price has rallied hard from its lows, but the lows were too low. There remains very much more to come.”
A busy year for St James’s Place
Underlying cash generation was up 14 per cent despite the “short-term costs incurred during 2024” associated with the firm’s restructuring.
Commenting on the results, chief executive Mark FitzPatrick said: “2024 was a busy year for St James’s Place. We announced our redefined purpose and refreshed strategy, which position us for further success.
“We ran our first ever national brand campaign, and explored the power of financial advice through our Real Life Advice research series and our client stories.”
He added: “As we look forward, the work we are doing to enhance our business by strengthening our core and building on our key strengths will ensure we continue to capture the compelling market opportunity in UK wealth management.
“The demand, and need, for financial advice is high, driven by systemic factors which means this isn’t going away.
“We are passionate about helping more people to secure their financial futures through the power of advice, we are leveraging our scale advantage, and we are seeking to deliver better outcomes for all our stakeholders.”