St James's Place hikes divi by a third

FTSE 250-listed St James's Place has posted a third successive year of 33 per cent dividend growth in its full-year results for the year ending December 31st.

The company, which provides wealth management services, reported strong performance in EEV[ European Embedded Value] and IFRS [International Financial Reporting Standards] profit and record total single investments of £5.88bn. This represented a 13% increase from the £5.2bn recorded in 2011.

Net inflows of £3.35bn were recorded, supported by a retention rate of 95%.

Total funds under management rose 22% to £34.8bn and partnership numbers were up 8% to 1,788.

David Bellamy, Chief Executive Officer of St James's Place, commented: "I am very pleased to report another strong performance from St. James's Place in new business, profits and funds under management.

"The continuing growth and maturity in funds under management has, as expected, translated into strong growth in the cash result. Consequently we have been able to grow dividends by 33% in each of the last three years and have the confidence today to signal a similar significant increase for 2013.

St James's Place's share price was up 0.93% to 489.20p at 10:44 on Thursday.

MF