Archived article
Please note that tax, investment, pension and ISA rules can change and the information and any views contained in this article may now be inaccurate.
Wealth manager St. James's Place posted a fall in underlying first-half profit and did not pay an interim dividend, citing a challenging new business environment owing to the Covid-19 crisis.
Pre-tax profit for the six months through June jumped to £221.9m, up from £57.3m on-year.
But the company's underlying cash result, a smoothed measure that stripped out one-off gains and losses, fell to £114.4m, down from £125.1m.
Net fund inflows amounted to £4.5bn, up from £4.4bn on-year.
St. James's Place said that although its balance sheet was 'robust' and it was seeing steps towards some degree of normality, there remained significant uncertainty for the world ahead.
'For this reason, the board remains satisfied with the decision that it reached in April and we will continue to retain approximately one third of the previously proposed 2019 final dividend until such a time as the financial and economic impacts of Covie-19 become clearer,' said.
'In addition, as previously announced the board will make one decision on the 2020 dividend in February 2021, when we believe we will be in a stronger position to assess the impact that Covid-19 has had on our business.'
'We are mindful of the importance of cash returns to shareholders and will continue to balance this with the need to ensure the business is protected even in extreme circumstances.'