St James's Place results shift attention to cash and complaints
Published: 15:01 19 Feb 2025 GMT
A year ago St James's Place PLC (LSE:STJ) shares were in the latter stages of a precipitous 64% fall over several months that landed them at a 12-year low in March last year.
Final result for the UK's largest wealth manager in this month last year showed a dramatic swing to a £10 million post-tax loss from profits above £400 million a year earlier.
This followed a significant upswell in complaints and claims from clients over service charges, which resulted in the FTSE 100-listed group taking a £426 million provision and making changes to its fee structure.
From a low point of just under 400p, the shares have over the past year climbed back up to a recent 20-month high above 1150p ahead of the results next week, on Thursday 27 February.
This was helped by SJP last month revealing stronger client investment flows and a record level of assets under management for the past year.
For the final results release, the focus will be on profits, cash flow and whether complaints are tailing off and leading to clients and advisers leaving.
The consensus forecast is for underlying cash of £427 million, per Visible Alpha, from net income of £681 million.
Analysts at UBS said they believe the focus will also be on the new charging structure coming in during the second half of the year, including possible client and adviser feedback.
They also highlighted “any potential reduction in the provision taken for client redress (£430m) from adviser clawbacks and the process for actioning these clawbacks. Additionally, they expect an update on how client complaints are tracking compared to last year.
An update on the cost savings plans, new client propositions is also sought.
However, “it is too early for substantial updates on these items,” the analysts believe.
