St James's Place reports 'resilient' 2020

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Wealth management group, St James's Place, saw a 5.3% fall in gross inflows during 2020 at £14.3 billion compared to £15.1 billion the year before.

The group's underlying cash basic earnings per share was 49.6p, down from 51.4p in 2019, while EEV operating profit for the year was £919 million.

In 2019, the group withheld the final dividend of 11.22p to be paid as an interim dividend during the first quarter of 2021. It has proposed a final dividend of 38.49p for 2020.

Net inflow of funds under management for the 12 month period was £8.2 billion, while funds under management stands at £129.3 billion.

St James's Place CEO, Andrew Croft, said: 'At the outset of the pandemic the Board made the difficult decision to withhold 11.22 pence of the 2019 final dividend, until such time when the financial and economic impact of COVID-19 became clearer. I am pleased to report that we have not needed to utilise those funds and, whilst the pandemic is still on-going, we now have the confidence to pay this withheld amount as a further interim dividend during the first quarter.

'Our operations and performance during 2020 were inevitably disrupted by the lockdowns and social distancing. However I am very pleased to report that our business has demonstrated real resilience and made further progress with net inflows of £8.2 billion for the year and funds under management closing at a record £129.3 billion. This outcome was possible because of high client engagement levels, our recent major investment in technology platforms, and the agility of our advisers and employees.'