St
James’s
Place
(STJ)
shares
plummeted
on
Wednesday,
after
the
release
of
its
results
confirmed
its
difficult
year,
prompting
the
wealth
manager
to
more
than
halve
its
annual
dividend.
Shares
in
the
wealth
management
company
were
down
30%
to
433.20p
in
London
on
Wednesday
morning,
by
far
the
worst
FTSE
100
performing
stock.
The
wider
index
was
down
just
0.3%.
Over
the
last
12-months,
St
James’s
Place
stock
is
down
66%,
while
the
FTSE
100
index
is
down
just
2.8%.
The
company
swung
to
an
annual
attributable
pretax
loss
of
£4.5
million,
compared
to
a
£503.9
million
profit
in
2022.
Total
funds
under
management
jumped
13%
to
£168.2
billion
at
the
end
of
2023
from
£148.4
billion
a
year
earlier.
St
James’s
Place
reported
gross
inflows
of
£15.4
billion
in
2023,
down
9.4%
from
£17.0
billion
a
year
earlier.
New
inflows
dropped
by
48%
to
£5.1
billion
from
£9.8
million.
Cash
at
the
year-end
was
£68.7
million,
down
from
£410.1
million.
St
James’s
Place
Fee
Structure
Scrutinised
St
James’s
Place
recently
has
been
under
pressure
from
UK
regulators
over
its
fee
structure,
promising
in
October
to
remove
penalties
for
early
withdrawals
by
customers
starting
from
the
second
half
of
2025.
In
January,
it
assured
the
market
it
is
reviewing
all
element”
of
the
business.
It
said
that
results
for
2023
have
“been
significantly
impacted
by
an
assessment
into
the
evidencing
and
delivery
of
historic
ongoing
servicing
and
the
provision
we
have
established
for
potential
client
refunds.”
However,
chief
executive
officer
Mark
FitzPatrick
assured
shareholders
on
Wednesday
that
it
is
now
“confident
this
is
a
historic
issue”.
“In
the
near-term,
we
expect
the
industry
outlook
to
remain
challenging
given
the
pressures
that
clients
continue
to
face.
The
near-term
environment
notwithstanding,
the
longer-term
structural
opportunity
for
the
financial
advice
industry
is
hugely
attractive.
With
scale
advantage,
a
strong
partnership
of
advisers,
and
an
investment
approach
that
delivers
for
clients,
we
are
very
well
placed
to
capture
this
opportunity
and
deliver
value
for
all
our
stakeholders.”
Dividend
Cut
Dramatically
On
the
back
of
the
results,
St
James’s
Place
declared
a
final
dividend
of
8p,
cut
from
37.19p.
This
lowered
its
full-year
dividend
to
23.83p
from
52.78p.
Looking
at
its
dividend
going
forward,
St
James’s
Place
said
the
annual
dividend
will
be
50%
of
underlying
cash
result.
It
plans
to
pay
a
fixed
annual
dividend
of
18.0p
in
the
years
2024
to
2026,
with
share
buybacks
making
up
the
remainder
returns.
Looking
further
ahead,
St
James’s
Place
expects
to
be
able
to
grow
the
cash
dividend
as
proportion
of
total
distributions.
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