More on St James Place
St James’s Place :Q1 New Business
St James’s Place reported flat new business figures for the first quarter of 2005. Overall, new business APE increased by just 1% to £44.2m and although the comparison is with a particularly strong quarter last year (APE growth in the first quarter of 2004 was 39%) it is still a disappointment.
The insurer succeeded in increasing pensions sales by 11% to £13.3m but this was offset by a 3% decline in protection sales (to £5.6m) and a 2% decline in investment sales (to £25.3m).
The bright spot in the announcement was the growth in funds under management, up 4% since the start of the year (and up 21% over the last 12 months) to £9.9bn. Wealth management fees were up 12% to £4.6m.
The company is well managed and fundamentally sound but the slow growth in new business is rather worrying, particularly since other insurers have been reporting much stronger growth figures (albeit from a lower base). The share trades at 222.5p, on a prospective PE of 13.6x (2005 earnings). The yield is not attractive at 1.3%.
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