LONDON (dpa-AFX) - St. James's Place PLC (STJ.L), a British financial advice company, Tuesday reported profit before tax of 577 million pounds for the first half, higher than 385 million pounds in the same period a year ago, mainly helped by growth in fee and commission income.
The company also announced a share buyback of up to 32.9 million pounds.
'As we announced in February, our approach is to return 50% of the full year Underlying cash result. For 2024, this is expected to comprise 18.00 pence per share in annual dividends declared with the balance returned through share buybacks' said CFO Craig Gentle.
Excluding tax attributable to policyholder's returns, profit before tax attributable to shareholders' returns increased to 225.1 million pounds from 215.7 million pounds last year.
Net profit was 165.1 million pounds or 29.9p per share, up from 161.6 million pounds or 29.5p per share a year ago.
Underlying cash result after tax was, however, down at 205.2 million pounds compared with 207.1 million pounds last year.
Fee and commission income increased to 1.604 billion pounds from 1.352 billion pounds in the previous year.
Funds under management grew to 181.9 billion pounds from 168.2 billion pounds in the previous 6-month period.
The company's client bas increased 3 percent year-on-year to 988,000.
The Board has declared an interim dividend of 6.00 pence per share, to be paid on September 20 to shareholders on the register on August 23.
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