St. James's Place eyes further funds after sales jump 60%

St. James's Place is eyeing further development of its fund range after recording a 60% jump in Q2 unit trust sales.

The group, which runs funds from star managers such as Invesco Perpetual's Neil Woodford, saw unit trust sales of £397m during the second quarter of the year, well ahead of the £248m figure for the corresponding period in 2009. Sales over the first six months of the year climbed 70%, from £408m to £693m. The group recently launched three new strategies to its unit trust range - an emerging markets fund managed by First State's Jonathan Asante, an absolute return product from Mark Lyttleton and Nick Osborne of BlackRock and an international corporate bond vehicle run by Babson Capital....