St James's Place

St. James's Place failed to make a profit from its distribution arm in the first half of 2011, citing the impact of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR), although group operating profit was up 13%.

St. James's Place is launching a global equity fund in a bid to diversify assets away from fund manager THS Partners, Investment Week understands.

The distribution unit of wealth manager St James's Place (SJP) turned a huge loss in 2009 into a significant profit last year after new business increased by a third.

Funds under management at St James's Place climbed £2.4bn to £24.8bn in the three months ending 30 September, and have now doubled over the last five years.

Adrian Frost and Adrian Gosden of Artemis are to run a new UK and global income fund for St. James's Place (SJP).

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

St. James's Place has put three funds run by Nick Purves under review following his resignation from Schroders this week.

Invesco Perpetual's Neil Woodford is one of a trio of highly regarded managers appointed to run balanced managed unit trusts for St. James's Place.

St. James's Place recorded an 84% surge in unit trust and ISA investments over the first quarter of the year.

St James's Place has launched three new funds, picking industry heavyweights such as Mark Lyttleton and Jonathan Asante to run the mandates.