St. James's Place (STJ) H2 2025 (Q&A) earnings summary

Executive summary

• Achieved strong operational and financial results in 2025, with growth in new business, funds under management, and underlying cash result.

• Gross inflows reached £21.9bn, up 19% year-over-year, with net inflows of £6.2bn, up 42%.

• Funds under management (FUM) rose 16% to £220.0bn as of 31 December 2025.

• Successfully implemented a new, simpler charging structure and launched Polaris Multi-Index, reaching over £1 billion FUM within two months.

• Advanced cost and efficiency programs, including organizational redesign and ongoing cost base reduction.

Financial highlights

• Underlying cash result of £462 million, up 3% year-on-year and 4% ahead of consensus.

• Underlying post-tax cash result increased 3% to £462.3m; IFRS profit after tax up 33% to £531.4m.

• Underlying cash basic EPS of 87 pence, up 6% year-on-year.

• EEV NAV per share rose 22% to £19.84.

• FUM retention rate improved to 94.9% from 94.5% in 2024.

Outlook and guidance

• Payout ratio to increase to 70% of underlying cash from 2026, with at least 40% as dividends and the remainder as buybacks.

• 2026 guidance: net income from FUM margin expected at 43–45bps (lower end in 2026); controllable expenses to grow 5%.

• Margin from new business expected to be approximately zero in 2026; cost and efficiency programme net benefits to emerge from 2027.

• Confident in ability to double 2023 underlying cash by 2030, with strong early progress.

• Dip in profitability expected in 2026 due to charging structure transition, with earnings acceleration anticipated from 2027.