Wealth manager St. James’s Place gave investors a boost by increasing its dividend by 20 percent, after a strong first half performance.

The group declared an interim dividend of 18.49p per share, with CEO Andrew Croft saying there had been “continued strong growth across all areas of our business”.

Pre-tax profit rose 4 percent to £82.5 million over the period, with underlying cash profit, after tax, up 29 percent to £147.1 million.
Gross inflows grew by 15 percent to £7.9 billion, with net inflows up 21 percent to £5.2 billion.

“The environment we are operating in, together with these investments, provides us with the confidence that we can continue to achieve our medium-term growth objectives,” Croft continued.

“Supporting the above, we have a strong balance sheet and the knowledge of a growing income from our existing business both of which underpin the growing return to shareholders as shown by the 20 percent increase in the interim dividend.”

Shares in St James’s Place (LON:STJ) are currently trading down 2.78 percent at 1.172.00 (1003GMT).