St James’s Place inflows up; Whitbread full year profit and revenue rise

London’s FTSE 100 is seen starting 12 points higher than Monday’s close at 6,272.

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Wealth manager St James's Place said first quarter gross inflow of funds under management increased to £2.45bn from £2.11bn.

Net inflows grew to £1.36bn from £1.32bn bringing group funds under management to £62bn compared with £55.8bn a year ago.

"Against a backdrop of continued uncertainty across global stock markets, our business is performing strongly,” said chief executive David Bellamy.

“The fact that the Chancellor avoided further changes to Pension tax relief and chose to give further encouragement to individual savings through a higher limit for ISAs in 2017, the introduction of a lifetime ISA and reduced Capital Gains tax, bodes well for the future.”

Hospitality group Whitbread reported sizeable increases in revenue and earnings in its preliminary results on Tuesday, with total revenue up 12% to £2.91bn, and underlying profit before tax up 11.9% to £546.3m.

Hotel and restaurant underlying profit improved 11.3% to £446.9m, while underlying profit from coffee chain Costa grew faster, by 15.8% to £153.5m in the 53-week year to 3 March.

Total profit for the year was up 5.8% to £387.3m.

“With another good set of results, that continue to show the strength of Whitbread's brands, the board is pleased to announce an increase in the full year dividend of 10%,” said chairman Richard Baker, commenting on the performance.

In the press

The UK pensions regulator is investigating events around the collapse of BHS after the retail chain fell into administration after 88 years on the high street, putting 11,000 jobs at risk. After the UK’s biggest retail failure since Woolworths folded in 2008, the regulator confirmed it was carrying out a probe of whether Sir Philip Green, the former owner of the BHS, should be forced to inject more funds into the retailer’s pension scheme to plug a half a billion pound deficit. – Financial Times

Rising housing costs have had the same effect on disposable income as adding 10 pence to the basic rate of income tax, according to new analysis by a think-tank. The finding will add fuel to the debate about the toll high house prices and rents are taking on younger generations. – Financial Times

Britain’s small businesses are losing more than £9bn a year to fraudsters who send false invoices, viruses posing as bills, or who pose as suppliers on the phone, it has emerged. Of more than 1,000 small-to-medium sized businesses (SMEs) surveyed by invoice network Tungsten, almost half had received a suspicious invoice or been a victim of invoice fraud in the last 12 months. – Telegraph

US close

US stocks finished lower on Monday as investors weighed weak corporate earnings and awaited the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision later in the week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.15%, the S&P 500 fell 0.18% and the Nasdaq lost 0.21%.

Shares in Xerox plunged after the company reported an 85% drop in first quarter profit, reflecting higher restructuring charges. The group also issued downbeat guidance for the current quarter and lowered its bottom line outlook for the year.