UK wealth management business St James's Place, which is part owned by HBOS, saw new business surge in the first half of the year as profits soared by 52%.
Operating profits for the first six months of the year totaled GBP80.3 million, while new business increased by 55% to GBP160.9 million.
In the first six months, we have considerably outperformed our new business objective in favorable market conditions, chairman Mike Wilson was quoted as saying by Dow Jones Newswires.
The board now expects, subject to no unforeseen circumstances, the new business growth for the year to exceed this range, despite the 34% growth in the second half of 2005, he added.
St James’s Place added that it had benefited from increased business coming its way as a result of the ‘A-Day’ pension reforms that were implemented in April 2006.