St James's Place (SJP) is set to announce bumper first half sales this week in a move that may push majority shareholder Lloyds to offload its stake in the company.
The FTSE 250 firm is expected to announce on Wednesday operating profits increased 34% to £135m with new business up 31% to £266m in the six months to end-June. Analysts also expect the wealth manager to report pre-tax profits of £31.7m, while the City is betting on a dividend of 1.95p per share. Majority shareholder Lloyds Banking Group, which owns a 60% stake in the business, may now be encouraged to sell following months of speculation. After delivering strong full-year profits in 2009, SJP was understood to be keen to address shareholder concerns the company was not delivering ...
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