St James's Place's profit down 5.3 percent

LONDON (Reuters) - Wealth manager St James's Place (SJP.L) reported a 5.3 percent fall in its first-half profit and said it was sticking by its key long-term sales growth targets.

St James's Place, which sells pensions and investments to affluent individuals, said group operating profit for the six months to June 30 was 114.2 million pounds, down from 120.7 million pounds in the same period last year.

Analysts had expected a profit of 111.2 million pounds, according to the average of 10 forecasts collected by the company.

It said it had benefited over the first half from strong demand for pensions products, which helped push total sales up 3 percent on the year to 220.7 million pounds.

St James's Place's chairman, Mike Wilons, told Reuters the company did not know of any plan by banking group HBOS HBOS.L to sell its 60 percent stake in the group.

"We have an excellent relationship with HBOS. We are not aware of any discussions taking place regarding the sale of St James's Place and we're sure we would be aware of them if they were taking place," Wilson said.

Analysts have speculated that HBOS could sell assets, including its St James's Place stake, in order to bolster its capital.

St James's Place's funds under management stood at 17.2 billion pounds as of June 30, down from 17.3 billion pounds a year earlier, with the decline driven by falling equity markets rather than clients withdrawing their money, Wilson added.

St James's Place said new business growth in the second half of the year is on course to be "broadly similar" to the first half, and said it was maintaining its long-term target for new business growth of 15 to 20 percent per year