Wealth manager St James's Place plc has reported an 8% increase in partner numbers to nearly 4,000 in a buoyant set of full year results out today.

In its annual results for the year ended 31 December 2018, the company said despite a recent slowdown in inflows, operating profit had topped £1bn at £1,020m, up 9% on the previous year.

Pre-tax IFRS profit before shareholder tax was up 14% to £211.9m. Partner numbers rose to 3,954 with further recruitment planned. Many new partners came through the SJP Academy which is to be expanded.

Gross inflows rose to £15.7bn, up more than £1bn from the £14.6bn seen the previous year although the pace of fund inflows slowed in the face of "challenging external factors," said CEO Andrew Croft.

Funds under management were up from £90.7bn to £95.6bn. Total funds as of this week have now topped £100bn on the back of the recent stock market rally.

Andrew Croft, chief executive, said: "I am pleased to report a good set of results for 2018, building on an exceptional outcome in 2017 and despite a difficult external environment in the last quarter of the year. This demonstrates once again the resilience of our business.

“The financial performance of the business reflects the progression of funds under management together with the contribution of new inflows in the year, resulting in good growth across all our key financial metrics.”

“It is pleasing to see a recovery in the global stock markets at the start of 2019 which, together with on-going net inflows during January and February have, at the time of writing, taken our funds under management to some £102 billion.

“The business continues to perform well relative to the industry. However, challenging external factors, like those currently being experienced, are not in our control and the pace of fund flows has moderated compared with last year. I would note though that the inflows for the same period last year represent a very strong comparative and March typically accounts for around 50% of the first quarter's flows.

“Irrespective of these external factors, the fundamentals of our clients' Financial Planning requirements remain unchanged.”

“With a continued focus on achieving the best possible outcomes for our clients through the provision of trusted face-to-face financial advice and our distinctive investment management approach, together with the continued growth in the size of the St James's Place Partnership, we remain extremely well placed to continue to grow our business."

The board has proposed a final dividend of 29.73 pence per share which would result in a full year dividend of 48.22 pence per share, equivalent to growth of 12.5%.