St James’s Place, the UK-based wealth management group, said today its funds under management stood at £27 billion (around $43 billion) at the end of December last year, a gain of £5.6 billion, driven by net business inflows and positive market movements.

The listed firm said in a statement that it logged total new business on an annual premium equivalent basis of £581.8 million over the 12 months to 31 December, a gain of 32 per cent over the previous year.

St James’s Place is 60 per cent owned by the UK-listed Lloyds Banking Group.

It recorded a net inflow of funds under management of £3.0 billion (2009: £2.3 billion), up 30 per cent. St James’s Place said it continued to retain about 95 per cent of existing clients’ funds.

“We remain committed to recruiting only the highest quality advisors into the partnership, while ensuring that we are able to offer a best in class investment proposition for clients. We believe this focused approach will enable us to maintain momentum in our business and provide a good platform to deliver 15-20 per cent per annum new business growth over the medium term,” said David Bellamy, chief executive.