The divestment of the 21% stake, comprising 109m shares priced at 630p, was announced to the stock exchange this morning (10 December). The settlement is due to take place on 13 December, at which point Lloyds will no longer hold any shares in St James’s Place.
The statement said the deal would increase Lloyds’ common equity Tier 1 capital by roughly £685m, a gain of 24 basis points.
The deal went through overnight as anticipated, reflecting the "strong demand in the market for St. James' Place shares" and would increase liquidity, according to Lloyds, which banked approximately £10m more than it had expected ahead of the share placing.
At 30 September, SJP had £42bn of funds under management and claims to have roughly 180,000 clients.
Lloyds Banking Group chief executive António Horta-Osório said: "The group launched its strategy in 2011 to reshape the business to concentrate on its core UK retail and commercial banking customers.
"As part of that approach, the group has been reducing non-core businesses and addressing historic issues, while focusing on increasing net lending to its core segments. The sale of the remaining stake in St. James's Place releases further resources and represents another step towards refocusing this business on its core customers."
Shares in Lloyds Banking Group rose 1% upon news of the sale, with a morning high of just more than 79p.
St James’s Place shares were also up, having opened at 641p and reaching a morning high of 651p.
The stock is a favoured holding among UK equity managers, with Old Mutual Global Investors’ Richard Buxton, Luke Kerr and Richard Watts keen on the wealth manager. Schroders’ Philip Matthews also has a top 10 position in his £1.7bn UK Alpha Plus fund, while Kames Capital’s Peter Shaw and Stephen Adams also support the stock.
