St James's clears its debts

ST James's Place Capital, the wealth management group, will be debt-free after nearly doubling its money from the sale of its entire shareholding in Telford-based Life Assurance Holding Corporation (LAHC) to Swiss Re.

It will receive £78.2m in total, generating a £28m profit on a £31m investment ten years ago.

The group gets £66.5m immediately, with the balance-to be paid over three years held against certain indemnities.

St James's finance director Andy Croft said: 'We will use the cash to pay off our outstanding £30m debt and the remainder will be used to provide additional capital to expand our whole wealth management business.'

The firm has added a provision of £16.5m for possible claims under the LAHC deal's warranties and indemnities.