St James's Place has general election nerves

A hung parliament after the general election looks an increasingly likely possibility — bad news in the eyes of wealth management firm St James's Place.

The financial services group founded by Sir Mark Weinberg and Lord Rothschild unveiled solid year-end results today, but is eyeing the election with concern.

Chief executive David Bellamy said: "A hung parliament would be the worst outcome I think, because that would lead to huge uncertainty and probably another election. We need stability."

Bellamy - who declined to make his voting plans clear - said it was hard to make business plans until public policy is revealed.

"The issues around taxation are probably the major pointers. We all know that the tax burden is going to become bigger and we sort of know that public spending is going to be cut. The question is, where?"

St James's can claim to be one of the few financial institutions whose reputations were not affected by the banking crisis. It chugged through the market turmoil, selling funds and advice to the medium rich and upwards.

It reported a profit of £363 million for 2009 compared with a loss last time of £116 million. The final dividend rose by four per cent to 2.66p. The second half — sales up 20 per cent — was much better than the first — down eight per cent.