(STJ.L) St James's Place PLC Buy/Sell

By Chris Vellacott

LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - British wealth manager St James's Place Plc favours a market placing of Lloyds Banking Group's majority stake to avoid a trade sale or private equity buyout, the company said on Tuesday.
However St James's Place is not yet talking about the possible disposal to Lloyds, whose 60 percent stake has been mooted as a possible divestment candidate as the British bank attempts to wrestle itself away from state protection.
"When the time is right for us to talk about a separation then we'll talk about it," St James's Place Chief Executive David Bellamy said.
Bellamy told Reuters he viewed the company's independence as a priority and preferred the stake to be sold via a placing with a number of investors rather than be acquired by a trade or private equity buyer.
"Independence of management is the most important thing and we believe this is best served by the market ... The broader the share base the better," he said.
The shares fell after Bellamy mooted a share placing ahead of a straight sale, which could provide investors with a takeover premium. By 1030 GMT, the stock was down 3.1 percent at 253 pence. The shares have risen steadily from lows of around 150 pence at the end of April.
Lloyds said in a separate statement asset disposals would include Lloyds TSB Scotland, C&G branches, Intelligent Finance and the TSB brand, leaving the wealth management business in place for the time being.
Buyout houses such as TPG and Advent International had run their slide rules over the business in anticipation of disposals from Lloyds, sources familiar with the situation said.
CVC, Permira, Hellman & Friedman and other private equity firms have been pursuing financial services businesses, given banks' need to sell assets to improve balance sheets.
St James's Place is "firmly on the radar", one source said, stressing that no sale process is under way.

Bellamy was talking to Reuters after St James's Place announced the appointment of a chief investment officer to oversee a push to increase its funds under management.
Chris Ralph, who has worked at Fidelity International's fund of funds business, takes on a newly-created position alongside two other appointments to the investment committee.
Bellamy said the appointments form part of a move to increase the range of asset classes available to clients beyond its core long-equity investments base, incorporating more exposure to asset classes such as fixed income.
St James's Place also reported third-quarter new business numbers at the high end of analyst expectations on Tuesday.
Total new business on an annualised premium equivalent (APE) basis, calculated by adding new regular premiums to a tenth of new single premiums, was 104.6 million pounds ($171.1 million) up 3 percent from the period last year and compared with an analyst consensus of around 101.4 million.
Funds under management rose by 3.4 billion pounds during the quarter, reaching 20.3 billion, helped by improving investor confidence and buoyant markets.

(Additional reporting Simon Meads and Victoria Howley; Editing by David Holmes)

($1=.6115 Pound)

((For the Hedge Hub blog: http://blogs.reuters.com/hedgehub)) ((chris.vellacott@thomsonreuters.com; +44 (0) 20 7542 3987; Reuters Messaging chris.vellacott.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net) Keywords: STJAMES/ (For Global Investing: http://blogs.reuters.com/globalinvesting)

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