Impax stock crashes on profit warning after St James’s Place loss
Impax Asset Management’s stock price has crashed more than 15 per cent after issuing a profit warning thanks to its falling assets.
The asset manager reported a 26 per cent decline in assets under management after losing a £5.1bn mandate from St James’s Place.
The £8.8bn drop over the last three months was in large part due to the mandate loss, along with a series of account closures in the firm’s institutional channel, Impax said.
This drop came after a further 8.3 per cent fall in assets at the end of last year, after Impax lost the other mandate it managed for St James’s Place.
In January, Impax said that its assets under management had dropped 8.3 per cent, thanks to a different St James’s Place mandate being withdrawn
Impax also lost the co-management mandate for the £9.9bn St James’s Place Global Quality Unit Trust in October, before the St James’s Place Sustainable and Responsible Equity fund was taken away at the start of 2025.
The £5.1bn fund, which Impax had managed since 2018, was then assigned to Schroders.
“Given the fall in our assets under management and the impact on global markets of an escalating trade war, we anticipate that full year profits will be below market expectations,” warned Impax chief Ian Simm.
The firm lost a further £1bn in assets over the quarter due to market movements, with the only bright spark being its private markets arm, which gained £7m from performance.
Last month, the asset manager laid off 10 per cent of its employees thanks to an expected drop in profit from losing mandates from St James’s Place.
Since the announcement of the loss of mandates, Impax’s stock price has fallen more than 60 per cent. It is down 40 per cent since the start of 2025, reaching its lowest point in seven years yesterday.
“We would highlight that at the closing level of assets under management, the price to assets multiple now stands at just 0.8 per cent,” noted Peel Hunt analysts Stuart Duncan and Stephen Payne, which is close to an all-time low for Impax.
However, due to the significant drop in assets, the City broker downgraded Impax’s target stock price from 275p to 205p. It currently trades at 155p.
Last week, Impax also finalised the acquisition of the European arm of Sky Harbor Capital Management, which is set to boost its assets by £1.1bn at its next trading update.