Wealth management giant St James’s Place (SJP) is set to shut its operation in China later in 2023, International Adviser can exclusively reveal.
This comes a week after IA reported that Gary Harvey, chief executive of St James’s Place Singapore, will leave the business later in the year. At the same time, the wealth firm also named Hong Kong chief executive Oliver Wickham as Asia partnership director.
SJP Asia has been operating in the region since 2014 following the acquisition of the Henley Group and has offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai.
But a spokesperson for SJP told IA: “Our office in Shanghai came as part of an acquisition we made several years ago and has remained a small part of our Asia footprint while we have invested in our two key regional hubs in Hong Kong and Singapore.
“Given it is not core to our Asia business, we have decided not to renew the lease of our office in Shanghai and instead close this operation later in the year.
“We are committed to expanding our presence and supporting our clients in Asia and will continue to invest in and grow our operations in Hong Kong and Singapore.”
Not many firms are looking to retreat from the Chinese wealth market at the moment – large financial businesses like Schroders and Goldman Sachs have set up operations to grow in the region.
