AJ Bell upbeat on strong second-quarter performance

(Sharecast News) - Investment platform AJ Bell reported a robust performance across its platform business and AJ Bell Investments in a second quarter update on Thursday. The FTSE 250 company said that in its platform business segment, customer numbers surged 19,000 during the three months ended 31 March, surpassing the half-million milestone to close at 503,000, representing an 11% increase over the year and a 4% increase during the quarter.

Notably, total advised customers increased 8% year-on-year, reaching 165,000, while total direct-to-consumer (D2C) customers increased 12% to 338,000.

The firm said it also achieved record assets under administration (AUA) of £80.3bn, marking a 17% increase over the last year and a 5% increase during the quarter.#

Gross and net inflows across the platform experienced significant growth in the run-up to the tax-year-end, with gross inflows reaching £3.4bn, up 36% compared to the prior year, and net inflows totaling £1.6bn, up 33% versus the prior year.

The company said favourable market movements also contributed to that growth, adding 3% in the quarter.

In AJ Bell Investments, assets under management (AUM) surged to £5.8bn, representing a 49% increase over the past year and a 12% increase during the quarter.

Net inflows in the quarter totalled £0.4bn.

"Surpassing half a million platform customers is a significant milestone for the business which reflects the continued success of our dual-channel model," said chief executive officer Michael Summersgill.

"Having listed in 2018 with just under 200,000 platform customers, this landmark demonstrates the strong execution of our organic growth strategy set out at IPO.

"We remain committed to providing low-cost, easy-to-use products that can be trusted by customers and advisers, and our continued investment into our customer propositions puts us in an excellent position to deliver further strong organic growth in the future."

Summersgill said the company was "excited" about the upcoming launch of its "ready-made" pension service, which he said would help customers to consolidate their existing pensions with AJ Bell and invest them automatically via its low-cost, in-house investment solutions.

"Looking further ahead, the growth opportunity for the platform market remains significant and our ongoing brand investment will continue to drive increased awareness of AJ Bell, supporting our long-term growth ambitions."

AJ Bell said it would announce its interim results for the six months ended 31 March on 23 May.

At 0829 BST, shares in AJ Bell were up 6.61% at 314.5p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.