AJ Bell shares jump as it surpasses 500,000 DIY investors with record £80.3bn

AJ Bell shares rose on Thursday after the trading platform reported record assets under management.

The group had AUA worth £80.3bn as at March 31, as net inflows rose 33 per cent year-on-year to £1.6bn.

Customer numbers increased by 19,000 in the quarter, taking the total past the half-million milestone to close at 503,000, an increase of 11 percent over the past year.

AJ Bell said “favorable market movements” had contributed a further 3 per cent to assets under management (AUA) growth in the quarter.

AJ Bell stock rose 6.27 per cent or 18.50 pence to 313.50 pence on Wednesday, after falling around 4 per cent in the last year.

Gross receipts in March amounted to £1.4bn, marking a new monthly record for the business.

The total number of advised clients reached 165,000 at the end of the period, an increase of 8 percent over the past year and 2 percent over the quarter.

At AJ Bell Investments, assets under management rose to £5.8bn, up 49 per cent on last year and up 12 per cent on the quarter.

On 1 April, the FTSE 250-listed group reduced its custody fees for advised clients and halved its core trading fee for direct-to-consumer clients to £5.

Michael Summersgill, chief executive of AJ Bell, said: “Passing half a million platform customers is a significant milestone for the business, reflecting the continued success of our dual-channel model.”

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

“We remain committed to providing low-cost, easy-to-use products that clients and advisors can rely on, and our continued investment in our client propositions puts us in an excellent position to achieve further strong organic growth in the future” .

He added: ‘We are excited about the upcoming launch of our Ready-made pensions service, which will help customers easily consolidate their existing pensions with AJ Bell and automatically invest them through our low-cost in-house investment solutions.

“Looking ahead, the growth opportunity for the platform market remains significant and our continued investment in brand will continue to drive greater awareness of AJ Bell, supporting our long-term growth ambitions.”

The group will publish its provisional results for the semester ended March 31 on May 23.