AJ Bell PLC (LSE:AJB), the investment platform operator, said it made a solid start to its new financial year.
The three months to the end of December – the first quarter of the company’s fiscal year – saw total customer numbers rise 4% (+27% year-on-year), with the group seeing net inflows of £1.3bn.
Total assets under administration (AUA) increased to £75.6bn, up 21% over the last year and 4% in the quarter.
“We continue to see strong demand for our easy to use, low-cost platform across both the advised and direct-to-consumer markets,” said Andy Bell, the chief executive officer of AJ Bell.
"In the advised market we had our second-best quarter ever for customer acquisition with 4,690 net new advised customers added in the quarter, 38% more than in the same period last year. Gross inflows of £1.6 billion to our advised platform were 23% higher than the comparative period and underlying net inflows were robust in what is normally a quieter period for asset flows.
"The direct-to-consumer market continues to grow strongly, with increasing numbers of people being drawn to the benefits of personal investing. In the quarter we delivered further growth in D2C [directly to customer] customers and AUA and are now entrusted with over £20 billion of assets by a quarter of a million retail investors,” he added.