AJ Bell PLC (LSE:AJB) reported growth in customer numbers and investment flows in the past quarter, though assets under management and direct-to-consumer flows fell in the face of negative market movements.
Headline assets under management (AuM) of £74.1bn was down 2% in what is the FTSE 250 group’s second quarter, as £3bn of negative market movements counterbalanced net inflows of £1.5bn, which were roughly the same as a year earlier.
Direct-to-consumer (D2C) net flows fell to £0.7bn in the quarter from £0.9bn a year ago, while advised platform flows were steady at £0.9bn.
“Although our D2C customers invested slightly less via our platform than in the comparative period as they assess the impact of the rising cost of living, net inflows to our advised platform remained on par with last year, which was a strong comparative,” said chief executive Andy Bell.
He felt net platform inflows of £1.6bn was an “encouraging result given the uncertain market backdrop” and noted that the group attracted over 20,000 new customers and solid net inflows “despite weakened investor sentiment”.
Bell said a little something to make future results sweeter was this week's launch of Dodl, a new low-cost offering with a 0.15% headline charge and no commission for buying and selling investments.
“We believe it will be particularly attractive to the 8.6m adults in the UK who hold more than £10,000 of investible assets in cash, especially in the current climate of rising inflation where cash savings are being eroded in real terms due to the low interest rates available,” he said.
Most new customers are “high quality”, the group said, with more than three-quarters of joiners being tax-advantaged pensions or ISAs, while platform customer retention was 95%.
AJ Bell’s in-house investment solution attracted net inflows of £223mln in the quarter, with the offering of five multi-asset funds recently passing their fifth anniversary with four in the top quintile of their peer group in terms of performance.
The company expects to report half-year results for the six months ended 31 March in late May.