Investment platform AJ Bell set to beat market expectations
Investment platform AJ Bell reported boosted assets this morning as it revealed that it is set to beat analyst expectations in its financial results, which will be published next month.
Assets under administration (AUA) increased by eight per cent to £47.7bn, due to growth in the platform business, the company announced this morning.
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Platform AUA was up nine per cent to a new high of £40.6bn driven by underlying net inflows of £800m, defined benefit pension transfers of £200m and favourable market movements of £2.3bn.
The firm, which listed on the London Stock Exchange in December last year, said total customer numbers also jumped five per cent to a record high of 200,922 during the quarter.
AJ Bell chief executive Andy Bell said: "Trading in the second quarter of our financial year remained robust despite continued weak investor sentiment.
“We continued to attract new customers and assets to our platform, with both measures hitting new highs during the period.
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“This positions us well for an improvement in investor sentiment.
“We are due to announce our interim results on 23 May and we expect our financial performance to be slightly ahead of current market expectations.”