AJ Bell assets reach £56.5bn as new customers flock to platform
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AJ Bell’s (AJB) total assets under management rose to over £56bn as customers flocked to its broer platform amid the continued market volatility.
In a trading update, the investment platform said total AUM had increased eight per cent to £56.6bn, up from £54.3bn at the end of June and £52.3bn in September 2019.
The rise in assets was largely credited to AJ Bell’s platform business, with £2.8bn of inflows from advised clients and £2.1bn from the direct-to-consumer market.
While other companies have struggled during the coronavirus crisis, AJ Bell has somewhat benefited from the market turbulence. Investors flocked to its broker platform with the majority of inflows (£6.6bn) coming from the platform.
The FTSE-listed firm added 62,925 new clients to its platform to reach a total of 281,094, a 29 per cent rise. Total customer numbers increased 27 per cent to 295,305.
And a focus on its direct-to-consumer offering helped boost AJ Bell’s customer numbers by 43 per cent to 172,183.
Chief executive Andy Bell said: “Our focus on the needs of our customers and our easy-to-use platform has fuelled a 29 per cent increase in platform customers, with particularly strong progress made in the direct-to-consumer market.”
He added that the investment firm would continue to “enhance our platform propositions this year as part of our growth strategy.”
In its interim results in May, AJ Bell reported a 22 per cent rise in revenue after record numbers of new customers flocked to the platform amid the market volatility.
Shares are down 0.37 per cent in early trading.