Investment platform AJ Bell today reported customer numbers up 5% and total assets under administration up 8% to £47.7bn for the first quarter of 2019.

Total customer numbers were up 5% in the first quarter of 2019 - the company’s Q2 - to 214,853.

Total AUA has risen in the past 12 months from £41.8bn to £47.7bn.

The  company - which floated in December with a market valuation of £650m - says that growth during the period was driven mainly by the platform business:

•        Platform customer numbers increased by 10,424 to a record 200,922, up 5% during the quarter
•        Platform AUA increased 9% to a new high of £40.6 billion
•        Platform AUA was boosted by a combination of underlying net inflows of £0.8 billion, defined benefit pension transfers of £0.2 billion and “favourable market movements” of £2.3 billion

AJ Bell says that in line with industry trends and the expectations, DB pension transfers to the advised platform continued to decline but still contributed to inflows during the quarter

Andy Bell, chief executive, 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.  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.”

AJ Bell AUA

(1) Includes transfers-in, subscriptions, contributions and tax relief, excluding inflows from DB pension transfers

(2) Includes transfers-out, cash withdrawals, benefits and tax payments

(3) Inflows from DB pension transfers

(4) Includes charges, taxes deducted, investment returns and revaluations