AJ Bell has agreed to sell its Platinum SIPP and SSAS business to InvestAcc Group for £25m, with the deal expected to complete in the second half of this year.

AJ Bell Platinum has £3.2bn in assets under administration on behalf of 3,600 customers. The arm administrates 3,562 schemes with an average account size of around £670,000.

The Platinum business is the high-net-worth arm of AJ Bell’s non-platform SIPP and SSAS business, and in 2024 accounted for around half of AJ Bell’s non-platform SIPP assets.

At the end of its 2024 financial year, AJ Bell had around 15,000 non-platform customers, with £5.7bn in assets under administration.

AJ Bell Platinum contributed £10m to non-platform revenue in 2024.

InvestAcc will pay £18.5m upon completion, with £17.5m in cash and £1m in InvestAcc shares. The remaining £6.5m will be paid in cash as a deferred consideration, subject undisclosed to conditions.

AJ Bell said the sale simplifies its business model and will strengthen its capital position.

Michael Summersgill, CEO of AJ Bell, said: "Our strategy is to provide easy-to-use, low-cost platform propositions using a single, scalable operating model to capitalise on the significant long-term growth opportunity in the UK investment platform market. The sale simplifies our business model, enabling the management team to focus on AJ Bell's core platform business, in line with our growth strategy across both the advised and direct-to-consumer market segments."

He added that the sale of the Platinum business would not impact the platform’s 2025 full year projections.

AJ Bell’s stock price fell by 3 basis points this morning following the announcement.

Fenchurch Advisory Partners is acting as financial adviser to AJ Bell in relation to the sale.

Mark Hodges, executive chairman of InvestAcc, said the deal would considate its leadership in full SIPP pension administration.

He said: “"The acquisition’s high-net-worth client base, exceptional service proposition and strong financial performance make it a perfect strategic fit for InvestAcc. This significantly strengthens our position as a market leader in "full" SIPP pension administration, allowing us to enhance our service offering while maintaining the highest standards of customer experience.”

The acquisition will bring InvestAcc’s total assets under administration to over £8.5bn across 16,000 SIPP and SSAS accounts.

AJ Bell Platinum is part of the AJ Bell Group. The group holds £95.3bn in assets under administration on behalf of 576,000 customers, of which 174,000 are advised.