AJ Bell has increased its dividend after achieving a new “milestone” of having more than 500,000 customers in its platform business.
The DIY investment firm's revenue for the first half of the year rose 27% to £131.3m, up from £103.6m in the same period last year. This led to a 47% increase in pre-tax profits to £61.4m.
Following these results, AJ Bell announced an interim dividend of 4.25 pence per share, an increase of 21 per cent on last year.
The company reported that it currently has more than 500,000 customers in its platform business, adding 27,000 in the first half of this year.
Assets under management in the platform business grew 13% in the first half to a record high of £80.3 billion, thanks to net inflows of £2.9 billion and favourable market movements of £6.5 billion.
Assets under management in the investment management business also grew by 23% in the first half, with net inflows of £800m being slightly down from £900m last year.
“We are pleased to announce excellent first half results. Our dual channel platform continues to deliver strong organic growth, with the addition of 27,000 customers in the period, bringing the total number of customers on the platform to 500,000. This is a significant milestone for the business,” said Michael Somersgill, CEO.
“The board recently approved a new capital allocation framework that reaffirms the company's commitment to a progressive annual ordinary dividend,” he continued.
Somersgill said the first half of the year had been “particularly strong” due to pricing delays. This was due to “regulatory uncertainty” regarding interest margins at the end of 2023.
“While these metrics will moderate in the second half of the year as customers begin to benefit from across-the-board rate reductions, our updated full-year outlook reflects our expectation that both revenue and PBT will be higher than we had anticipated in December,” he said.