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AJ Bell maintains dividend but keeps mum on current trading

Published: 02:39 21 May 2020 EDT

AJ Bell PLC -
Stock markets have been volatile in the past three months

AJ Bell PLC (LON:AJB), the wealth management platform, has maintained its interim dividend as profits rose by 28% in its latest half-year to March.

The FTSE250 business, though, gave no indication of how trading had been since the coronavirus lockdown was introduced at the end of the period.

AJ Bell had already reported that it signed up a record number of new customers in the first half, which helped inflows of new money surge higher.

New retail customers rose by 13% to 262,179, while net inflows totalled £2.1bn though the value of assets held on the platform dropped by 8% over the past six months due to the recent financial market volatility.

Revenues in the six months to March rose by 22% to £60.9mln with pre-tax profits of £22.7mln.

“In light of this strong financial performance, the board has declared an interim dividend of 1.50 pence per share,” said chief executive Andy Bell in the statement.

“The effects of the COVID-19 crisis are likely to be felt for a long time, although the precise impact it will have on markets, investor sentiment and economic policy is hard to predict.

“However, we have operated profitably during periods of market volatility and low interest rates before and our business model has proved very resilient,” said Bell.

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