AJ Bell has announced its first set of half-year results since listing last year, which reveal revenue has risen 17 percent up to £50.1m, and that assets under administration have increased by three percent to £47.7 billion.

Results across the board outperformed last year’s totals, which were hit by a turbulent investment climate created by volatile markets and uncertainty that spread across the entire investment sector.

Profit before tax is now up 27 percent at the investment platform, increasing from £13.9m to £17.7m, boosting the margin to 35.3 percent. Net assets have also increased by 15 percent during the same period to £73.8m, strengthening the balance sheet further. Total customers coming to AJ Bell has also risen by nine percent to 214,853, which was combined with a higher retention rate of 95.3 percent, which was step up from 95.1 percent in the previous financial year.

The results also showed that total net inflows totalled £1.8 billion, which was driven by platform net inflows of £2.1 billion. Furthermore, diluted earnings per share were up 24 percent to 3.50 pence while interim dividends per share were up three percent to 1.50 pence.

Andy Bell, Chief Executive Officer at AJ Bell, was pleased with the results and credited the results to the accessible nature of the investment platform.

He said: “Our first set of financial results as a publicly-listed company demonstrates the strength of our business model as outlined ahead of our IPO. The quality of our low-cost, easy-to-use investment platform enabled us to continue to attract customers and assets and this is reflected in our strong financial performance. Revenue and profit both increased considerably and the Board has declared an interim dividend of 1.50 pence per share in line with our dividend policy.

Mr Bell also argued that the financial performance would place the company in the prime position to make the most of the growing market for investment platforms.

He added: “This robust financial performance enables us to continue to invest in the platform to achieve our ambition of becoming the easiest platform to use, underpinning our principal purpose of helping people to invest. This core focus on meeting the needs of advisers and customers, alongside our competitive pricing and high-quality service model, means we are well positioned to capitalise on the growing market for investment platforms in the coming years.”