Profits soar by a third to £37.7m at stockbroker firm

Profits soared by a third to £37.7m at Salford based stockbroker AJ Bell over the last year.

The firm made its debut on the Stock Market 12 months ago and has grown into one of the UK’s largest investment platforms.

This morning the firm announced an innovative share option plan that will see charitable causes share in AJ Bell’s success if it exceeds its growth plans.

The maximum award, resulting in charitable causes benefiting from £10 million, is dependent on AJ Bell increasing its earnings per share by at least 100% over three years and by at least 150% over five years, subject to certain other conditions.

According to full year results revenues were up 17% to £104.9m and profit before tax was up 33% to £37.7m.

The balance sheet was strengthened, with net assets increasing to £86.1m while the number of retail customers increased by 34,154 in the period, up 17% to 232,066.

Assets under administration were up 13% during the period to £52.3bn.

Andy Bell, the founder and chief executive of the business, said: “These results are a strong endorsement of the business model and growth strategy that we outlined in the run up to our IPO a year ago.

“Our focus on the needs of our customers and helping them to invest has enabled us to continue to add new customers to the platform and retain existing ones.

“This has resulted in assets under administration increasing to £52.3 billion and helped us to deliver another strong financial performance with revenue up 17% and profit before tax up 33%. Our balance sheet remains strong and the board has proposed a final dividend of 3.33p which takes the total ordinary dividend for the year to 4.83p, an increase of 31%.”

He added: “The structural growth drivers for investment platforms in the UK remain strong and if we continue to meet the needs of customers we are well placed to benefit from these over the coming years.

“Alongside these results we are announcing an innovative CSR initiative which will see charitable causes share in our success if we exceed our ambitious growth plans, subject to shareholder approval.

“A new share option plan will result in charitable causes benefiting from circa £10m if we increase our earnings per share by at least 100% over three years and by at least 150% over five years, subject to certain other conditions.

“The share options will be granted in favour of the AJ Bell Trust, a charity that predominantly supports disadvantaged young people in the UK and our customers and staff will get the chance to nominate which underlying causes should benefit.

“This means that the alignment of interests between our community, our customers, our staff and our shareholders is further strengthened.”