Q1 Trading Update

22 January 2026

AJ Bell plc

Q1 trading update

AJ Bell plc ("AJ Bell" or the "Company"), one of the UK's largest investment platforms, today issues a trading update in respect of the three months ended 31 December 2025.

Performance overview

Platform business

AJ Bell Investments

Non-platform business

Michael Summersgill, Chief Executive Officer at AJ Bell, commented:

"I am pleased to report a strong start to the financial year, delivering record levels of gross inflows onto both our advised and D2C platform propositions and attracting 29,000 new platform customers. This excellent customer growth reflects the impact of ongoing investment in our brand and platform propositions.

"We continue to invest to accelerate growth. Ahead of the tax year end, we recently launched a new multi‑channel brand advertising campaign, building on the success of our 'Feel good, investing' campaign, which has helped drive brand awareness to record levels over the past year.

"Record gross inflows were moderated by temporarily elevated outflows, driven largely by uncertainty ahead of the UK Budget. Customers nearing retirement responded to speculation around potential pension tax changes, resulting in a £500 million increase in pension withdrawals compared with Q1 FY25. Persistent uncertainty in the lead‑up to the last two Budgets has become an unwelcome feature of the market, prompting higher levels of assets moving out of pensions and risk‑based investments. This is directly at odds with the Government's stated ambition to boost retail investing. We hope to see a more considered approach to the next fiscal event and urge government to provide a clear commitment to pension tax stability going forward.

"We have started the year with strong momentum. The platform market presents significant long-term growth opportunities, and our dual-channel model, supported by continued business investment, ensures we are well-placed to deliver on this opportunity."

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^{(1) Transfers-in, subscriptions, contributions and tax relief}

^{(2) Transfers-out, cash withdrawals, benefits and tax payments}

^{(3) Total investment returns and revaluations, net of charges and taxes}

^{(4) Platform AUA which is held in AJ Bell's Funds or Managed Portfolio Service}

^{(5) Assets which are held in AJ Bell's Funds or Managed Portfolio Service via third-party platforms}

Contacts:

AJ Bell                                    

Historical customer numbers, AUA and AUM by quarter

^{(1) Transfers-in, subscriptions, contributions and tax relief}

^{(2) Transfers-out, cash withdrawals, benefits and tax payments}

^{(3) Total investment returns and revaluations, net of charges and taxes}

^{(4) Platform AUA which is held in AJ Bell's Funds or Managed Portfolio Service}

^{(5) Assets which are held in AJ Bell's Funds or Managed Portfolio Service via third-party platforms}

^{(6) Migration relates to the wind down of a White-label SIPP administration agreement}

About AJ Bell:

Established in 1995, AJ Bell is one of the largest investment platforms in the UK, operating at scale in both the advised and direct-to-consumer markets.

Our purpose is to help people invest by providing them with easy access to Pensions, ISAs and General investment accounts, great customer service and competitive charges.

Our platform propositions offer a wide range of simple, low-cost investment solutions including shares and other instruments traded in the UK and other major stock exchanges around the world, as well as our own range of AJ Bell funds.

In the advised market, we offer AJ Bell Investcentre, our full-service proposition, alongside AJ Bell Touch, a simplified app-based proposition enabling a fully digital service model, and AJ Bell Custody Solutions, which provides flexible, low-cost, white-labelled investment management.

In the D2C market we offer AJ Bell, our low-cost, full-service proposition and AJ Bell Dodl, a low-cost investment app that offers a simplified investment journey.

AJ Bell is headquartered in Manchester, UK, with offices in London and Bristol.

Forward-looking statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties, and actual results and developments may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements. These forward-looking statements are statements regarding AJ Bell's intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things, its results of operations, financial condition, prospects, growth, strategies, and the industry in which it operates. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this announcement and AJ Bell does not undertake any obligation to publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this announcement.