Investing Made Simple – AJ Bell’s Quiet Revolution
Investing Made Simple – AJ Bell’s Quiet Revolution
Overview
When savers think about investing in the UK, the picture is complex. Butwhat if investing was made as simple as possible for both advisors and savers? That’s the vision AJ Bell is turning into reality. Behind the sleek interfaces, there’s a powerhouse of innovation quietly reshaping how Britain invests.
AJ Bell, founded in Manchester in 1995, has grown into one of the UK’s largest and most trusted investment platforms. With over £92 billion in assets under administration, 557,000 customers, and a Trustpilot rating of 4.8, AJ Bell is not just growing—it’s thriving.
The Catalyst for Growth
We first took notice of AJ Bell during a period of market scepticism regarding UK’s investment platforms, mainly driven by poor business performance of high-cost incumbents like Hargreaves Lansdown. What we understood however, was that AJ Bell was at the intersection of powerful growth drivers including demographics, government regulations, technology. When a business shares the cost efficiencies gained through scale with its customers, it creates a feedback loop that drives adoption, strengthens market position, and fuels further growth, an indicator worth tracking closely.
We were able to place the particulars of the UK market and AJ Bell in a global context through our work on global near peers such as Netwealth and Hub24 in Australia, Charles Schwab and Interactive Brokers in the U.S., and Nordnet in Sweden. Economies of scale shared is present across these businesses, as well as platform like business models where new customers can be offered new services at low risk and low cost. Furthermore, incumbents are either high cost, or legacy models such as high street banks which are not culturally, operationally or regulatory aligned to serve the growing investments and wealth management markets.
What followed was a deep dive into AJ Bell’s dual-channel strategy—serving both advised and direct-to-consumer investors—and a scalable operating model that delivers high-margin growth. This strategy allows AJ Bell to continue to diversify revenue streams by adding new services to their consumer platforms and by addressing key pain points for the advisor community such as regulatory compliance and investment selection. Furthermore, AJ Bell benefits from higher interest rates vs base rates as revenue is earned on customer cash balances held on platform.
In FY2024, AJ Bell posted record revenues of £269.4 million, up 23% year-on-year, and profit before tax of £113.3 million, up 29%, increasing their dividends every year since listing, continuing that record at the 2025 half year results.
Why We Still Hold – The Value is Clear
Despite strong share price performance, over the last 18 months, AJ Bell trades at a compelling valuation at just 20x next year’s earnings and a dividend yield of 3%. Given the continued flow of assets on platform, and the ability of AJ Bell’s price, and service advantage, we believe the business can scale to multiples of today’s size. Given AJ Bell’s commitment to a regular, progressive dividend, both income and growth investors are likely to be well served.
Disclaimer
Dundas Global Investors is the trading name of Dundas Partners LLP. Dundas Partners LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the USA, and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) in Australia. The Authorised Corporate Director for the Heriot Investment Funds is Waystone Management (UK) Limited which is also authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Dundas Partners LLP provides investment management services to clients in the UK, USA, Australia, and New Zealand. In this communication Dundas Partners LLP may be referred to as DGI, Dundas or Dundas Global Investors.
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