AJ Bell Sells Pension Business to InvestAcc for $32 Million
-British investment platform AJ Bell said on Thursday it would sell its personal and occupational pension schemes business to InvestAcc Group for up to 25 million pounds ($32.3 million), to focus on its core business.
AJ Bell Platinum, part of the company's non-platform business, has 3,600 customers, with 3.2 billion pounds of assets under administration that will be transferred to InvestAcc.
AJ Bell's core business involves providing online investment platforms and stockbroker services.
"The sale simplifies our business model, enabling the management team to focus on AJ Bell's core platform business, in line with our growth strategy across both the advised and direct-to-consumer market segments," CEO Michael Summersgill said in a statement.
The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year and will not impact AJ Bell's annual forecast, Summersgill said.
In January, AJ Bell reported a 17% jump in its first-quarter managed assets, but its shares slipped as analysts contended that the market may have expected a better performance. ($1 = 0.7742 pounds)
(Reporting by Shashwat Awasthi; Editing by Savio D'Souza)
