The company, which is one of the UK’s largest investment platforms saw pre-tax profits increase by 33% to £27.7 million in the year to the end of September on revenue up 17% to £104.9m.

Shares in AJ Bell which sat at 160p last December, also increased 191/2p, or 5% to 4271/2 at the beginning of trading.

Chief executive Andy Bell 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 the 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%.

“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.”