Bell Financial looks to diversify revenue, targets 'holistic' strategy

Bell Financial Group (BFG) said it will continue to diversify its revenue streams to transform into a broader and more holistic wealth manager to respond to the changing structural landscape of the Australian wealth industry.

It reported unaudited net profits after tax (NPAT) of $16.3 million for the first four months of 2026, a 197% jump from the same period last year.

Revenue came in at $109.6 million, a rise of 36% from the previous year.

BFG said performance was driven by strong trading and deal activity in the Markets division and continued growth in the Platforms division.

Market division's NPAT rose by 423% in the first fourth months of the year to $7.4 million whereas the Platforms division saw a 15% jump to $8.9 million.

"Putting these number in context, we note that trading conditions were challenging in the first half of 2025 and improved markedly in the second half," it said.

"Revenue and earnings momentum in the second half of 2025 has carried in the first four month of 2026."

BFG had reported a slump of 44% in profits in the first half of 2025 to $9.3 million, dragged by market volatility impacting the broking business. The broking division's revenue across retail and institutional was down 23.5% year-on-year, dropping to $69.4 million. It had made an after-tax loss of $2.8 million.

BFG co-chief executive Dean Davenport said: "We have made a strong start to the year which is pleasing. Our strategy to scale and diversify our revenue streams is positioning the business to perform across market cycles."

"As we continue our transformation into a broader, more holistic wealth manager, we expect this will result in an increasing contribution from fee-based revenue versus transaction-based revenue over time," he added.

As part of this diversification strategy, BFG said it will launch new products in 2026, consolidate the wholesale broking arm and launch new client digital portals across its three divisions of Bell Potter, Bell Direct and Desktop Broker.

Last year, BFG selected Praemium's administration solution Scope+ to administer more than 2200 client portfolios. It said it will migrate all existing portfolios on Praemium platforms and continue driving uptake from existing and new clients to build on gross inflows.