Praemium strikes alliance to challenge competition

Wrap providerPraemiumPortfolio Services has struck a deal with market data services group Paritech to bolster its market position in light of growing competition in the portfolio services arena.

Praemium managing director Arthur Naoumidis says while the alliance follows 12 months of talks between the groups it is predominantly a move to counter sharemarket information system providerIress’ push into the area following the latter’s acquisition ofXplan Technologieslast March.

Paritech already competes with Iress in the market data arena while Naoumidis has found his group up against Iress more and more - through its now integrated Xplan/Iress portfolio module - in many of the tenders the group has recently pitched for.

Naoumidis says the alliance will enable clients to access both market data and portfolio management services through Paritech and Praemium respectively.

“We’re going to provide desktop integration for brokers who want to use a competitive market data system and is integrated to our specific portfolio services,” Naoumidis says.

According to Naoumidis, Praemium, which now provides services to clients with an aggregate $1 billion in assets, is close to striking a deal with a major financial institution to service its associated dealerships with sign-off expected by the end of March.

Praemium’s existing clients are equally split between accounting and planning groups on the one hand and brokers and planners on the other, Naoumidis says.