Praemium has reported a 25 per cent increase in platform funds under administration (FUA) to a record $9.5 billion, with the Australian platform’s FUA going up 24 per cent to $6.9 billion thanks to net inflows of $1 billion.
At the same time, net profit after tax for the full year ending 30 June grew by 80 per cent to $2.5 million and was helped by a major upgrade to its integrated managed accounts platform, record gross international inflows of $850 million as well as the addition of 22 new firms to Praemium’s planning software, the company said.
Driven by platform revenues, which were up by 25 per cent, Australian revenue increased 14 per cent over FY2019 to $31.4 million while Australian EBIDTA grew by 21 per cent to $15.2 million.
This was followed by a strong performance by the international platform which saw gross inflows up 62 per cent on the prior comparable period, even though international revenue for the UK and Asia business units declined by 12 per cent for the year to $13.7 million.
The firm’s chief executive, Michael Ohanessian, said that overall the international business was growing strongly and would be on target to become profitable next year despite the challenging trading conditions in the UK which interrupted the momentum in the early part pf the financial year.
“The past year was a transformative one for Praemium,” he said.
According to him, the upgrade to a full-service integrated managed accounts (IMA) platform represented the fifth generation in platform technology as well as a full business model transition for Praemium, offering an efficient single platform structure suitable for independent financial advisers (IFAs), stockbrokers, private wealth managers, family offices and institutional clients both domestically and globally.
“An important consequence of this upgrade is a significant increase in the size of Praemium’s addressable market,” Ohanessian said.
“In Australia alone, our market has expanded from the $21 billion SMA platform segment (as at end of 2018) to the $858 billion overall platform market. Although it is early days, we are very encouraged y the strong client interest in Australia and internationally for our new IMA capability.”
