Praemium bets on platform switching for adviser growth
Praemium has released its FY24 results and is planning to capture platform migration occurring among financial advisers to drive future growth.
Announcing its 2023–24 financial year results, the wealth management platform saw a revenue growth of 12 per cent to $84.9 million from $76 million in the previous financial year – including $2.4 million generated from the OneVue acquisition.
This was underpinned by a strong funds under administration (FUA) rise of $13.3 billion, or 30 per cent, to $57.4 billion from $44 billion in FY23. In particular, platform FUA was up 26 per cent to $28.1 billion and SMA FUA grew by 18 per cent to $11.3 billion.
It also recorded a statutory net profit after tax (NPAT) result of $8.8 million, a decline of 42 per cent from $15.2 million in FY23.
Commenting on the results, Praemium chief executive Anthony Wamsteker said: “Praemium enters 2025 with optimism and positive momentum.
“The SMA platform’s premium offer is priced at competitive levels consistent with the market we serve. We will look to that experience as a model for ensuring the same rigorous review is applied to our virtual managed account (VMA) and solution and administration services (VMAAS) offers in 2025.”
In particular, the CEO is eyeing out the platform migration occurring in the advice industry, with advisers looking to switch platform providers as a key avenue for future growth.
“I really do think there’s still a lot of migration from one platform to another in the market happening. We really want to meet the needs of the advisers who are part of that migration, who are moving from one platform to another. We felt we were missing some of it, hence the importance of this [IDPS] journey,” he said on an investor webinar.
The firm said it will capture this opportunity through its next generation investor-directed portfolio services (IDPS), which is set to launch in October 2024. This offering will look to target the needs of its high-net-worth (HNW) clients.
Wamsteker added: “We will be capturing a decent chunk of the migration that’s going on, let alone the organic growth of the wealth management sector as a whole. The whole industry is growing, but within the industry, there is still significant migration from older platforms to the platforms that are more highly rated, and we want to make sure we do well in that space.”
Money Management previously explored the “once in a generation” opportunity that platforms have as the rise of the self-licensed model prompts advisers to select their platform of choice, which typically occurs every six to seven years.
AMP’s recent announcement that it would be selling off its licensee and self-licensed business Jigsaw to Entireti could also see its exit of over 1,000 advisers dispersed across the platform market if they choose to leave AMP North.
Moreover, Wamsteker provided an update on its acquisition of OneVue from Iress that completed on 15 April, which has added $4.1 billion in FUA to the business.
“Our OneVue platform acquisition is on track. We have finalised plans for migration of OneVue clients to Praemium solutions. Each client has had this plan agreed with them. Our plans have confirmed that $3 million in synergies is both achievable and expected,” the CEO commented.
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