Praemium Ltd has reported its financials for the first half of the 2025 financial year (HY25) with revenue and other income reaching $52.3 million for the six months ending December 31, 2024, marking a 32% increase from the $39.7 million of the prior corresponding period (PCP).
The uplift was driven by a $6 million contribution from the acquisition of OneVue, higher average platform funds under administration (FUA) and improved platform margins.
It has been a strong period for the fintech company, whose tech provides financial advisers and wealth managers with a suite of investment, administration and retirement solutions specifically designed for ‘wealthy’ decision-making and the tools and support to give clarity to complexity.
Good numbers
During the period, average platform FUA grew to $30.2 billion, including $4.2 billion from OneVue, compared to $22.9 billion in the PCP. Excluding OneVue, platform margins improved by 3 basis points to 28 basis points.
The repricing of separately managed accounts (SMA) from April 1, 2024, contributed to a 4-basis-point increase in margins to 38 basis points. However, this gain was partially offset by the impact of capped administration fees on growing balances in SMA and Powerwrap.
The company also reported an increase in non-custodial portfolios, with Scope portfolios rising to 65,706 from 64,384 in the PCP and Scope+ portfolios increasing to 9,416 from 8,493.
Expenses for the period rose to $44.8 million, reflecting the inclusion of $6.6 million in OneVue-related costs. Excluding OneVue, expenses increased by $4.1 million, or 12%, to $34.2 million.
This was largely due to a $1.6 million rise in one-off costs, including expenses related to the OneVue acquisition and the transfer of operations roles from Armenia to an outsourced provider in India.
Additional increases in employee, technology and marketing expenses were linked to the development and launch of Spectrum, a next-generation investor-directed portfolio service (IDPS).
Robust balance sheet
Praemium declared a fully franked dividend of $0.01 per share, payable on March 21, 2025, with a record date of March 7, 2025. The company also completed a share buy-back program in line with investor preferences for fully franked dividends and accretive mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
The company maintains a robust balance sheet, with net assets of $108.0 million as of December 31, 2024, compared with $109.1 million at June 30, 2024.
Total assets declined by $4.3 million to $130.2 million, primarily due to a $7.5 million cash return to shareholders, which included a $4.8 million final dividend payment and $2.7 million in share buy-backs during the half-year.
“This is an outstanding continuation of the momentum built through the 2024 financial year," Praemium’s chief executive officer Anthony Wamsteker stated.
"We have greatly improved our organic growth, repriced our core SMA to reflect its top-tier market position, rebounded from the impact of adviser exits, launched a market-leading IDPS with Spectrum, restructured operations offshore and returned earnings to shareholders.
“I look forward to the added value to come from fully integrating our OneVue acquisition, repricing our market-dominant non-custodial Scope solutions and gaining further growth from Spectrum.
“As always, I recognise that these important benefits to shareholders are the product of incredible work from our people, the choices our advisers and their clients make and the privilege it is to serve them. I thank all our key stakeholders for their contributions and the remarkable results they have helped produce.”