The tougher market conditions of 2018 negatively impacted gross inflows in 1Q18 after record highs were reported in Australia and internationally in the fourth quarter of 2017.
However, the A$484m from Australia in 1Q18 was still the third highest gross inflow on record, while the £105m (A$187m) reported by the international side of the business was the fourth highest on record.
Fund growth
Funds under administration (FUA) for the three months to 31 March 2018 was up 5.2% from A$7.4bn during the fourth quarter of 2017.
Year-on-year, Praemium reported a 37% increase in funds under administration.
Inflows held up
Praemium chief executive Michael Ohanessian said: “The March quarter was a tough one for equity markets globally with declining valuations and an increase in volatility. Despite an increase in investor uncertainty, we are pleased that our asset inflows held up and our overall FUA increased 5% over the December quarter.
“Looking forward, we expect to see considerable interest in the newly launched International SMA. Providing direct holdings for a client’s offshore equity allocation has often been prohibitively expensive compared to using collective structures; however, the efficiency of the Praemium SMA and the fact that we pass on the trade-netting benefits to investors helps make Praemium’s international SMA models economically viable.”
He continued: “Internationally, the business is progressing well in two important areas. The first is the uptake of Praemium’s Sipp product from our platform clients, with FUA over £16m at March 2018.
“Secondly, we have had a considerable increase in demand for the WealthCraft CRM solution, especially in conjunction with the Praemium platform and our in-house investment solution, Smart Investment Management,” Ohanessian said.
