This morning Praemium Ltd (ASX: PPS) reported its half-year results for the period ending December 31 2018. Below is a summary of the results with comparisons to the prior corresponding half.
- Net profit after tax $634,000, down 13%
- Revenue of $22.96m, up 7%
- Underlying EBITDA of $5.05m, up 19%
- Operating expenses of $17.1m, up 4%
- Total funds under administration (FUA) $8.4b, up 14%
- Administers more than 500,000 investor accounts
- Debt free with $11.3m cash on hand
This was something of a mixed half for the provider of investment platforms and portfolio administration services that saw its core Australian business continue to perform well, while its international operations are still a work in progress.
As a result the Premium share price is down 18% to 57 cents at the time of writing.
In Australia the group grew revenue 13% thanks to strong inflows into its managed accounts segment that helped it deliver half-year EBITDA of $5.7 million on an EBITDA margin of 42%.
However, the international businesses posted an EBITDA loss of $1 million, with the UK losing $0.6m and Asian operations $0.4m. Management blamed the UK result partly on uncertainty around the UK's proposed "Brexit" from the European Union.
Management declined to provide a forecast for the full year other than to say it's focused on "accelerating growth" thanks to investments in technology, sales and marketing.
The company has a market value around $284 million at 70 cents per share and exists in a space with other platform providers such as Hub24 Ltd (ASX: HUB) and Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX: NWL).
