One of the best performers on the ASX today has been the Praemium Ltd (ASX: PPS) share price.
The managed accounts platform provider's shares are up over 4% to 76 cents in afternoon trade.
This latest gain means that Praemium's shares have now more than doubled in value since this time last year.
Why are its shares surging higher today?
This morning Praemium announced that it has agreed terms with Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Australia to broaden its longstanding relationship to include Managed Accounts.
According to the release, the company's market-leading SMA technology will provide Morgan Stanley with a completely automated Managed Accounts investment solution, complementing the existing performance and tax reporting services that Praemium has been providing it since 2005. The result is a fully integrated platform offering for Morgan Stanley advisers and clients.
This is quite a coup for Praemium as Morgan Stanley Wealth Management is one of the leading wealth management firms in Australia with $27 billion in assets under management across 110 advisers.
While it is unclear at this stage how much of this will find its way onto Praemium's platform, it could certainly give its funds under administration (FUA) a major lift.
As of the end of the March quarter Praemium reported that FUA had reached $7.8 billion, up 37% on the prior corresponding period.
Praemium CEO Michael Ohanessian appears to be very pleased with the agreement. He stated that:
"We are pleased that Morgan Stanley has extended our partnership to include our Managed Accounts technology. It is a tremendous validation of the robustness of our technology and the breadth of our offering that we continue to attract such high-caliber institutional clients."
Should you invest?
I think that Praemium is up there with the likes of Hub24 Ltd (ASX: HUB) and Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT) as one of the best fintech shares on the Australian share market.
I do, however, think that its shares are probably about fair value now. But this could still make them worth considering as a patient long-term investment.
