BlackRock Investment Management Australia Limited has confirmed Praemium Australia Limited will become the responsible entity (RE) for its separately managed accounts (SMA) scheme.
Members of BlackRock's SMA, the BlackRock Customised Portfolio Service (CPS), voted on the change of the responsible entity to Praemium last Friday.
The listed portfolio administration specialist expected to take over operations in the week beginning 17 December 2012, following Praemium's registration with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) as the RE.
The SMA scheme would be renamed The Praemium Customised Portfolio Service upon the official appointment of Praemium.
A total of 98.7 per cent of members who voted on the resolution member meeting voted in favour of the change, with members' votes cast based on their respective assets within the CPS.
The CPS assets totalled $660 million as of 7 December 2012.
"This follows BlackRock's decision to focus exclusively on delivering world-class asset management and risk management solutions for Australian clients," the company said.
"We are pleased that members have voted in favour of the resolution," BlackRock Australia country head Justin Arter said.
"The positive outcomes sharpen BlackRock's focus on becoming the risk and asset management solutions provider of choice for Australia's institutional and individual investors."
Praemium entered into the agreement in September this year, as BlackRock intended to retire as the RE, and the technology and administrative features of the SMA business were believed to be well suited to Praemium.
Praemium was the current provider of investment platform technology and related services for the scheme.
The CPS is based on SMA technology, which has become a significant market in the United States.
"The SMA market is growing rapidly in Australia but is still small compared to what is happening in the United States and other markets," Praemium chief executive Michael Ohanessian said.
"The BlackRock CPS is Australia's market-leading SMA and we look forward to building upon its success to fully develop the SMA market in Australia," he said.
"[We] will now work to ensure a seamless transition... and will soon be releasing additional enhancements and features to make the product even more attractive to the market."
