Shares in investment administrator Praemium surged 15 per cent to an all-time high of $1.46 on Tuesday after receiving a takeover bid from larger rival Netwealth that its board rejected as being too low.

Netwealth announced before the market opened on Tuesday morning that it put an all-scrip bid to “merge” with Praemium last week, offering one of its shares for every 11.96 Praemium shares and valuing the rival at $785 million.