CMC Markets Plc ($CMCX)

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our financial year 2026 results presentation. My name is Peter Cruddas, and joining me today is Laurence Booth, Director and Global Head of Capital Markets; David Fineberg, Head of Strategic Partnerships; Matt Lewis, Head of ANZ. I will start by giving an overview of where CMC is as a business today and why I believe we are entering a very exciting new phase of growth. Laurence will then cover the financial headlines and our strategic progress across the group. David will provide the detail behind the numbers. Matt will provide an update on our Australian stockbroking business. And then finally, I will then come back at the end to wrap up. Before we move on, I want to show you a short video introducing our new brand identity. Over the last few years, CMC has evolved significantly. We've built new partnerships, expanded our product offering, entered new markets and transformed the shape of the business. We felt it was important that our brand evolved alongside us. This video gives you a flavor of where CMC is today and more importantly, where we're heading next. Let's take a look. [Presentation]

I think that video captures an important point. The business has evolved significantly over recent years. And in many respects, our new brand is simply catching up with the company we have become. CMC today is a very different business from the one many people still associate us with. We are no longer just a traditional retail CFD provider. CMC is now a platform business built for multi-asset trading and institutional partnerships. Revenue is driven by B2B and wholesale. We have diverse multi-asset financial platforms. We are trusted by major banks and brokers, and we have reliable proprietary technology infrastructure that has been built over many years. This gives us multiple earnings streams across trading, investing, treasury, institutional clients and partnerships. Importantly, the scale and profitability of our institutional and B2B business now gives us the ability to reinvest back into retail, brand and client acquisition. That is a major strategic advantage for CMC today as the strength and consistency of our B2B business gives us the capability to increase investment in our retail platforms and global brand. Laurence will speak more about it shortly, but this is the combination I want people to understand. CMC today has institutional scale and diversified earnings with further opportunity in the retail space. This is a fundamentally different business model to many of our peers and one we have built over many years. A few years ago, we told the market that CMC was moving towards a more institutional partnership-led model. That is exactly where we have delivered. Revenue is driven by B2B and wholesale. Our neobank API partnership continues to scale in line with our strategic expectations and gives us access to more countries without significant investment. And we now have access to very large embedded client bases through these platforms. This is the power of our model. We are not acquiring clients one by one. We are integrating with large financial platforms and giving them the technology, products and risk infrastructure they need. That gives us reach, scale and operating leverage, and it is a business model that is unchallenged and very difficult to replicate. This slide is very important because it explains how we think about partnerships. These are not simple supplier relationships. They are long-term strategic relationships where both sides benefit. CMC brings technology infrastructure, execution, risk management and product expertise. Our partners bring trusted client relationships, distribution, local knowledge and financial strength to support our growth together. Together, we build integrated financial ecosystems. That is why these relationships deepen over time. As we add more products, our partners can offer more to their clients. As their clients become more engaged, activity increases. As activity increases, both CMC and our partners benefit. It is a symbiotic model. It is shared growth, and every new capability we add strengthens and consolidates the relationship further. CMC has been building this platform for over 37 years. That matters. We have built something that you cannot replicate overnight. We have built proprietary technology across pricing, execution, risk management and connectivity. We have operated through multiple market cycles. We have been tested in extreme volatility. And most importantly, we have continued to deliver for clients and partners when markets are at their most challenging. That is why major financial institutions trust us. They need real-time pricing, liquidity and execution. They need confidence that the platform will perform under pressure. But most importantly, they need a partner they can trust. That is what CMC provides, and it is what we have done for 37 years. Quite simply, very few firms can do what CMC can do. Before I hand over to Laurence, I would like to recap on some of what I have covered this morning. Our strategic position is very clear. We are no longer a traditional CFD provider. We have built this business through technology infrastructure and partnerships. And today, leading financial institutions are choosing CMC because of the platform, capability and resilience we have built over many years. The operational reality now supports that strategy. Revenue is driven by B2B and wholesale. Our neobank API partnership continues to demonstrate exceptional and explosive growth, and we have 37 years of proprietary platform built behind us. And our product diversity and operational reliability have helped us secure Tier 1 partnerships with major institutions, including ANZ Bank and most recently, Westpac, Revolut and ASB Bank. This is no longer theory. This is now happening at scale. CMC has become an infrastructure layer sitting behind some very significant financial platforms globally. But importantly, the success of our B2B business is also now giving us the ability to refocus on retail, brand and direct client acquisition once again. It is a very powerful position to be in. We now have the benefit of institutional scale and diversified earnings, while also investing back into the retail opportunity globally. I will now hand over to Laurence, who will take you through some of our financial and strategic progress in more detail.

Thank you, Peter, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin with the financial highlights for 2026 before moving into the strategic progress we have made across the group. This has been a strong year for CMC. We delivered 15% growth in net operating income to GBP 392.6 million, 20% growth in profit before tax to GBP 101.3 million and an expansion in profit before tax margin to 25.8%. That performance reflects the strength and breadth of the business we have built across trading, investing, treasury management and institutional partnerships. Institutional and B2B income continue to scale, whilst our Australian stockbroking business delivered another record year, supported by continued client engagement and growth in assets under administration. We continued investing in technology, platform capability and strategic partnerships, while maintaining strong operational discipline across the group. FY 2026 demonstrates the benefit of the infrastructure, product depth and operational capability CMC has built over many years. It gives us a strong foundation as we move into 2027. As shown on the slide, following a very strong start to the year, we are guiding to a net operating income of approximately GBP 460 million to GBP 480 million. At the midpoint, that represents around 20% growth, reflecting continued momentum across the institutional and B2B business, contribution from major strategic initiatives already underway and further diversification across the group. CMC is today a multi-asset financial services platform built for sophisticated partners with broad and complex requirements. The institutional capability we have built sits at the heart of the group. It gives partners access to scale and continual innovation alongside infrastructure and multiproduct capability. During 2026, we continued to scale that model. The opportunity now is to ensure we win both mind share and market share in the direct-to-consumer market. Slide 10 highlights some of the major initiatives and operational milestones delivered during the year. In Australia, the Westpac integration remains on track for launch during 2027. Alongside ASB in New Zealand, these are major long-term institutional partnerships, which significantly expand the scale of our investing platform and client reach. We commenced rollout of the group's multi-asset platform, including the U.K. launch of our multi-asset offering. This enables clients to trade cash equities, CFDs and OTC options from a single platform and account experience. We launched Spectre for professional clients in November '25, followed by a retail rollout in May 2026. These launches are important milestones for CMC. They form part of the technological foundation for what will ultimately become our global Super App. We expanded our market offering significantly, including 24/5 U.S. equities, 24/7 crypto and 24/7 bullion trading. These are important developments in their own right, but they also point to a much broader infrastructure ambition. Our intention is to move the platform towards a 24/7 atomic infrastructure that is Web3 compatible, where products, settlement, custody, execution and client access can operate in a more continuous programmable and globally scalable environment that is central to how we think about the next evolution of CMC's platform, always on markets, broader asset coverage, deeper partner integration and infrastructure capable of supporting both traditional and digital financial services. CMC CapEx gives clients access to exciting investment opportunities, including secondary share placings, private equity and gray market IPO access. This broadens the addressable market for retail and institutional clients while increasing engagement across the platform. We continue to see strong acceleration through our neobank API partnerships. As Peter referenced, these partnerships have delivered exceptional growth in new account openings and trading activity and continue to go from strength to strength. We continue progressing our digital and Web3 infrastructure capability through a regulated institutional-grade framework fully integrated into the broader multi-asset platform strategy. So 2026 was not only a year of financial delivery, it was a year which positions CMC for the next phase of growth. Slide 11 shows the scale and breadth of the partnership ecosystem we are building. CMC now supports major banks, fintech platforms, neobanks and retail brands around the globe. These partnerships provide access to very large embedded client bases through our infrastructure and API capability. This is highly scalable distribution rather than relying solely on traditional client acquisition methods. We are increasingly embedded within larger financial ecosystems. Demand for broader platform capability continues to increase. Clients and partners want investing capability, API infrastructure, platform services and multiproduct functionality. That plays directly to CMC's strengths. Our track record of execution continues to support repeat partnership wins and long-term relationships. Partners choose CMC because we deliver reliably, we scale effectively and we continue investing in the platform. That trust was tested under extreme market conditions this year, and the business performed exceptionally well. This slide brings home the importance of operational resilience and execution. The period was defined by extreme market conditions, including an unprecedented move in precious metals, significant volatility across global markets and blowout volumes across the platform. Against that backdrop, client and partner activity increased materially. What mattered most was whether CMC could meet that demand without disruption, and our infrastructure did not miss a beat. But this was not just a technology story. Across technology, risk and operations, our people worked in real time to support clients and partners, maintain service quality and keep systems running smoothly under pressure. That operational capability is critical as our institutional relationships continue to scale. It reinforces the trust partners place in CMC and demonstrates that our platform can perform consistently even in extreme conditions. Three years ago, we introduced our institutional-first strategy. Today, CMC is the gold standard for major partnerships. Over time, we have built significant trust capital with our partners, and that trust represents a high barrier to entry for competitors. Institutional scale now supports reinvestment into the CMC brand, the retail experience and the broader direct-to-consumer ecosystem. That investment has created a much larger, more scalable and more diversified business. The global addressable CFD wallet continues to grow and today stands at in excess of USD 10 billion. Our priority is to dominate the D2C opportunity. We are investing in a new global brand identity, the retail client experience, enhanced onboarding and client journeys, expanded product capability and broader multi-asset functionality. The capabilities originally built for institutional clients can now be deployed across retail. That gives us a significant competitive advantage. This is not a shift away from institutional, this is an easy win and will be a core pillar of growth. Finally, I want to touch on the performance of our regional offices across Asia and the Middle East. This slide shows the scale and impact of what we are delivering in these markets. In 2026, the region accounted for 54% of the group CFD revenue with strong growth across Asia and the Middle East. Asia delivered over 100% year-on-year revenue growth, and the Middle East delivered 76% year-on-year revenue growth. We launched cash prime brokerage across the region, providing institutions and neobank partners with enhanced brokerage capability. This extends both reach and sophistication locally. Asia has consolidated its investment market entities ahead of the multi-asset platform launch, scaling product and operational capability in the region. These businesses are now devolved. Decisions on development, marketing, people and products are made locally; improving client experience and speed of delivery. Taken together, local execution, institutional grade capability and platform scale are driving strong regional growth and provide a solid foundation for the next stage of expansion across Asia and the Middle East. With that, I will hand over to Dave to cover the financials in more detail.

Thank you, Laurence, and good morning, everyone. I'm going to take you through the financial update for the year, covering the income statement, key movements and any operating costs and the outlook for FY 2027. As Peter and Laurence have both set out, FY 2026 was a year of strong delivery across the group. The financial performance reflects that, but it also reflects the change in shape of the business with a broader earning base, increasing institutional and B2B contribution and a continued investment in the platform and future growth. Let's start with the income statement. Net operating income for the year was GBP 392.6 million, up 15% from GBP 340 million last year. This result represents the group's best performance on record outside of the FY 2021 COVID impact year. This was driven by a strong performance across both trading and investing as institutional and B2B income continued to scale and our Australian stockbroking business delivered a record performance, which Matt will talk you through later. Total operating expense rose 15%. This primarily reflects higher variable rem following the achievement of performance hurdles, alongside continued investment in strategic growth initiatives, technology infrastructure and major partnership integrations. The result also includes the previously disclosed GBP 5.2 million remediation provision in Australia relating to the industry-wide margin netting matter. The operational discipline of the business, together with the solid top line performance resulted in profit before tax of GBP 101.3 million and a growing PBT margin of 25.8%, demonstrating our resilience even after absorbing these one-off items. Following this result, the Board has declared a full year dividend of 13.8p per share, consistent with our policy of returning 50% profit after tax to shareholders. Overall, these results reflect solid execution, strong regional performance and continued momentum across all areas of the business. Turning to look at our costs in more detail. As mentioned on the previous slide, total operating expense for the year is up 15% year-on-year. Net staff costs increased 9% to GBP 124.3 million, whilst fixed rem growth remained relatively controlled. Sales and marketing costs increased to GBP 40.8 million, primarily reflecting the Australian remediation provision. Outside of that item, marketing spend increased more modestly as we continue to focus on targeted and data-driven acquisition campaigns. We also incurred higher advisory costs linked to ongoing strategic initiatives, driving legal and professional fees higher in the year. Importantly, while we continue to invest for growth, we remain highly focused on operational discipline and efficiency. A number of cost initiatives are already underway and are expected to deliver meaningful operational leverage over time as key programs mature. That said, many of these initiatives require upfront investment before the benefits are fully realized. And that investment is reflected in our FY 2027 cost guidance, which I'll come on to now. Momentum across the group continues to build, and that momentum is being supported by a deliberate investment to drive future scale, diversification and operating leverage. Building on 2026 performance, FY '27 represents a deliberate investment phase, and the group expects operating expenses, excluding variable rem, to be approximately GBP 280 million for the year ahead. This increase in cost is driven by a defined set of investment priorities aligned to the group's long-term growth strategy focused on product expansion, institutional partnerships, operating infrastructure and brand awareness. Our product offering is being advanced through the development of securitized derivatives offering, providing access to a broader global client base and supplemented by the progress we are making on our multi-asset platform and Super App rollout. Institutional partnerships remain a core driver of growth, and diversification and the Westpac partnership represents a significant opportunity to expand the Australian customer base, increase trade volumes and scale the stockbroking business. Similarly, the ASB partnership extends the group's footprint in New Zealand, reinforcing its position as a leading provider of white-label trading infrastructure. Investment in these initiatives have resulted in increased staff costs alongside higher operational expenses, including IT, market data and premises costs to support the expanding team. However, as we have seen with the ANZ partnership, the upside is significant. As Laurence touched on earlier, we are stepping up our investment in our brand and marketing, increasing our reach as we grow out our retail offering. This investment includes a strategic Premier League sponsorship intended to enhance global brand visibility and customer acquisition through front-of-shirt positioning and multichannel exposure. Revenue associated with this investment has not been included in the NOI guidance provided today, reflecting a conservative approach. Whilst these partnerships have been signed, we cannot share details just yet, but we look forward to announcing these sponsorships to you all shortly. At the same time, we remain very focused on cost discipline and operational efficiency. FY 2027 includes more than GBP 10 million of identified savings and efficiency initiatives across vendor rationalization, outsourcing efficiencies, workplace optimization and improved technology utilization. For clarity, these efficiency savings are already incorporated within the group's FY '27 operating expense guidance of approximately GBP 280 million, excluding variable rem. So while FY '27 represents a meaningful investment year, it is important to recognize that these investments are being made from a position of strength. We're investing behind scalable infrastructure, proven partnership models and long-term growth opportunities, while continuing to drive lower overhead intensity and improved operating leverage over time. I'll now briefly touch on the group's broader outlook for the year ahead before handing over to Matt for an update on the Invest business. CMC enters FY '27 with a strong momentum, supported by increasingly diversified earnings base and a growing contribution from institutional and B2B partnerships. We expect a number of key growth drivers to contribute meaningfully over the next 12 months. That includes the continued progression towards the launch of the Westpac and ASB partnership, further expansion of our institutional and B2B relationships, ongoing rollout of the multi-asset platform and continued progression towards the Super App. At the same time, the group is also making a deliberate pushback into retail and D2C growth. As Laurence mentioned earlier, the scale, resilience and diversification we have now built across the institutional side of the business gives us the confidence to increase investment into brand, client acquisition and a broader retail experience globally. As a result, we now expect net operating income for FY '27 to be in the range of GBP 460 million to GBP 480 million. As I covered on the previous slide, we continue to invest strategically across technology infrastructure, product capability, partnership expansion and retail growth initiatives with FY '27 operating expense to be approximately GBP 280 million, excluding variable rem. Overall, we believe the group remains well positioned with diversified growth drivers across both institutional and retail channels, a scalable platform and a disciplined strategic investment supporting the sustained long-term progression of the business. With that, I'll now hand you over to Matt to provide an update on Invest.

Thanks, David, and good morning, everyone. The broking business has delivered a record year on all fronts with strong year-on-year growth across all of our key performance metrics. Net operating income increased 32% to AUD 140 million, driven by strong market momentum and high client engagement. This was reflected in strong volumes and record customer growth with active traders up 19% to 279,000 and new accounts up 36%, increasing by 103,000. Importantly, this momentum continued to strengthen in the second half of the year. Assets under administration also grew strongly, increasing 15% to AUD 89 billion, a new high for the business. Continuous platform development remained a key focus in FY '26, including the rollout of a new intuitive desktop platform, while also releasing a new flexible banking solution designed to attract greater cash balances while also supporting both acquisition and retention. We've also launched new AI tools to power stock analysis for clients and streamline back-end processes and customer support. These capabilities enhance both the client experience today while strengthening the platform for future scale, including the next phase of growth through new product offerings and strategic partnerships. Looking ahead, we see clear opportunities to expand our product range and capture a greater share of wallet. In FY '27, we will deliver a broader crypto offering with more coins available to trade, expand into wealth, introduce the CapEx offering for our domestic market while also mirroring our European launch of listed warrants where we see an opportunity to disrupt the Australian warrants market. Turning now to the 2 major white label partnerships with Westpac and ASB Bank, both previously announced to the market. These strategic partnerships represent a transformational step change for CMC, significantly expanding our addressable customer base and deepening our reach across the Australian and New Zealand retail investment markets. As major banking institutions, both partners bring established customer bases and trusted banking relationships. Combined with the strength of the CMC Invest platform, these banking channels are expected to drive a meaningful uplift in both trading activity, revenue and customer acquisition. Westpac is Australia's second largest bank with approximately 500,000 share trading customers and around AUD 39 billion of assets under administration. Once live, the partnership is expected to materially lift CMC's domestic turnover by circa 45%. Likewise, ASB is New Zealand's second largest bank with approximately 150,000 share trading customers and amongst the country's largest retail broker. CMC has more than 2 decades of CFD trading heritage in New Zealand, and this partnership builds on that foundation by expanding our footprint through a highly established banking partner into cash equities. Both partnerships are now deep in the integration phase and on track to launch in 2027. We're also enhancing the client experience with streamlined onboarding and a seamless connection between banking and investing. The planned rollout will be phased, beginning with new customers before a broader migration, giving us a clear and controlled path to launch. In summary, these technology white label partnerships represent a major step change for the business. They extend the reach of our platform, deepen our strategic banking relationships and provide a strong foundation for future growth. I'll now hand you over to Peter.

So to wrap up, 2026 has been another year of strong delivery and strategic progress for CMC. Financial performance was strong with net operating income up 15% and profit before tax up 20%. But more importantly, the business continues to evolve exactly as we intended. At IPO, we said we would build a business led by institutional and B2B partnerships. We said we would diversify the earnings base, and we said we would scale through technology, infrastructure and partnerships. We sit here today after 10 years as a public company, having done exactly those things. Revenue is driven by B2B and wholesale. Our neobank API partnership continues to scale strongly and our major partnerships with Revolut, Westpac and ASB continue to progress well. At the same time, we continue to roll out the multi-asset platform, progress the Super App and expand our digital asset capabilities. Importantly, the success of the B2B business is also now allowing us to reinvest back into retail, brand and client acquisition globally. We now have institutional scale and diversified earnings alongside what will be a growing global retail platform. And I believe that makes CMC fundamentally different from many businesses in our sector. So the message today is very simple. The platform is built, the partnerships are in place. The technology is ready. Now we scale. Thank you.