Euronext Athens Holding S.A. (EXAE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Maria, your chorus call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Hellenic Exchanges - Athens Stock Exchange conference call to present and discuss the first half 2021 financial results. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Nick Koskoletos, CFO; and Mr. Stelios Konstantinou, Head of Investor Relations. Gentlemen, you may now proceed.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and good morning to those of you listening to us from the other side of the Atlantic. We would like to present the financial results of the group for the first half of 2021, which were published yesterday and are, of course, available in the IR section of our website. And then, take any questions that you have. Nick, I don't know if you want to start with some comments?

Yes. Thank you, Stelios. And my best to all participants. Some highlights about the performance of our market as we usually do. The average capitalization of the market has increased by almost 17%, standing at close to EUR 57 billion, EUR 58 billion. Obviously, the latest number is higher than that, but we're talking about the average now. Listed banks market cap has increased by 19%, while the market capital of the rest of the market has increased by 16%. Some positive trends coming through on the average trading -- average daily traded value, which has increased 8% on a half year basis to EUR 81 million versus EUR 75 million last year. Derivatives as well stand much higher. So on that note if we do examine the quarterly market performance over the past 5 quarters, in terms of the trading, obviously, we had a very weak Q2 last year, which was right after the onset of the pandemic and even weaker Q3. And obviously because of the result of the lockdowns and overall slowdown economic activity and the decreased visibility, but that all -- all that turned around in Q4, where trading was up and followed-through into Q1 of this year and Q2 of this year as well. And we also have increased market activity as well with some issues -- some equity issues, both from 2 of the -- 2 systemic banks and then some bond issues as well. So Stelios will go into more detail about that during our results presentation. But at this point, I just wanted to highlight a few things from our side. I think it's something that we've been talking about for quite a bit over the past year and how we're seeking to move forward with regard to the series of actions and initiatives that we've lined up and feed into the strategic outline that we've been discussing. The licensing of our subsidiary ATHEXCSD and the CSDR and sort of the operation under the new regime that went live on the 4th -- on the 12th of April, and that enables us to tap into additional services offered to the capital market and the corporate ecosystem. Our 20th Annual General Meeting elected 4 new members on the Board of Directors, which increased the body's independence and enriching its knowledge and experience, and we're very excited about that. And lastly, starting off in the beginning of the year and the beginning of this month for a branch in Thessaloniki, we're actually consuming electricity that is sourced 100% from renewable energy. And obviously, that is something that we want to do in terms of our -- implementing our sustainability policy. This operation with green electricity also includes the colocation service, which is a very -- it's a significant line in our ancillary services that is offered here at our data center at our headquarters. And we aim at making it even more competitive as an offering for existing and prospective clients. So at this point, I'd like to pass it on to Stelios to go through our half -- first half 2021 performance in more detail.

Thanks, Nick. So let's start the overview of our first half 2021 performance as always from the top. The consolidated turnover of the group during the first half of the year was EUR 18.4 million compared to EUR 15.2 million in the first half of 2020, and that's up 21.3%. If we analyze revenue further in the 3 segments, we see that trading base revenue was up 4% on the back of higher ADTV in the cash market in the first half of this year compared to last year. Market cap-based revenue and that is exchange, depository and clearing house services, was up almost 45%, mainly on the back of fees on corporate actions and other services to issuers. While revenue from ancillary services, which includes market data, support of other markets, et cetera, was up a strong 46.4%, and we'll have a few more things to say about that. If we look further into our top line, their 6 most important revenue drivers, which account for about 90% of total revenue. We see that revenue from clearing made up 29% of total turnover and amounted to EUR 5.4 million compared to EUR 5.2 million in the first half of last year, and that's up 4.2%. And that increase in turn is due to the 7.3% increase in clearing revenue in the cash market, while derivatives market revenue was up 3.4%. Revenue from trading represents 16% of total consolidated turnover and in the first half of the year, it was up 1.1% to EUR 2.95 million. Now as far as revenue from the derivatives markets, both trading and clearing is concerned, in the first half of the year, trading activity, as already mentioned and measured in number of contracts, increased by 67% to 69,700 contracts compared to 41,600. However, revenue was up only 3.5% and that only -- can only mean that the average revenue per contract was down 39% to EUR 0.137 as opposed to EUR 0.223 per contract. As you know, Pricing in the derivatives market depends on the type of investor, the product being traded and the prices of the underlying securities. And as a result, market volumes and our revenues do not always go hand in hand, and as a matter of fact, they rarely do. But last year, on derivatives, trading and clearing revenue in the first half of 2021 was EUR 1.12 million compared to EUR 1.08 million corresponding to 13.4% of total trading and clearing revenue and 6.1% of total consolidated turnover. Moving on, revenue from exchange services makes up 11% of total turnover, and this line includes the quarterly subscription fees paid by listed companies, fees on rights issues and IPOs as well as fees paid by members. And that line came in at EUR 1.94 million, up 27% compared to the first half of last year. Revenue from depository services is up 71%, amounting to EUR 1.96 million compared to EUR 1.15 million in the first half of last year, and revenue from this line makes up 11% of total turnover. And again, includes revenue from rights issues, the quarterly subscriptions paid by operators, and revenue from inheritances. And most revenue from that line was from corporate actions by issuers at just under EUR 1 million this year compared to EUR 412,000 last year as well as subscription fees of operators, which is a custody-type like fee that is based on the capitalization of the markets. And revenue from ancillary services makes up 15% of total turnover in the first half of 2021. It was up 123% to EUR 2.8 million compared to EUR 1.3 million in the first half of last year. And this increase is due to the more than 500% increase in rent from supporting other markets, which came in at EUR 1.6 million in the first half of this year compared to EUR 260,000 in the first half of last year. In particular, the significant increase is mainly due to the provision of additional services following the start of the operation of the spot electricity market of the Energy Exchange under the so-called European Target Model. The provision of services to Boursa Kuwait; the Cyprus Stock Exchange; and DESFA, which is the Hellenic Gas Transmission System Operator. In addition to the significant increase in revenue from the support of other markets, we also had revenue from X-Net increased by 36% and revenue from colocation service also increased by 16%. Finally, as far as the top line is concerned, revenue from market data makes up 7% of turnover and includes the fee that we collect from data vendors for the provision of Athens Exchange market data. And revenue from market data increased by 1.3%. Turning now to the expense side. Total operating expenses, including ancillary services, increased by 8% in the first half of 2021 at EUR 10.2 million compared to EUR 9.5 million last year. Operating expenses were up by approximately EUR 670,000 or 7.6% in the first half of this year at EUR 9.5 million compared to EUR 8.8 million last year. And if we break down operating expenses in turn, we'll see that personnel costs were flat at EUR 5.4 million rather. And all other expenses were up 18.6% at EUR 4.8 million compared to EUR 4 million last year. And if we examine that further, we see that the main drivers behind this increases are an increase of about EUR 340,000 in consultant fees as well as an increase of about EUR 260,000 in maintenance and IT support. Personnel, remuneration and expenses account for 57% of total operating expenses compared to 62% in the first half of 2020, and is by far the largest expense category. And headcount of the group at the end of June 2021 was 233 compared to 220 at the end of the same period last year. Turning now to the bottom line. The earnings before interest and taxes of the group increased by 84% to EUR 5.3 million compared to EUR 2.9 million in the first half of 2020. The net after-tax earnings of the group amounted to EUR 5.1 million compared to EUR 2.3 million in the first half of 2020, and that's a 123% increase. The effective consolidated tax rate on earnings in the first half of 2021 was 9.5% compared to 23.9% in the first half of last year. We remind you that for 2020, the nominal corporate income tax rate was 24%, plus for 2021, the nominal rate has been reduced to 22%. Turning now to the balance sheet. The cash and cash equivalents of the group at the end of June 2021 increased to EUR 71 million compared to EUR 68 million at the end of 2020. And at the parent company, cash and cash equivalents were EUR 32.9 million compared to EUR 17.9 million at the end of 2020. Now approximately 20% of the cash, i.e. EUR 14.6 million at the end of the first half of this year is kept at the central bank, the Bank of Greece, where interest rates are negative, currently at minus 0.5%. And also on the balance sheet, as you know, there is a further EUR 277.6 million that we report as both an asset and a liability, and these are third-party cash assets and concerned margins in the cash and derivatives markets. And these funds are also deposited at the Bank of Greece. Now finally, before we go into any Q&A that you might have, we'd like inform you that yesterday, we also published the dates for the capital return. The capital return as approved was EUR 0.07 per share. And the Board set the date yesterday, the ex-date for the capital returns is August 4, and the payment date is August 11. And with that, I'd like to thank you for listening in and would like to open the call to any questions that you might have.

The first question comes from the line of Boulougouris, Alexandros with Wood & Co.

A quick question on my end regarding costs and the tax rate. On the tax rate, we've seen a very low effective tax rate in both Q1 and Q2. So is there any guidance regarding the full year tax rate that we should assume in our models for 2021 and maybe for '22 and '23? If we can have some guidance on that? And the second is regarding cost. We've seen in the first half costs rising, total cost. Although personnel is relatively flattish, total costs rose by about 8% year-on-year, if I remember correctly. And I think you had provided some guidance in the first quarter conference call for a cost growth of around 3% to 4%, if, again, I remember correctly. Is there any guidance on cost growth for the full year? Or do you reiterate this guidance you gave in the first quarter?

Okay. Alex, with regards to the tax, yes, the effective tax rate seems to be -- is lower because the effect that we were getting, the impact from the credit stemming from the loss that we recorded from the divestment of our Piraeus shares that we had from 2015. We recorded a EUR 3.5 million loss there. So if you do the numbers, the 22% of that is something that we will be benefiting from this year. That is one. And then there is some deferred tax elements that are helping us this year as well with regards to the differentiation between the Greek GAAP and IFRS. I think that we've seen the lows. And in the second quarter, most likely, we will be operating on whatever profit of whatever profitability adjusted for the second half of that tax loss that we mentioned before. I think that is pretty much something that you can work with. So that's with regard to the tax. I can't really comment on effective tax rate for the future, like post this year for that matter. Now with regards to OpEx, what we have this year, I think the consultancy fees, like third-party expenses, what we had is, we had a certain increase in the remuneration of the Board. That's one element that will be impacting the second half of the year. Overall, that 3%, 4%, maybe take it up a few percentage points, but nothing more significant than that. And what you see now, in particular, to the line of third-party expenses, I think, it's more of a timing issue. The fact that last year, it was pretty low as a base effect and then that kind of kicked in, in the second half of the year. So I think the year-over-year is not going to be as pronounced as indicated in the first half. So overall, operating expenses, there's nothing to really comment on, other than what I mentioned before. And then maybe think about a number that may be 1 or 2 percentage points higher than what we discussed before, because we are working on multiple elements here and getting quotes that could be a little bit different than what we had originally envisioned with regards to support that we might need to do the things that we're looking to do. So I don't know if -- I think pretty much that's what, I think it covers your question.

The next question is from the line of Memisoglu, Osman with Ambrosia Capital.

Just following up on the costs. So as a quarter, it's up to EUR 5.6 million. Is that the run rate we should assume for the rest of the year?

No, I think, it's a bit too high.

And the one-offs are -- if -- just conceptually, why -- where will we see declines?

Compared to the second half of last year?

No, no. I'm talking about Q-on-Q. So Q2 is EUR 5.6 million. And I think you just mentioned, it's probably a bit too high on our quarterly run rate. So Q3 versus Q2, where would you see some decline in costs? If that makes sense.

I'm not too sure I understand what you're...

Maybe I misunderstood you. So EUR 5.6 million operating expenses is for Q2, right? Should we assume this is the ongoing rate for Q3, Q4 and then build up on that for 2022? Or is it going to be a lower number?

No, that's what I'm saying. It's going to be -- that's why I said, it sounds a bit too high because, for example, difference between Q2 and Q1. On the third-party expenses -- I wouldn't annualize the EUR 600,000 that you see there nor would I annualize the IT stuff, the IT maintenance there. As I'm saying this is like more of a timing issue between Q1 and Q2 with regards to invoicing, et cetera. So that line thing, I wouldn't annualize that the EUR 5.6 million that you mentioned before.

Okay. No, that's helpful. And then on the revenue, obviously, ancillary revenue is up and coming "the trendy line." Are you able to give us any color on where you expect that line to end for full year '21? Can you give some color on that?

There's nothing to say more than with regard to those lines than what we've already talked about in the past. It's something that is extremely important for us strategically. We want -- it's something that we're working very hard on getting more and more traction on those particular lines. In the future, we do want that line all encompassing to be more than EUR 10 million, for example. But we are -- and this is something I think makes sense to mention now. It's something that we're looking at maybe because there are more services that we are offering that are part of what is now depicted as exchange services or depository services. And we need -- we want to really highlight the cluster of what is really services-oriented. So again, with regard to the current structure of our revenue base, I think the element here to discuss is that as it stands now that we're looking at in the future to go more than EUR 10 million.

Okay. And that's like a medium-term goal? Is it 3 to 5 years kind of thing? Or the EUR 10 million to...

No. I think we might have achieved that earlier than that.

Okay. With regards to shorter term, so you've moved from EUR 1.2 million to EUR 1.6 million for that line from Q1?

EUR 1.2 million to EUR 1.6 million. Okay.

Q1, Q2, right? Is that one -- I understand, I think that's what you were alluding to. That number -- your goal is to continue to grow that on a quarterly or monthly whatever basis. There's one -- there is no one-offs in there, right? So at the minimum, under normal conditions, that EUR 1.6 million, we should expect to carry on in the future?

I'm not too sure which lines you're quoting as EUR 1.2 million? Okay. I got it. I got it. Yes. So yes, when I'm talking about services, I was talking about starting from data feed all the way down, all that, that's what I was talking about getting north of EUR 10 million. So with regards to that number, yes, I think most likely Q2 also had close to EUR 300,000 that was a one-off with regards to delivery of a system that we had in EnEx. So I don't think that we will be repeating EUR 1.6 million per quarter as things stand now. If we come up with additional element of services going forward, then it might be. But as it stands now, I think something in between of Q1, Q2, given the relationships that we have now. I think that's more of what things could look like for that particular line.

Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to management for any closing comments. Thank you.

Okay. So thank you all for participating. I hope you enjoy the rest of the summer, and Stelios I'll leave it to you.

I was going to say the same thing. Thank you for taking the time, rather than being on some beach, to listen into our comments. If you want to take something up privately, of course, feel free to do so. Thanks again for listening in. Bye-bye.