The Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange Ltd. (TASE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Q4 and Full Year 2022 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded on March 28, 2023. The recording will be publicly available on Tase's website. With us on line today are Mr. Ittai Ben-Zeev, CEO; and Mr. Yehuda Ben-Ezra, CFO. Before I turn the call over to Mr. Ittai Ben-Zeev, I would like to remind everyone that this conference is not a substitute for reviewing the company's annual financial statements, quarterly financial statements and interim report for the fourth quarter and full year of 2022, in which full and precise information is presented and may contain inter-alia forward-looking statements in accordance to Section 32A to Securities Law of 1968. In addition to IFRS reporting, we might mention certain financial measures that do not conform to generally accepted accounting principles. Such non-GAAP measures are not intended in any manner to serve as a substitute for our financial results. However, we believe that they provide additional insight for better understanding of our business performance. Reconciliations between these non-GAAP measures and the most comparable related GAAP measures are included in tables that can be found in our earnings press release and in the slide presentation accompanying this call. Both can be accessed on the English site and in the Investor Relations portion of our website at ir.tase.co.il/en. Mr. Ben-Zeev, would you like to begin?

Good evening, Israel time, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm happy to host you in our earnings call. I'm pleased to report on a record fourth quarter and full year results for TASE. During 2022, we grew revenues 12% year-over-year to a record ILS 362 million, adjusted EBITDA by 31% to ILS 135.2 million and net profit by 11% to ILS 51.3 million. These results are in line with annual revenue growth target outlined in our 5-year strategic plan of 10% to 12% annual organic growth over the next 5 years. Yehuda Ben-Ezra, our CFO, will discuss the financial statements in detail later. These outstanding results were driven by strong activity in both its equity and bond market throughout 2022. The equity market saw its highest trading volumes since 2011 with 22% increase from the previous year. Foreign investments in TASE equity market also remains strong, totaling a net purchase of ILS 14.1 billion compared to ILS 13 billion in 2021. The strong activity in our markets continued into Q1 in part due to the impact of global uncertainty relating to inflation and interest rates and domestic political turmoil from the government plan judicial reform. At the same time, we have seen a slowdown in capital raising activity in the same period. After 2 months of uncertainty surrounding the judicial reform, the Prime Minister yesterday stated that he was suspending the reform for the coming months in order to allow discussions between the various political sides that will be held at the residence of the President of Israel. The aim of these discussions is to draw up and outline that will be acceptable by everyone. It is my belief that such measures will restore certainty to this value capital market. As part of the implementation of the strategic plan, we are progressing with our PoC for the issuance of digital government bonds on a DLT platform. The PoC, which is planned to take place this coming May is performed in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and involves leading local and international primary dealers. We believe that regulated digital asset trading is an important step for the advancement of the Israeli capital market. Last February, we have also announced that for the first time, we will regulate crypto trading, permitting nonbanking members to allow their customers to transact in cryptocurrency. This is the first step in TASE advancement and development of this sector, which will help to increase competition and encourage innovation. We believe that the alignment of the value capital market with international regulation will not only make it appealing to more foreign investors, but will also make investments in cryptocurrency safer for the Israeli public. As part of our index business strategic plan, we continue to develop new products. For example, in January this year, we signed an agreement with leading Israeli investment house, Yelin Lapidot for the creation of tailor-made index offering. This is the first time that TASE is commissioned by a major public institution to create custom indices. I am also pleased to inform you that we have added 2 new members. The most recent addition is Blink Fintech Israel, a retail broker that will be using advanced digital trading system for its activities on TASE. In addition, Avelacom, an international leading provider of low latency connectivity services to global financial markets has joined our colocation services, and we expect to see similar entities join TASE, both as members and as colocation customers and boost the trading activity at TASE. TASE revenue from data products continues to grow, and we have recently completed the development of TASE Insight, a specialized analytical product for the listed companies. We are making headway with Data Hub products. And in the coming months, we will be offering retail and other investors, digital access to the data files alongside the API access. Also, in the next quarter, we plan to launch TASE Plus. This system will enable the public for the first time to receive data and extensive information in Hebrew on securities that are listed locally and internationally. We will continue to develop our data products to better serve our market participants, local and global to enhance liquidity in our markets. I'm also pleased to report that on March 15, 2023, the TASE Clearing House has been recognized by the European Securities and Markets Authority as a Tier 1 third country CCP in accordance with the applicable European regulation. This qualifies the TASE Clearing House to provide clearing services to EU member states for a variety of financial instruments realizing our strategy of expanding our services to international investors. I will conclude with an update on the buyback plan. Since the beginning of the buyback plan in March 2022, TASE purchased overall of 3.1 million shares for a total consideration close to ILS 53 million at an average price of ILS 17.2 per share. As you recall, in March 2022, our Board of Directors authorized a buyback plan of up to ILS 100 million over a period of up to 2 years, and we intend to continue the buyback plan in the next quarter. All in all, our financial statements show that the solid foundations on which TASE stands continue to grow as we continue to implement the goals of our strategic plan for the benefit of the public and the Israeli capital market. And now I would like to hand over to Mr. Yehuda Ben-Ezra who will continue with a review of the yearly and Q4 results.

Thank you, Ittai. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. TASE full-year results of 2022 and first quarter indicates a continued positive momentum with record yearly revenues of ILS 351 million and EBITDA of ILS 135 million. The adjusted EBITDA margin for 2022 increased significantly from 32% to 37%. And the adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter increased from 34% to 37% compared to the corresponding quarter last year. Revenue in the fourth quarter increased by 1% compared to the revenue in the corresponding quarter last year, despite the decrease of 11% in the number of trading days. I will begin with Slide #4, which shows some of the key highlights from our results of 2022. Our revenue amounted to ILS 361 million this year an increase of 12% compared to the previous year, the increase consists of revenues from non-transactional of 8% and from transactional 4%. The adjusted EBITDA in 2022 totaled ILS 135.2 million compared to ILS 103 million in 2021, an increase of 31% between the years. Financing expenses in 2022 totaled to ILS 13.2 million compared to the financial income of ILS 4.5 million in 2021. The transition to financing expenses in due to a negative yield of 7% of the company's investment and Israel government bonds, managed and marketable securities portfolios compared to a positive yield of 2.5% in 2021. The net profit in 2022 totaled to ILS 50.8 million compared to ILS 45.5 million in 2021, an increase of 12%. Now I will continue to Slide #10. We show some of the key highlights for our results of the fourth quarter. Our revenues for the fourth quarter of 2022 increased by 1% compared to the fourth quarter of 2021 and amounted to ILS 86.3 million despite a decrease of 7 days in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the quarter last year. The adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2022 totaled to ILS 32.1 million compared to ILS 29.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, an increase of 9%. Financing expenses in the fourth quarter of 2022 totaled ILS 0.5 million compared to the financing income of ILS 1.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Tax expenses in the fourth quarter of 2022 totaled ILS 5.1 million compared to ILS 4.2 million in the corresponding quarter last year. The increase in the effective tax rate was due to the reduction in the fair value of the company's investment in government bonds, which deferred taxes were not created. The net profit totaled ILS 13.1 million, a decrease of 6% compared to the corresponding quarter last year. Now we'll elaborate in revenues. Let's go to Slide #12. Our revenues from trading and the clearing commission, although the decrease of 11% in the number of trading days in the quarter compared to the corresponding quarter last year, our revenue was decreased only by 8% compared to the fourth quarter of 2021 and totaled to ILS 33.8 million. Our revenues from listing fees and annual levies increased by 12% compared to the fourth quarter of 2021 and total to a ILR 19.5 million. 8% of the increase resulted from the annual levies and 3% of the increase resulted from revenue recognition in respect of listing fees. Our revenues from the clearing out services increased by 2%, totaling ILS 17.9 million, 10% of the increase resulted from clearing out our services to members, which was partly offset by the decrease in income from custody fees, which resulted in a decrease of 4% in revenue as a result of a decrease in the value of the assets held in the clearing house services. Our revenue from data distribution and connectivity services increased by 6% compared to the corresponding quarter of 2021 and total to ILS 14.3 million. The increase mainly resulted from data distribution to overseas customers. Now we'll move on to Slide #14. Regarding our expenses. In the fourth quarter of 2022, our adjusted expenses totaled to ILS 67.3 million, excluding expenses for share-based payments, the amount of ILS 5 million compared to ILS 68.6 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, a decrease of 2% year-over-year. The expenses related to employee benefits decreased by 7% and total ILS 35.1 million. The decrease in the expenses mainly result from the -- form an increase in the capitalization of expenses for software developed for internal use. Computer and communication expenses increased by 11% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year and totaled ILS 8.4 million. The increase resulted mainly from operation costs of newly added computer systems and the price increased in the computer services. Marketing expenses decreased by 29% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year and totaled to ILS 1.4 million. The decrease is a result of the timing of marketing campaign launches. The depreciation and amortization expenses increased by 7% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year and totaled to ILS 13.1 million. The increase is mainly due to the upgrading of the infrastructure and the launching of new products. Now we move to the balance sheet. Let's move to Slide #16. As of December 31, our equity totaled to ILS 686.4 million and compromises 78% of the balance sheet excluding open derivatives position balance from our clearing house activity. In addition, we have approximately ILS 381 million in cash and investments in financial assets. We don't have any financial debt. We have ILS 613 million surplus capital and ILS 257 million surplus liquidity above the regulatory requirement. The Board of Directors also approved a safety caution, which serve as an additional layer for handling stress scenarios and is at the discretion of the Board of Directors. Now let's move to the cash flow, Slide #17. TASE operation performance contributed to a record full year free cash flow of ILS 62.5 million, an increase of ILS 0.9 million compared to the previous year despite the fact that we increased in 2022 our investment in properties and intangible assets that amounted to ILS 12.7 million. And with that, I will turn the call back to our moderator to conduct the Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Dan Fannon of Jefferies.

Ittai and Yehuda, I wanted to talk about given we're very late into the first quarter and Ittai, you mentioned kind of some of the political uncertainty and the current backdrop. Could you maybe just characterize the first quarter and what that's meant? We can see the volume side, but the other portions of your business, the more recurring and/or non-transactional, how that -- the backdrop maybe has been either helpful or not in terms of that momentum.

Dan, as I stated briefly because of the fact that interest rate and inflation went up in Israel, like other parts in the world, we have seen more activity in our bond trading and obviously, in our derivatives market and because we had a lot of articles about the judicial reform, this is also something that helped the volumes on the exchange. So overall, the impact was positive on the business.

And then just in terms of momentum in the non-transactional kind of data clearing house kind of listings, the other components of the business that outside of volumes?

Yes. Well, in terms of capital raising, it was, as I said, less than a year ago, for example, in the first quarter, we've had only 1 IPO. But then again, you have to remember also that according to accounting standard, you have revenue recognition from IPO as a backlog. With respect to data, everything is in place. We see activity from our market and from outside of Israel. And I would say that everything is completely in place.

And then can you remind us as to when the pricing increase on the data side for the index business goes into effect and when we will see that kind of translate into the income statement?

Sure. It already did because it went into effect since the beginning of this year. So actually, when we published first quarter results and going forward, we'll have a high revenues from index than we used to have. And at the beginning of 2024, will have an even higher revenue recognition. And also what I mentioned about the Yelin Lapidot tailor made index, this is also a positive outcome from the resolution that we were able to get because it brings more competition, more variety. And at the end of the day, more revenues for the exchange. So it's effective in 2023.

And then can you expand upon the designation that the clearing house received and what that means from potential revenue opportunities and how that expands your potential customer base and how we should think about that from an incremental revenue perspective?

Well, in terms of the clearing house, we have -- one of the things that affect the revenues is clearly the AUM at the end of each period. So this is one factor. But apart of that, we have been issuing plenty of services and products in all our lines of businesses. So by definition, as we give the market more services besides having the market participants more happy, so to speak. At the end of the day, we are successful in generating more revenue. That has been the case in the past few years. And I see no reason why this trend should not continue in the next 4 years. As you can see, we have reached a balance of 40% transactional and 60% non-transactional. We have been growing in the past few years in nice numbers on the non-transactional and we believe that each one of the non-transactional items we should continue to see significant growth for the next few years.

I apologize. I think my question was actually more specific to the ESMA designation as a Tier 1 third country and what that actually means for you going forward in terms of new business potential revenue opportunities as a result of what -- of getting that.

Okay. So ESMA doesn't have any direct influence on our revenues. Obviously, it's very positive from a reputation point of view. In the future, it gives us a potential access to the EU. And as we discussed in the plans, we have all kinds of plans to develop services, products and to have more international players. And we believe that this is another tool that may help us in the future, but it has nothing to do that contributes immediately to our revenues or something like that.

And then you hit just on expenses. As you think about 2023 in the budget for discretionary and nondiscretionary kind of items, obviously, you still have, I think, just the union dynamic is still not finalized, but curious about how you're thinking about expense growth in 2023 versus what we've seen out of the last couple of years.

Dan, you can see also that when you compare our 2022 expense on salaries compared to '21, you see that we run it in a very diligent way as we did in the past few years. Even though we don't have any agreement in place, we will continue for the next few years to run it very tight. As I stated before, we will only sign a new agreement only when we feel comfortable with the numbers. We can't give what the number will be. But I think that if you look at our 2022 and you see 12% on revenues and 3% on expenses, this is the environment that we will strive to be or close to it. But currently, we don't have any estimate. Obviously, we are having discussions all the time with the union, but we don't have any estimate when it will be concluded.

And then on areas such as marketing or more discretionary items or is 2022 a reasonable framework to think about this year as well? Or should we see some modest growth in those line items?

There won't be any growth this year in marketing compared to 2022. We have a budget, but you have to remember that also, I mean, part of what we do is when we look what is happening in Israel, for example, we had a good campaign for the first quarter. But because all of the media was heavily involved in the judicial reform and so many articles, we thought that it doesn't make any sense to go up with a TV campaign. So we haven't done it. So we have a budget and we will use it only if we think it's appropriate, but there will not be an additional marketing expense year-over-year.

And then just there was one of the initiatives that you highlighted, I think, was TASE Plus, it was basically new market data. I think that was the name you used, but if you could elaborate on what that is. It seems like that's more geared towards retail and individuals, but wanted to get a little bit more color on what that potential offering is.

Sure. So because we don't have in Israel, the banks actually -- even though the nonbank members have grown in nice numbers in the past few years, still the vast majority of trading goes through the banks, and we don't have the same big retail brokers in other markets. And it's very clear, and this is also some of the feedback that we have been getting from the market that a lot of people in Israel are keen to get more analytical and more data and more access because many people are saying, when I'm trading the platforms in other markets, I'm getting better service and better analytical tools than the one that I'm using for the Israeli market. So we have listened to the market, and we will come up with quite an innovative tool that will give not only the Israeli public a much better analytical and service for the Israeli securities, but we'll have a possibility that the retail public can upload these securities outside of TASE, but you can get a lot of information about them in Hebrew. So we believe that this is something that will attract many people to use our platform. And I think that on a general note, we've been doing many things in order to get market and public participation. And this is another important step going forward.

[Operator Instructions] There are no further questions at this time. Thank you. This concludes the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Q4 and Full Year 2022 Results Conference Call. Thank you for your participation. You may go ahead and disconnect.