Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Allfunds 3Q 2024 update conference call. Joining us in today's conference call are Allfunds CEO, Juan Alcaraz, the CFO, Álvaro Perera, and Global Head of Investor Relations, Silvia Rios. Mr. Alcaraz will make a brief introduction, and there'll be a question and answer session that will follow. This conference call is being recorded, and an audio replay will be available at allfunds.com during the day. At this time, I'd like to hand over the call to Mr. Juan Alcaraz. Sir, you may begin.
Thank you very much. Good morning to everyone, and thank you for joining us today in this Q3 2024 trading update. As we generally do, let me start by giving you some general brief remarks on the highlights for this quarter, and then we will open for Q&A. First of all, we are delighted to announce that Allfunds has achieved a new record milestone of EUR 1.5 trillion in assets under administration. We have never reached this level of AuA, although we ended very close the year of our IPO, no, back in 2021 , no. In this third quarter, it is worth highlighting not only our strong AuA growth, but also our strong revenues in the quarter, increasing 60% year on year and only 1.7% below the record revenues achieved last quarter, now in Q2.
Due to the seasonality of this period, our assets continue to increase at double digit growth year to date and year on year, and this is very important for several reasons. First, it confirms the long-awaited acceleration trend on our platform business. Second, it means that we are growing faster than the cross-border industry, so we continue to increase our market share. And finally, this also confirms that our three engines are performing positively and are contributing to our overall growth. This is the most exciting aspect, which shows the good business momentum we are experiencing. For almost a year now, since last February, we have seen the three engines of our AuA growth contributing positively every single month. Positive market performance, positive flows from existing clients, and strong migrations. All of these have translated into a 10% growth of our total AuA year to date.
This compares to only an 8% for the European cross-border industry. This growth is supported by a positive market performance. As you may have seen, market performance contribution has amounted to EUR 21 billion, building on the robust performance in both equities and fixed income markets. Additionally, this significant growth is mainly driven by positive net flows, the sum now of migrations and flows from existing clients for the second consecutive quarter, underscoring the strength and consistency of our performance. Inflow from existing clients rose by EUR 4.7 billion, thanks to the positive flows in fixed income, money market and alternative funds. In terms of migrations, you will see that we have managed to onboard EUR 18 billion in Q3, and EUR 13.3 billion year to date. Expectations for new clients migrations are on track to meet 2024 guidance. Our flywheel effect has remained strong.
63 new distributors gained year to date and 21 just in Q3. The majority of the clients on board this quarter come from the Nordics, Asia, Middle East, and Americas. And we keep on increasing our market share. Around 51% of the new clients have been captured from other platforms. And we keep on increasing our market share, okay? As I have just said, you know, thanks to a, our value proposition, you know, which keep, we keep on enhancing it. On the revenue side, once again, a strong performance in this quarter with growth across all revenue lines. Platform revenues were up 16% year on year. As typically observed during this time of year, transaction revenue have slowed down since previous quarter, amounting to EUR 23 billion versus EUR 28 million in the second quarter of the year.
However, these revenues represent an increase of 29% from Q3 of 2023, so one year ago, which reflects, now, the higher level of normalized level of transactional activity compared to last year, no? NTI amounted also to EUR 23 million, an increase of 11% year on year. Subscription revenues grew more than 18% year on year and showed a consistent quarterly contribution of EUR 16 million so far in this year. I would also like to give you a brief update on our growth initiatives. As you might have seen in the statement today, we continue to attract new clients to our wealth tech platform, and we are very excited with the progress of our strategy around the subscription-based business. The pipeline remains well diversified, and we are further penetrating our customer base, enhancing the cross-selling of products.
On our Alternative Solution platform, we made progress in our private markets platform, and we delivered outstanding growth of 38% year to date, as we once again demonstrate the critical role we play in helping clients to distribute these new products in the European private wealth segment. This is by far the fastest growing segment of our business. We have launched this initiative globally, and as a result, we are capable of offering the widest range of alternative funds, providing access to the entire network of distributors across all strategies and types of liquidity and under any regulatory framework of the product. We are extremely proud to be the platform of choice for both the vast majority of distributors and fund houses in the European market for accessing private market funds, according to a recent specialized survey.
This recognition demonstrates that we are uniquely positioned to capture the potential growth of this new asset class in the private wealth market. We continue working towards the launch of our new ETP platform, expanding the possibilities of distribution of our clients in the ETP space. As you might have seen, we have announced key hires to lead this effort to establish ourselves as the premier platform for ETP distribution outside the United States. We aim to be global leaders in our multi-platform proposition. First, we want to maintain our leadership in the long-only platform space. Second, achieve that leadership in alternatives as the platform of choice outside the U.S. And third, become leaders in the distribution of ETPs, providing an open architectural model for exchange-traded products in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
As closing remarks, I would like you to retain these key messages from today's update: We are entering a new phase for Allfunds that will accelerate growth, with our core platform business poised to benefit from an improving macroeconomic environment. We continue to observe a strong new client activity, showcasing our ability to gain market share and deliver outstanding client outcomes. We are making significant progress in our growth initiatives, building a high-quality, subscription-based business, enhancing our alternative platforms, and expanding our offering into the ETP space. Overall, we continue to be very optimistic about this year, 2024, and remain confident in achieving the guidance provided last February. Thank you very much, and let's now open for Q&A.
Thank you. We'd now like to open the lines for Q&A. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. And if you'd like to remove yourself from that line of questioning, it will be star followed by two. Our first question comes from Haley Tam from UBS. Haley, your line is now open.
Morning. Can you hear me okay?
Very well, Haley.
Lovely. Thank you. Thank you very much for your time and the opportunity to ask questions this morning. Could I ask two, please? Firstly, just on the ETP platform, which is due to launch in Q1 next year, could you give us any more color on the economics? Is this gonna be a sort of transaction fee-driven platform, or is this basis points of AuA? And maybe some color on your expectations there would be appreciated. And then the second question, if I can, on the flows from new clients. I think at the end of H1, you had highlighted you had signed more than EUR 40 billion of new client agreements, and clearly, some of that's come through in Q3. So I just wanted you to confirm for us what the pipeline looks like today. Thank you.
Very good. Well, regarding the economics of the new platform, you know, that we are launching next year, it's gonna be a combination, okay, of a transaction and a combination of a platform fee, no? So our traditional, let's say, business, no? So both. So that's why it will be an accretive margin accretive new business line for Allfunds. Regarding the pipeline, no, yes, so today we have EUR 30 billion year to date, and we are definitely expecting, you know, to reach at least, you know, the EUR 50 billion mark this year, no? So, yeah, I mean, a strong pipeline for Q4, and, and, you know, I'm very, very.
This is something that we will talk in February, you know, when we talk about 2025, but it's, we're building a very strong, you know, pipeline for next year, no? As we have seen some significant delays in some big deals, you know, that we were expecting to migrate this year and will come in Q1 or Q2, so very positive on the migration outlook.
Thank you. That's very clear. If I could just follow up on the ETP platform, is there any guidance you can give us on the speed or scale of revenue impact there?
Unfortunately, we have not yet done any volume estimation for next year. We are working on that, okay? But as I said, no, I mean, we want to position Allfunds as the number one, you know, in distributing, okay? So under distribution agreement of this new type of ETFs, you know, active thematics, you know, that are becoming so popular, you know, and we are detecting a significant demand. So again, margin accretive compared to our long-only platform, not compared to our alternative platform, which is more profitable. But we still need to put the volume, not the assets, and this is too early in this moment, you know, to make an estimation for next year, no.
Today, we are working on creating that infrastructure that will provide this multi-platform that is our main objective for next year.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You're welcome. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Carlos Peixoto of CaixaBank. Carlos, your line is now open.
Yes. Hi, good morning. Carlos Peixoto from CaixaBank here. Just a couple of questions as well on my side. I would actually be focusing slightly on the Credit Suisse deal and basically the indications is, or the breakup, sorry, I mean, and the indications you could provide on that one. I was actually wondering, well, you already mentioned that in the first half, the weight that Credit Suisse had on your revenues was around 3%. I was wondering if that weight remains the same now in the third quarter? And also on top of that, I was wondering whether there are variable costs associated to this distribution agreement, so basically, what type of impacts in costs could the breakup have in terms of reducing costs, I mean.
And then on the other, still on this, if you could remind us how much intangibles exist related to this partnership, and whether you expect to have to write them down at year-end, given the breakup? Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Of course.
Probably Álvaro, yeah, you can, yeah, take these three questions.
Sure. [Foreign language], Carlos. So, with regards to the first question, yes, it is still around 3% of revenue on a run rate basis. And, cost-wise, unfortunately, we were able to onboard this business at a very high margin. The platform is already operated at very high margins, as you know, but the inclusion of CS was done at an even higher profitability level. So, some cost adjustments will be done, but not meaningfully.
With regards to your second question, yes, the plan, and that's something that we are discussing with our auditors, as you can imagine, as we speak, is to write off the cash generating unit associated with InvestLab. As of the end of last year, these intangibles stood at around EUR 183 million. But you can see the full detail in the last year's annual report, and we will, of course, update you regarding the.
Yeah.
The final numbers.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Anton Baudry of HSBC. Anton, your line is now open.
Yes. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for squeezing me in. I have two questions. The first one is about existing clients' inflow. We saw Q3 slightly below Q2, so it was just to understand what are the current trend and momentum on clients' inflow, especially in the framework of your growth initiative for next year. Which kind of profile of recovery should we expect in Q4 2025? My second question is about the evolution of the competitive landscape. 51% of the migration is coming from competitive platform. How do you see this competitive landscape going forward? Thank you.
Okay. So let me start with the last question on the competitive landscape. And probably, you know, Álvaro, you can cover the organic growth, you know, because that's all about. Yeah.
Sure.
Okay, so of course, you know, our competitors, I'm sure you know that they are doing a great job, you know, they're reinforcing, in some cases, you know, replicating or trying to replicate our one-stop solution, you know, concept or model, you know, that we created 25 years ago. But well, as of today, you know, the good news for Allfunds, you know, is that we keep on onboarding almost half of the clients, you know, that we onboard come from other platforms. I mean, this is what is happening today, you know? But of course, you know, we expect a stronger competition in the future, without any doubt. But well, that's the challenge, no?
I think, competitors will become better, but also funds will become better, you know, and that's why we are so keen, you know, to launch new initiatives to reinforce and enhance our value proposition, no? Not just with long only, no. So you saw how last year we were the first ones also knowing and anticipating this appetite for alternatives. In Europe, no, we created the platform. Today, we are already recognized as number one. You know, now that it looks like the market is also asking for, you know, for accessing this new ETP products in Europe, we are also the first one launching the platform.
We need to run very, very fast, no, because everyone is running fast, and this is part of you know, of our DNA and what we have been doing for decades, no? And regarding organic growth, probably, Álvaro, you can give us, you know, yeah, some insight. Yeah.
Sure. Hi, Anton. Just to clarify, when we look at organic flows for the third quarter and compare it to the previous one. If we exclude the Central European client, the growth has actually accelerated. So, for Q3, we've recorded almost EUR 10 billion of positive flows versus the EUR 6.2 billion that we recorded in Q2. So there is an acceleration of inflows taking place, which we're also seeing throughout this month. We're confident now and very comfortable now that that positive trend will continue in the future.
Yeah. It's me, Álvaro. Absolutely. Yes, a very brief comment. I mean, probably the potential extra upside, no, has to come from equities, okay? Because the truth is that we are seeing clients, no, investing again, no? They didn't invest, as you know, during 2022 or 2023, but now they invest, but they still invest in pretty conservative products, okay? So we have not yet seen the wave, no, of investments in equity. And I think we are all expecting to see that, no? And what. So while we remain pretty positive, no, because again, we are still missing that very important wave of investments, no.
Thank you.
Welcome.
Thank you very much. As a reminder, if you would like to raise a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad, and to remove yourself from that line of questioning, it will be star followed by two. Our next question comes from Javier Beldarrain of Bestinver. Javier, your line is now open.
Yes. Hello, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions on my side. So my first question on the flows from existing client charts on the press release, we see outflows in Central Europe and outflows in equities. Are these correlated in some way? Or, or would you say, there is a significant percentage of the equities outflows that comes from Central Europe region? I believe you just mentioned that you're not yet seeing this big wave of investments, but just trying to understand, if the average trend in most countries or, or if it's just, driven by the Central Europe situation. And then the second question, perhaps, related to a previous question.
On the news earlier this month, there was some mention that you might be preparing an arbitration claim against UBS and seek compensation for breaking the exclusivity agreement. I assume you cannot say much, but just conceptually speaking, would the claim be more or less in line with the expected revenues from these AuAs until June ninth? Thank you.
Okay. Oh, thank you very much. Yeah, let me take the first question. Yeah, and Álvaro, probably you can take the second.
Yeah.
Yeah, the second one. So it's very, very quick answer. No, no, there's no correlation at all between, you know, Central Europe and the not yet flows in equity. No, not at all. I mean, we see this lack of appetite for equities all across the different geographies where we operate. Of course, there are some exceptions, as you can imagine, some specific private banks where we are starting to see, you know, that they are back to invest in equities. But the majority of our clients are investing in fixed income and not yet in equities. And again, nothing to do with the Swiss client. And Álvaro, regarding the, yeah, the other point.
Sure. So, as you can imagine, we have been, and we are in regular touch with people at UBS, and what I can tell you at this point is that Allfunds is taking all the necessary steps with our legal advisors to preserve our legal rights and remedies in connection with this cooperation agreement in order to claim for relevant damages. Nothing else I can disclose at this point in time.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Gregory Simpson at BNP Paribas. Gregory, your line is now open.
Hi there. Morning, morning all. So, first question on my end is, it looks like the commission revenue and the margin linked to it is higher quarter on quarter and year on year. Is there anything to kind of call out around the improvement here and outlook? Secondly, on the subscription business, I know there's some lumpiness, and it looks like there was a big jump in Q4 last year. And should we expect the same this year? And do you see the kind of mid-teens like-for-like growth that you called out in the release as kind of the outlook for subscription revenues kind of still going forwards on the longer term view?
And then just lastly, quickly on alternatives, just curious to hear which regions and client types are having the best traction in terms of interest in private markets? Thank you.
Thank you. Let me start with the last question, okay, with alternatives, and just let. I mean, there are mainly three countries in where we are seeing a lot of appetite and the flows are pretty concentrated in these three countries, which are Switzerland, you know, Italy, and let's say Asia, no, mainly Singapore. Okay. On the subscription business, okay, a subscription-based business, are we expecting an acceleration in Q4? We still need to see, you know, I mean, it's getting traction. I think we are pretty happy, you know, with what we are seeing, but I cannot really confirm how we are going to finish, you know, the year, no? I mean, it's not as easy, let's say, as or predictable, no, as migrations, no?
Because migrations, we already have, like, the migration date, you know, confirmed by the distributors. So for us, it's kind of easier to predict. In the case of subscriptions revenues, there is much more volatility, you know, in whether, you know, we are able to close the deal this year, or because it could move, you know, to perfectly could move to next quarter. So let's say that, well, we should achieve the numbers that we guided last February, this high teens overall for the full year. And Álvaro, well, if you want.
Yeah.
To cover the first question.
Sure. So as Juan said, subscription, we remain in the range that was provided at the beginning of the year and then reiterated towards the end of July. With regards to the first question, Greg, on margins, yes. I mean, what we're seeing is higher transactional activity versus the previous year, which is something that we also anticipated, which also affects the NTI. So we're seeing incremental cash balances that more than compensate, no, that lower interest rate. And with regards to the commission revenue, what we see is stability, and we expect margin to continue this trend going forward, and hopefully, thanks to the positive impact and contribution from new projects launched, like the alternative platform that Juan mentioned earlier, to contribute positively.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. As a further reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad, and to remove yourself from that line of questioning, it is star followed by two. Our next question comes from Julian Dobrovolschi of ABN AMRO and ODDO BHF. Your line is now open.
Hello, good morning, everyone, and thanks for taking my questions. I had two, maybe the first one as a follow-up on the ETP platform. If you can please talk a bit about the CapEx, but also OpEx that you had in mind for building the, the platform itself. Just curious to, to know how they think about that. It looks like you already hired some top industry talent in Q3 for this new initiative. So maybe if you can also say something about, you know, to which extent do you think this will impact the digital margins in the second half of 2024 ?
And the second, really quick, I think Juan said at the beginning that new migration, the pipeline for 2025 seems to be very strong, the way you look at it, you see it at this point in time. Given that, do you think there is scope to perhaps lift the guidance from the current levels of EUR 40 billion-EUR 60 billion?
Okay. So let's start with ETP. I think the good news, I cannot give you, as you can imagine at this point, you know, an exact number, you know, of which is going to be the cost on the investment now required for our new ETP platform. But the good news is that the same as what we did with the alternative platform that we used, a big portion of our long-only infrastructure, we are going to be able to utilize, okay, for the ETP platform. Therefore, I don't know, if for any other company creating from scratch an ETP platform would be probably a massive investment, it's definitely not going to be the case of Allfunds, okay?
I believe that around 80%-85% of the platform is already built, okay? So good news in that respect, okay? Of course, it's going to require investments, yes, but, but as I said, no, it's going to be very, very efficient thanks to the fact that we already have, you know, a fund platform that can be reutilized. Okay. Regarding the key hires now that we are making, well, I mean, this, all these hires are going to be absorbed this year, also thanks to the fact, you know, that we are saving in other areas, no? So this is kind of the style and again, DNA of Allfunds, no?
I mean, to try always to find efficiencies, no. So we are going to be really on top of the EBITDA margin in order, you know, not to penalize it, because of this new initiative, okay? It's not going to be easy, as you can imagine, because, I mean, it's a new and pretty important initiative, but I think we are gonna be capable, you know, of building a unique platform in a very efficient way. And.
The first question was.
Pardon?
On the scope of migration.
On the scope of migrations, I mean, I cannot really say many more things about that. I mean, the main reason why I'm positive is because, because as I said, you know, we have seen, you know, some significant distributors, okay? Delaying the committed migrations from this year to next year, you know. That's why I'm so confident now that we are going to see significant migrations in H1. Mainly because we were expecting them, no, in Q4, okay, of this year. And also because of the traction, you know, I mean, that the business is taking, no? So as you have seen, our many new clients joining the platform.
The momentum is very, very good, so I'm really positive. Can we, at this point and today, you know, change kind of the guidance now that we have been giving, no, since IPO, which is this guidance of between EUR 40 billion- EUR 60 billion on a yearly basis? Not at this point, really. But what I can tell you is that I'm with the visibility that I have now, I'm pretty positive on for next year. Yeah, but not so positive to change a EUR 40 billion-EUR 60 billion, no, a range, really. At this point, at this point.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Andrew Lowe of Citi. Andrew, your line is now open.
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the question. I've got a few. The first is a follow-up to Greg's question and clarifying: Did you say that cash balances were up in Q3 versus Q2? And if that's the case, what drives this, if transaction activity is lower? It seems a bit counterintuitive to me. And I guess it's a bit of an ask, but we ask this question every quarter, so why don't you choose to disclose the cash levels each quarter? That'd be very helpful. The second question is, if you could kindly provide a bit more detail on the subscription revenues, specifically, how much of those revenues are project-based revenues and therefore not truly subscriptions?
And then again, a follow-up to that is, you rearranged your sales force for this business at the beginning of July, so are you seeing any tangible benefit to this yet? And then my final question, I guess, is more of a remark. Business momentum is good. You've had two fairly recent product launches. It seems to me like it would be a good opportunity to have an investor day and come and present some new targets. What's the thinking here, and when could we expect that? Thanks.
Okay. So.
Can I start one?
Okay, perfect. Go ahead, Álvaro.
Yeah. So on the treasury, just to clarify, average balances for the third quarter were lower than the second quarter. I was referring to the same quarter of the previous year. As you correctly spotted, Q3 is typically an abnormal quarter when looking at transactions or yeah, transactional activity for this for the summer break. But we are starting to see as we have moved into Q4 these average cash balances going up again more in line with what we've seen in previous quarters, in fact slightly higher, no? With regards to the average cash balances throughout the quarters, okay, noted.
It is a figure that fluctuates throughout the quarter and might be a little bit misunderstood, but we'll discuss internally and consider your recommendation and come back to you, and then the second question around how much of the subscription revenue is purely licensed versus set up. I don't think we have disclosed that, but happy to take that one back as well, and we'll come back to you.
Yeah, and if I may, I think there were two more questions. Now, is the impact of the new, what we call internally, we call it Sales 3.0, which means, you know, that now we have everyone in the company that has access to a distributor or to a distributor. To provide at the company, no? So not just the platform service, but the data and analytics, ESG, no? A tech solution. So this is, so as you said, yeah, we started in July, and, of course, you know, it's difficult to measure the impact in just two months, and with the summer in the middle, no? But what I can tell you is that the first goal of this new setup, okay.
Is that there are no clients today, distributors and fund houses, are Allfunds, that they are not aware, okay, of our, let's call it, new value proposition, okay? Which was not the case, okay, six months ago, okay? So now, there is a really active campaign, in presenting, explaining all the different, products, tools, and new services and solutions, okay? The numeric impact now on revenues, I think is something that, we will have to wait, and we will, and I hope that we will see it, next year, okay? But the first objective was clear, was I don't want a single distributor or a single asset management company without, knowing, you know, what Allfunds is capable to do for them, no?
And I think that that objective is about to be achieved. Okay. And I think your last question was regarding an Investor Day. Yeah, I think 2025 sounds good to me, you know, to work on this. Yeah, why not, no? Yeah, it would be, I think, a very good idea, and we will discuss this internally, and you know, and probably in February, you know, which is next time, you know, that we will have the chance to talk about guidance, you know, and strategic projects and 2024 results, you know, and what we expect for 2025 could be a good moment, you know, to announce something. Thank you.
Thanks for the color.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Ian White of Autonomous. Ian, your line is now open.
Thanks a lot, and thanks for taking my questions. Just two follow-ups from my side, please. Just both on the subscription-based revenues. These haven't really increased sequentially during 2024 , i.e., from sort of 1 Q to 3 Q, for example. Are there any additional details you can provide just to help us to understand the underlying growth in the subscriptions revenue base during the course of 2024 ? I don't know, an annual subscription value or something like that, for example, that might tell us a bit more about how this has progressed on an underlying basis over the course of this year. That's question one. And just secondly, you mentioned that the pipeline for the subscription business is up 25% since January. Can you just clarify exactly what that means? Thanks.
Mm-hmm. Okay.
Hi, Ian. So with regards to the subscription, and coming back now to Andrew's question earlier, roughly, and again, happy to update you in the future, but roughly around 10%- 15% of those revenues are linked to setups or projects. So there is a certain component of lumpiness as we progress with the implementation of these products throughout the year. Back to Juan's statement, so we are confident now that in Q4 or to be more precise, for the full year 2024 , we will deliver revenues in line with the guidance that we provided and reiterated back in July.
Pipeline has indeed increased by 25%. Pipeline we need to obviously deliver on. We feel strongly about the potential for the coming months and years to deliver on that, to convert that pipeline into revenues, so.
But just to clarify on the definition of the pipeline, you know, what exactly is it? Is it, is this agreements that are under negotiation and expect to be signed in the next eighteen months? Is it a revenue metric? Is it a customer metric?
Uh, it's.
I think we need to understand the substance of that, please.
I see. I see. Sorry, so it's a mix of ongoing mandates, clients that have been signed, and where we attach a total, let's say, contract value, and we also have people within that pipeline that are in the process of being onboarded, so in other words, if we try to compare that to the pipeline now that we typically refer to in the asset-driven world, it wouldn't be the secured pipeline, no, but the overall pipeline of the platform.
Got it. And would you be prepared to share.
You had a question, sorry, Ian, on that? Yeah, sorry.
Sorry, just my final point was just gonna be whether you'd be prepared to share the pipeline, just as a euros millions number, as opposed to a percentage change. I think that would be really, really useful.
Okay, understood.
Noted.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay, thanks very much.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Reg Watson of ING. Reg, your line is now open.
Morning, all. I'd just like to ask about the ETP initiative. The whole point of these products is they're extremely low cost and extremely efficient, and when I look at the ecosystem that already exists, and it's very large and very efficient to support ETP trading, creation, redemption, issuance, I'm struggling to understand how you can sort of unveil your way into this and create an attractive proposition that's compelling to your customers. Because, as I see it currently, the market is very well served at a very efficient and low cost. So perhaps you could elaborate on how you can make a success of this, because I think if you can, it'd be fantastic, but I'm really struggling to see where you can.
I think without any doubt we want to surprise the market, you know? So we know how to deliver something that, today, even though it's efficient, it's not necessarily, you know, let's call it cheap, in my opinion, you know. So we have the formula, but I would prefer, you know, not to disclose it at this point, you know. So, but we know how to bring something different, absolutely, you know, and there are many, many products. I mean, in the end, in Europe, 70%-80% you know, of the ETFs that are distributed come from three providers, for instance, no? Many, many, many new providers outside Europe that want to bring their products, you know.
And again, I think we can build something unique for best execution, you know, best price and under, you know, the, let's say, the unique selling points of Allfunds, no? Of one-stop solution, great reporting, potential buy free model in some cases. So yeah, there are many, many, many, many levers and features of the new Allfunds ETP platform that do not exist today in Europe. But again, I prefer, you know, to be more precise, you know, in Q1. So, you know, so at least I hope to have a little bit of advantage, you know, with competitors that as you have seen, they tend to replicate all we do, okay? So I prefer to wait a little bit, okay, before disclosing everything.
Okay. We'll have to be patient then. Thank you, Juan.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Tom Mills of Jefferies. Tom, your line is now open.
Good morning, guys. I was just wondering, how are you thinking about off-cycle buybacks here? Your shares aren't quite at all-time lows, but they're not far off, which looks to be in stark contrast with underlying fundamentals. If nobody else wants to buy your stock at this valuation, then maybe you should be buying more of it, if you've got capacity to do so. Thank you.
Okay. Yeah, Álvaro, yeah, if you want.
Hi, Tom. Yeah, so Tom, we've successfully completed the share buyback on schedule, which again demonstrate now that Allfunds is a company with robust cash and capital generation. As a reminder, our capital allocation framework prioritizes ordinary dividend, the reinvestment in the company for new initiatives, such as the alternatives platform or the ETPs platform, and of course, selective M&A, where we are also putting a lot of focus, as you can imagine, and as we have disclosed, no? The excess capital is typically returned to our shareholders through buybacks. And this strategic approach ensures that we're not only rewarding the shareholders, but also investing in the future growth and sustainability of Allfunds, right?
We are currently in the budgeting phase for 2025 , as you can imagine, and we will carefully evaluate all financial aspects to ensure a solid plan for the upcoming year. Once this process is done, we'll communicate our decisions to the market accordingly, which of course might include further buybacks.
Thank you very much, Tom. We currently have no further questions, so I'd like to hand back to Silvia Rios for any closing remarks.
Thank you very much. It has been a pleasure to host you on this 3 Q trading update. The IR team will be at your disposal for any question that remains unanswered, and have a great end of the year, and see you in our next preliminary full year results.
As we conclude today's call, thank you to everyone for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.