Thank you very much. Good morning to everyone, thank you for joining us in this trading update for Q3. As you may have seen in the statement we have published this early morning today, we also announced the successful integration of the two companies that we acquired in H1, Web Financial Group and instiHub. I'm very excited about the creation of Allfunds Tech Solutions, a new dedicated company that will benefit from the integration of Allfunds Digital and Web Financial Group. In addition, instiHub will be rebranded into the new Allfunds Data & Analytics, becoming our business line, focusing on Data and Analytic Solutions. Both are going to be instrumental in our strategic goal of further providing digital solutions to our clients and increasing our subscription revenues. Let's start with Q3 results and numbers. Okay.
As you have seen this morning in our press release, assets under administration were stable since June 2022 for Allfunds Group, decreasing only at 0.8% or EUR 10.4 billion. This resilience in assets was driven by the best quarter in migrations year to date, with EUR 17.2 billion, despite the negative market performance and the outflows from existing clients. This makes this quarter the strongest quarter of the year. As refers to platform service assets in the current quarter, given the high quality, the high volatility experienced in global markets in August and September, we saw assets decreasing by 2% to EUR 895 billion, demonstrating greater resilience as a result of new client migrations onboarding to our platform. The decrease was mainly due to the risk of sentiment environment across equities and fixed income asset classes, as you can imagine.
In terms of market appreciation, the negative performance across asset classes contributed to virtually most of the decline. I remind you here that fixed income markets were down 6.9% in the quarter, whereas equities suffer a range of 5%-6.6% drop in that same period, depending on which equity market index you choose. As you have seen, we have experienced organic outflows from existing clients slightly above Q1 and Q2, that we have largely offset with new clients migrations during the quarter. This resulted in modest net outflows of about -0.5 during the quarter. The existing client outflows were concentrated on the months of August and September, especially the last half of September. As opposed to what happened in Q1 and Q2, we have seen in this Q3 a stabilization in the outflows in the fixed income asset class.
Regarding the migrations, you will see that we have managed to onboard almost EUR 10 billion in the platform service, AUA, and EUR 8 billion in the Dealing and Execution AUS. We already have explained in the past that the services of Dealing and Execution, D&E, are not our core business, it's true, but we will be willing to grow as a way to gain clients for the platform service. The capture of this new specific client was a strategic for Allfunds. It was a very important win and highlights our ability to win businesses from large distributors with flexible servicing needs. Regarding our subscription-based business, we are very excited with the progress. We continue seeing banks and financial institutions wanting to upgrade their tech offering, and we are becoming a strong partner for this investment.
There is good traction on the upselling and cross-selling efforts from the recent acquisitions, and the prospects for the end of year remain very positive. I would also like to reiterate today again that we remain highly confident in our business model and the growth levers at our disposal. We have continued to see strong client activity with 51 new distributors onboarded year- to- date, a figure that we usually onboard on average for the full- year, and more than 100 new fund houses, demonstrating our ability to continue to win market share and deliver excellent client outcomes. Our famous flywheel effect. During the quarter, we onboarded about 17 billion of assets onto the Allfunds platform.
Our new client pipeline remains very strong, while it is this year more weighted to the last quarter of the year, we remain confident in achieving the level of secure migrations of EUR 40 billion for H2 of 2022. That is what I commented to you last July when we talked about H1 results. Overall, our secular growth drivers remain absolutely intact, outsourcing the shift to open architecture and digitalization. I would like to spend the last minute of the call on the integration of the two companies we have acquired, Web Financial Group and instiHub. I'm happy to share with you that these integrations have been completed without any setback and in less than four months. Both the creation of Allfunds Tech Solutions and Allfunds Data Analytics are a direct effort to align and harmonize teams across the business.
Such an integration will leverage the mutual benefits of these organizations to help create an even more robust offering to clients. This step will also reinforce our strategy to diversify our revenues and be less impacted by market volatility. As a final update, I would like to remind you that we are just waiting for the closing of MainStreet Partners to occur in the coming months to also reinforce our ESG offering. This addition will certainly provide further collaboration areas with the new business lines created. That's it. Thank you very much again for joining us today on this call, Let's now open for Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad, or press star two if you'd like to withdraw your question. The first question today comes from Alex Medhurst from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning, and thanks for taking my questions after the presentation. A couple of sort of areas I want to touch base on. Firstly, just to get a color on this EUR 8 billion migration to Dealing and Execution. Firstly, what are the prospects of upgrading this to the core platform offering? Second, can you comment a little bit on the initial revenue margin? Will it be the same sort of 0.2 basis points for the rest of that Dealing and Execution portfolio? Third, does the remainder of that EUR 40 billion H2 migration target include any more migrations for Dealing and Execution? Thank you. Just a second area questioning. Well, maybe just one question in the second area. We're obviously much of the way through the H2 .
Can you give any indication of how revenue margins are trending within the 3.3-3.5 basis point range? Thank you very much.
Yeah. Alex, thank you very much for your questions. Unfortunately, there's a lot of noise, and it was tough to get all the messages behind the questions that you paid. Well, let's see now. I don't know why.
Yeah, the line is breaking.
Yeah.
Alex, you let us know. I think that the first question was on migrations on the dealing and execution piece. What are the prospects to upgrade that client to the full platform service?
The other one was regarding margin, and EUR 40 billion, okay, revenue margin. Well, regarding migrations.
Yeah. Sorry. Would it be useful for me to repeat that?
Yeah.
I might have a clearer line.
Now it looks like the line is better, yeah.
Okay, great. The first question was just around the EUR 8 billion migration to Dealing and Execution.
Okay.
What are the prospects of upgrading this to the core platform?
Okay. Super.
Can you comment on the revenue margin initially on this EUR 8 billion? Is it the same as the sort of 0.2 basis points for the rest of the portfolio?
Perfect.
Does the H2 EUR 40 billion target include any more migrations to Dealing and Execution?
Super.
The second sort of question was just, can you give any indication on how revenue margins are trending, for the H2 within the 3.3- 3.5 basis point range? Thank you very much.
Super. It's all clear. Thank you, Alex. Much better. Okay. Regarding the EUR 8 billion, and the possibility to upgrade. Well, we are consistent with the strategy. We do all our best to capture clients for our platform service, which means, the one-stop solution, the Allfunds traditional business model. However, it's true that we are also keen to make exceptions, in the case that we realize that we are talking about a very strategic client. In a very specific core country, which is the case. Okay? We do it. Why we do it? Because in this case, this money comes from a competitor, so it's always good. Second, because it reinforces our market share, dominant market share in one specific core country. Okay?
Third, because as you said, yes, once you start dealing with a client, working with a new client, you always have the possibility to upsell the level of service that you provide to this distributor. Not just necessarily trying to move that client from Dealing and Execution to service platform. That, of course, is one of our main priorities, but also to sell to this client digital services, which is our kind of core focus. We are really keen to do it, as you can imagine. That's regarding this EUR 8 billion. Also regarding to migrations. In this case, this EUR 8 billion, I cannot disclose the margin, the specific margin, because I would be disclosing the margin with a specific client, something that I cannot do. I can tell you that it's significantly higher than the average margin that we have in Dealing and Execution. Okay?
Third question regarding migrations. Are we expecting new migrations in Dealing and Execution in Q4? The answer is yes. Okay? The answer is yes. How much of the EUR 40 billion? We don't know yet. Okay? We don't know yet. Yes, we are expecting some more assets coming in Q4 in Dealing and Execution. This is regarding migrations. I don't know if I have answered to your questions. Yeah.
I think the last question, probably Álvaro, in your case.
Yeah.
Revenue margin for the second half.
Exactly. On revenue margin.
Yeah. Sorry. Glad to take that. Hi, Alex. We maintain the same guidance that we gave you since the beginning of the year. Remember, we mentioned we expected the platform margin to be around 3.3- 3.5 basis points, assuming a stable to flat market scenario. Given the current situation, to be more on a bear market scenario, sorry, the margin might be at the lower end of the range. Again, it's difficult to predict what the market is going to do, but based on what we know today, I think, looking at the low end of the range seems more reasonable.
Great. Thank you very much. Apologies for the poor line.
No problem. Thank you, Alex. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Bruce Hamilton at Morgan Stanley. Go ahead, Bruce.
Hi there. Thanks. Sorry, somewhat sort of questions following on the lines of the previous ones. Maybe just thinking ahead into 2023 in terms of what visibility you have on pipeline for new clients. Should we be thinking, is there kind of EUR 60 billion+ of potential new wins? I think, when you came into this year, it was about EUR 100 billion. Is it similar order of magnitude? When we think about new client business then, how should we think about what proportion comes to platform versus Dealing and Execution? Obviously if it's to the latter, it's much less impactful to revenues, at least initially, which is something we need to bear in mind. Secondly, just on the revenue margin point.
If I've understood, what you're saying is from the 3.5 basis points you did in the H1 , we should imagine that that's trending towards 3.3 basis points in the H2 ? Are you saying for the full- year it's near 3.3 basis points, so you dip below the 3.3 basis points in the H2 ? How should we think going forward, if equity markets start to recover, should that recover back up to 3.4, 3.5 basis points, or how do we think about that sort of dynamic? Thank you.
Thank you, Bruce. Awesome. Regarding next year migrations and pipeline, we are working as we speak in next year budget, and we still don't have that figure. What I think that I mentioned in July, this overall pipeline of around EUR 130 billion. Okay. Again, as you know, one thing is the pipeline that not necessarily has to be inside one specific year, because it can happen that migrations fall into the following year. Okay. Pipeline is this one, which, yes, I think it's extraordinary strong pipeline. A specific number for next year, you gave a number, which is not far away, from what I'm expecting. That's all I can really say. Regarding revenue margin, I think, Alvaro, probably you can jump in with this question. Probably I can start answering to this comment that you made regarding what happens if the market rebounds.
Definitely, there is a clear effect in our overall margin with product mix. Okay. Which means that the better the product mix of our portfolio, of the assets that we have in the platform, the better for our margin. It's clear that we make more money if we have more equity, okay, in the platform. Yes, we are all expecting that sooner or later, markets will rebound, and definitely, we should see an impact, very positive impact in our product mix, therefore, a very positive impact in our overall margin. Having said this, Álvaro, probably you can.
Sure
Take the question regarding, again, margin. Yeah.
Hi, Bruce. Of course, we won't be disclosing the forecast for the H2 . I think the way to look at this is, as you correctly pointed out, we disclosed the 3.5 Basis point for the first half. Most of the outflows that we saw during that period of time was on the fixed income space. We've seen a different trend in Q3, as you've heard earlier. We've seen equities also flowing out of the platform to some extent. That has, of course, impacted our margin. Having said so, I would reiterate the 3.3%-3.5% range for the full- year. I think we will be probably closer to the 3.3%-3.4%. I would be surprised to see margin going for the second half below the 3.3%. As we mentioned earlier in the call, there's a lot of uncertainty.
Volatility can also play in our favor, as you know, on the transaction income. I would reiterate that range that I provided. As Juan was saying, of course, rebound in equities might have a very positive impact on the margin. We see this more as a temporary, let me say, setback or impact. Let me also take the opportunity. I think you asked about the D&E migration for next year. I think as Juan answered earlier to Alex, this migration that you saw in Q3 and what is remaining is more opportunistic, and we don't really have a, let me say, significant amount of potential new D&E migrations in the pipeline. Most of what, if not all of what will be coming next year, likely on the platform service side.
Got it. That's very helpful. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Philip Middleton from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about what you've been seeing from the BNP Paribas portfolio, where you were looking to move more assets from the Dealing and Execution to the full service one. I wonder if you could say a bit about, it seems like the characteristics of new business this quarter have changed a bit with more emphasis on people choosing to outsource for the first time. Do you think that's the lasting trend or just a bit random because of the small sample size?
Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. Regarding the first question, client conversion, BNP or FDS client conversion is on track. Nothing really to point out. I will disclose the numbers in February, okay? Whenever we have the 2022 results presentation. Everything is on track. Regarding the question of the type of taxonomy of clients, new clients. As you said, it's a very small, let's say, period, to take any conclusion, really. I think the beauty of our business model is that, as you know, we have 16 offices around the world operating locally. We have clients in more than 60 countries. I think now it's around 65 countries. Always we try to target the best clients in each of these countries. As you can imagine, diversification is our main goal.
I don't know, some quarters we are pretty successful in the Middle East, and suddenly the following quarter, we see clients coming, I don't know, in Latin America or clients coming in the Nordics. I don't think we can take at this point any conclusion about the client taxonomy in this moment. Probably, again, in February, probably we can look back and see if there is any pattern in 2022 types of clients. If something has really changed. My opinion today is that, no, nothing has really changed.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Our next question is from Tom Mills at Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. Sorry, just to ask another question on the migration side of things. I appreciate you said you can't be sure on the D&E migrations in 4Q. I think you previously suggested that there's a certain amount of signed and dated new business into 2H. Is it possible to give us an idea what proportion of the kind of remaining visible migrations this year would relate to the core platform service? Then just secondly, on the EBITDA margin kind of target and sensitivity analysis you helpfully provided at 1H, is it fair to say that you're still feeling pretty good about the 70%+ target for this year? That's great. Thanks very much.
Thank you, Tom. Okay. Let me take the migrations question, I will ask Álvaro to jump in regarding the EBITDA margin forecast. Unfortunately, I cannot really add anything else really, Tom, regarding what I have already said. We're talking about a Q4, which means that it's next three months, and it can happen that some of these Dealing and Execution migrations that we're expecting to have, potentially they could fall into next year. On average, I think that, as I have already disclosed, that I'm expecting to see further migrations in Dealing and Execution in Q4, apart from the EUR 8 billion. I don't know. Let's say that we could expect overall to see that out of the overall migrations that we are expecting to close this year, which is going to be around EUR 55 billion-EUR 60 billion. I'm talking about 2022.
I don't know, probably 15%, 20% of that overall migration 2022 could fall or could come from Dealing and Execution. Yeah, probably. Bear in mind that as I said, the margin is not the current margin. It's a better margin in any case. As I said before, this is an exceptional client, a strategic client for the company. I'm super excited and happy to bring these type of exceptions to the platform. This is regarding migrations. Alvaro, probably regarding the EBITDA margin. Thank you.
Sure. Hi, Tom. Look, it's difficult to predict where market's going- and how are they going to evolve? Given this business is all about scale, it adds another layer of complexity to really talk about that EBITDA margin. Having said so, we continue with the cost discipline that we've had throughout the year. We've, as we said, internalized some third-party services that were outsourced. We're streamlining the third-party providers. We're renegotiating terms and so on, and we're very strict in our hires policy. Going back to the guidance that the scenarios that we provided back in H1, we still think that 70%+ EBITDA margin for the full year, 2022 is achievable. It's going to be, and it's being challenging, as you can imagine. We will definitely work towards that target. Of course, we are very conscious of the very difficult environment in which we operate.
We will make sure that the costs remain under control if the outlook does not improve, as you can imagine.
Thanks very much, Juan. No worry. That's really helpful color. I appreciate all the uncertainties. That's great. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Gregory Simpson at BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Hi. Morning, guys. Sorry, just to go back on the migrations point. In the future, thinking next year and beyond, should we expect new clients to remain spread across both the platforms, so the whole platform service and the Dealing and Execution service? Or the higher share business in H2 of Dealing and Execution, more of a one-off? Second question, for the distributors and fund houses you're onboarding this year, what kind of proportion are taking the most premium versions of Connect, in terms of monetization? I think it used to be about half of onboarding, were paying for Connect Premium, how's that trending? Thirdly, with the existing client outflows in the period, are there any particular trends by country you'd flag, or is the weakness quite broad-based across all your end markets? Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Very good questions. Well, regarding next year and beyond, migrations. Now, look, I think we're saying that we have been able to onboard about around 50 clients already this year. Out of which, 49 are platform service, so traditional clients. Just one is Dealing and Execution. The only thing is that Dealing and Execution, in this case, the client is pretty significant, as I said, so it's something exceptional. I mean, what you should expect next year and beyond is that we will keep on promoting and selling our traditional one-stop and I think unique business model that has been so successful in the last two decades.
However, again, as I said, if we find in any specific country in where we have a significant interest, we find the opportunity to migrate a big book of assets, starting with just dealing and execution, well, we will sit down, discuss it internally and take a decision. Okay. Yes, I think you mentioned the word one-off. If you want to see it like a one-off, but you can also see it like a one-off. Yeah. This is regarding migrations. I think the other one is regarding fund houses. If we are able, well, I tell you, yeah, now fund houses that are onboarding, we have, I think it's 1,400 asset management companies with global distribution agreements, which means that it's very difficult now that we find a new a big global asset management company that doesn't work today with Allfunds.
Means that all these new fund houses or the majority of these new fund houses are predominantly U.S. boutiques. Specific local asset management companies when we open a business in a new country. Therefore, yes, they definitely need our services, especially data and analytic services, in order to, again, not to waste their time visiting the 800 clients that we have around the world, but to make their, how can we say it, to target Allfunds clients and Allfunds distributors in a much more intelligent way. That's the way we sell these, for instance, these data and analytic tools. Helping these asset management companies to target the clients that they really have appetite for the assets in what they have good products, let's say.
Yes, I am expecting to see definitely an increase in the number of fund houses, new fund houses paying for our digital capabilities. Apart from that, today we have announced, as you know now, the launch of these two companies, Allfunds Tech Solutions and Allfunds Data Analytics. In where we are reinforcing the teams, the features, the tools, the services, the products. In order to be, again, even more, to enhance our value proposition for these fund houses, and also for distributors, of course. You can definitely expect Allfunds being able to significantly grow in what we internally call non-asset-driven revenues, that are mainly subscription fees. Álvaro, I think there was a question regarding.
Sure.
Yeah.
Thank you. Hi, Greg. You're questioning around the trends in outflows, in organic outflows. We've seen a stabilization of the outflows or redemptions coming from the managers over the course of Q3. Remember that in both Q1 and Q2, they redeemed heavily fixed income products. That has continued in Q3, but it has stabilized and softened. As of today, I think that trend has normalized a lot. What we've seen in Q3 different to previous quarters is something which, of course, we knew could happen, which is outflows on the equity space, and in particular, on the private bank side. It's not so much linked to the country, or not so country-specific, but more linked to the typology of the distributors or the clients that sell those funds.
As I was saying, following the market turmoil or market underperformance, we've seen some outflows on the equity space, which again, also explain some of the, let's say, margin compression that I mentioned earlier in my previous response. Thank you.
You're welcome.
We have no further questions, so I will now hand the floor back to the Allfunds team for closing remarks.
Thank you very much. Well, again, thanks a lot for your time, for your interest in our company, and we look forward to keep on talking to you and discussing with you Allfunds present and future. Thank you very much.