Thanks so much, Ian, and it's good to be here. Good afternoon, everyone. As Ian said, my name is Helen Lofthouse, and I'm the Managing Director and CEO of ASX. I'm absolutely delighted to be here with you at ASX's CEO Connect Conference. It's just a great opportunity for listed companies to connect with the investment community. Thank you, everyone, for joining me today. I wanted to start with a high-level overview of ASX's four businesses. Our listings and cash equities functions are well known, but we also have a large derivatives offering through our markets business. We offer data and data center services to our customers through our technology and data business, as well as post-trade services through our securities and payments business. One of our key strengths is the diversification of these four lines of business, which have delivered resilient financial performance through changing market cycles.
In our business today, we focus on the Australian and New Zealand markets, but we have a global customer base and really take that expertise to the world. We're the leaders in this region, and it's a privileged and valuable position. Our full-year results were released last month, and in FY2025, we delivered strong operating revenue. This was driven by our portfolio of high-quality businesses, which deliver value for our markets and for our shareholders. We reported operating revenue of $1.11 billion, which is up 7% compared to last year. We saw strong revenue growth in our markets, technology and data, and securities and payments businesses, with listings being stable. Underlying net profit after tax also benefited from growth in net interest income and increased by 7.5%. The statutory profit was up by 6% following the impact of significant items.
The board determined a fully franked final dividend of $112.01 per share, reflecting a payout ratio of 85% of underlying NPAT, which is in the middle of our guidance range. This brings the total dividend to $223.03 per share, an increase of 7.4%. Our EBITDA margin also increased by 70 basis points to 62.8%, and we're targeting margin expansion from the current level over the medium term. Underlying return on equity, one of the key metrics by which we measure the performance of the organization, is up by 60 basis points to 13.6% for the year, and well within our medium-term target range. ASX is on a transformation journey, and our five-year strategy is about transforming ASX to make sure we're operating at the high standards commensurate with our role in the Australian financial system, as well as positioning ourselves to capture future growth opportunities.
This strategy required a reset of our capital management settings to support the investment required in our organization. This investment in the great fundamentals of ASX is focusing on modernizing our technology environment and uplifting our operating management frameworks. We're making good progress on delivering our technology roadmap. However, we're not where we want to be in terms of operational risk management and resilience. Earlier this year, we implemented a program which will prioritize and increase the pace of our work in this area, and that's what ACCELERATE is about. The ACCELERATE programme is a key vehicle for achieving our operational risk management and resilience uplift. It will be enabled by our focus on capability and culture, including lifting our leadership capability, risk culture, cross-organizational change capability, and workforce strategy and planning.
While many of the elements of the ACCELERATE programme were already underway as part of our five-year strategy, the development of this programme gives us a further opportunity to make sure that we achieve our key milestones through rigorous planning, disciplined execution, and embedding the uplifts that we're making. All of this needs to be supported by effective change management and the right culture and capabilities. An important part of ACCELERATE is ensuring that the lessons we've learned and the uplifts that we make are applied across our entire organization where relevant. We also need to apply learnings from other financial institutions, both domestic and offshore. The ACCELERATE programme is a high priority for us, and we've taken important steps to make sure that we're in a position to deliver.
We're taking an integrated approach across the organization, which includes investment in capacity and capability, and the enhancement of governance and oversight to track our progress. While we have plenty to do, I'm confident that this is achievable. This is a crucial part of how we're building a better ASX and driving long-term shareholder value. ASX is underpinned by technology, and a key part of our transformation journey is our focus on modernizing our technology. As you can see on this slide, we are delivering against our technology modernization roadmap. I want to focus today on the progress of the CHESS replacement project, which is understandably of great interest to our stakeholders. We're continuing to work closely with the industry as we continue the technology build and undertake testing.
The industry testing for release one is continuing, and we've had good levels of engagement with approved market operators, or AMOs, and their specific software providers. The code that's required by AMOs to complete their remaining testing activities in preparation for the accreditation phase was delivered last month. We continue to target Q4 of this financial year for the go-live of release one. In mid-June, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) announced that it will commence a compliance assessment and inquiry into how well ASX is complying with its obligations as a market licensee and a clearing and settlement licensee. Since then, it has appointed an expert panel to examine the frameworks and practices within the ASX group that are related to governance, capability, and risk management.
This is a wide-ranging inquiry that will provide an independent and transparent view of the work that we've done and the work that we still need to do. It is expected that the panel will provide their report to ASIC by the end of March 2026. We're taking this inquiry very seriously and are cooperating fully. We have a dedicated team who are ensuring that we quickly and proactively coordinate our response to the inquiry. This response requires a significant investment of time and resources by the organization, and we announced the financial impact of this in early August. ASX is two years into a multifaceted transformation, driven by the significant investments we're making in our organization as part of our five-year strategy.
The ACCELERATE programme is a key vehicle driving our operational risk and resilience uplift, and we'll actively review and refresh this programme based on feedback from the inquiry. More broadly, we run critical market infrastructure, and trust and confidence in ASX is a goal that we share with all of our stakeholders. I've said previously that our role has always meant that we're subject to scrutiny, and that's appropriate. We have high expectations of ourselves, and the community has high expectations of us too, which is why the recent issue relating to TPG Telecom was very disappointing. It does demonstrate how an error by ASX can be very disruptive, and we've acknowledged that mistake and apologized to TPG Telecom for the incorrect cross-referencing of their ticker to a market announcement by another company. We are reviewing that incident and making sure that we are learning and improving.
Despite these challenges, it's important to remember that ASX has significant strengths. We operate critical market infrastructure at the heart of Australia's financial markets. We have a portfolio of high-quality businesses with diverse revenue streams and a strong position in many of our markets. Our offering is compelling for customers and gives us the ability to play an important role throughout the market lifecycle. We have significant structural tailwinds, macro factors that will drive our long-term growth. As an exchange, we're a data-rich environment, and we expect to see further demand for our unique data as a key driver of medium-term revenue growth. We're well positioned to benefit from the size and ongoing growth of the Australian capital base to support capital formation and to drive activity across our markets. Finally, we'll continue to support sustainability, including the energy transition, as part of our key role in financial markets.
We have medium-term financial targets in place, which are driven by our revenue growth opportunities and an ongoing focus on expense management as we operate our business and allocate capital efficiently. Thank you, and we can now move to Q&A.
Thank you, Helen, and thank you for your frank discussion around CHESS and the TPG incident. That's relieved me of a number of questions that have come through, which won't be a surprise to you. Thank you for taking that proactive stance on that. I think it's always good to see the variety of businesses that comprise ASX. It's not just our listings or a trading business, but all the other elements that you've put together. There are also a number of questions around those existing businesses, not the least of which is the listings business. There's been an improvement in IPOs over the last part of the last financial year, though there's a lot more companies going private. It seems to be a cyclical thing, often around timing of the market peaks, and we're hitting some records on the value of the exchange products listed on the exchange.
How do you see the listings business panning out over the next little while?
Look, I think, Ian, you're right that we've certainly seen an improvement lately. We certainly had a period where the listings business was quieter than it had been for a while, but we've seen a steady recovery there. The conditions that led to that recovery are sustained. I don't see any obstacles to that continuing for the moment, and we do see a good pipeline of companies that are interested in listing on ASX. It's always interesting to look at the paper, and sometimes there'll be some commentary on the health or otherwise of the listed market, but these days they're often accompanied by many articles about all of the companies that are contemplating a listing on ASX. That's encouraging to see. The reality is that ASX, as a listed market, operates in an intensely competitive environment and does so really successfully.
We already compete locally, globally, and regionally with other listed markets for listings, but also, as you say, Ian, with private markets. We compete well and continue to be an attractive listing destination. At the moment, conditions look supportive.
You just mentioned compete locally as well. It's probably not well known, but there's been a local competitor or a number of local competitors to ASX in the domestic market for some time. The question is perhaps a little bit misphrased about losing a monopoly. Cboe Australia has become more obvious and apparent to others, but how do you intend to combat the potential growing competition?
Yeah, look, I think I've had lots of questions from investors about the CBA and Cboe Australia announcements and keen interest in understanding what that really means for the landscape. I think, as you say, we already compete with other local exchanges for listings, as well as regionally and globally and with private markets. It doesn't significantly change the landscape there, actually. It is an intensely competitive business and will continue to be. I think we have a really good value proposition here at ASX and will be continuing to evolve and to try and make sure we support that. Maybe some of the other pieces of information, just for those who are not aware of it, Cboe Australia are already a competitor in the Australian market. They've been competing in cash equities market trading for about 12 years now and also already in ETF listings for a long time.
Very much an existing player already competing with ASX in the local market and now intending to add corporate listings. You know that's fine, that continues. You know that just adds some variety to what's already very much a competitive market that we perform well in.
Yes, indeed. You also mentioned one of the aspects of the four businesses you run is data. You say you have a data-rich environment. You're obviously, data is king in today's world. You've talked about it being part of your medium-term growth plans. Maybe you can just expand on that a little. As all the presentations or most of the presentations we've seen today, there's always a question around AI. Is that going to influence or play a part in possibly how you use, massage, to disseminate the data?
I think maybe I'll deal with your AI question first. Certainly, we've seen AI already be a significant driver of demand for ASX data. We've certainly observed that there are market participants who are making increasing use of AI capabilities, for example, for trading strategies. As a result of that, there's a great deal of demand for the high-quality data that we have. We've already seen AI really as a driver of demand for data. One of the things that we've focused on as a result of that is making sure that our commercial models are up to date and reflect the different types of usage in what's very much an evolving environment. We expect in the future to have some ability to tap into AI tools ourselves for use of ASX data.
That's definitely an area of exploration, but primarily internally at the moment, rather than being an offering for our customers just yet. Watch this space. More broadly on data, you're right, we do continue to see this being a medium-term growth driver for the ASX's business. We have significant amounts of data. Whilst the availability of the trading data for our cash markets and derivatives markets is something that we've been doing for a really long time, we've got some really valuable datasets which have not been so broadly available in the past. One of the most significant of those is the fixed income data that lives in our Austraclear platform. ASX is a really significant provider to Australia's fixed income markets, with the fourth largest interest rate market in the world. In Austraclear, we operate Australia's fixed income registry and settlements platform.
In May, we went live with our new debt market activity products, which are enabling customers to get access to data about things like repos, bank bills, and of course, corporate and government bonds, and the activity and liquidity of those instruments. That's data that's just not been available in the Australian market before. It's got a depth and transparency that's just simply not been available. We've got a really significant amount of interest in that product, as you can imagine.
Absolutely. It's always impressed me that the length and breadth of the data that's available through ASX seems to be growing. Helen, just wanted to finish off on, you can see a new logo, I can see a new logo over your right-hand shoulder. It's been a bit of rebranding going on at ASX. Any insights as to the reasoning behind that?
Actually, this is a process that's been underway for about four years or so at ASX, which really has been driven by trying to make sure that we are engaging really effectively with all the different digital platforms. As you can imagine, making sure that your digital communication is as effective as possible has been crucial in today's world. Our previous color scheme and logo and font and so on were not working so well for the kinds of websites and media tools that we use these days. Over the last four years, there's been a gradual change there in things like, you'll have noticed changes in the color scheme, the use of the X logo. If you follow us on LinkedIn or any of the other social media platforms, you'll see that appearing a lot.
Most recently, we unveiled the new logo as well, which you can see on the screen behind me. Really, it's all about making sure that we're communicating really well across all the different channels that we need to use and that our communications are coming across really cleanly and are in a modern world for the digital age that we're in now.
Fabulous. It's great to see you're so interested in that. Thank you for bringing us home right on time or bringing us right in on time. Thank you, Helen. Thank you, Helen Lofthouse, ASX CEO, for joining us at ASX CEO Connect this afternoon.
Thanks very much for having me, Ian. Great to be here as well.