Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Mina, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Athens Exchange Group conference call to present and discuss the Q3 2022 financial results. All participants will be in a listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded.
The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Nikos Koskoletos, CFO, and Mrs. Katerina Tzagaroulaki, Head of Investor Relations. Gentlemen, you may now proceed.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and good morning to those of you listening to us from the other side of the Atlantic. We would like to present the financial results of the group for the nine months of 2022, which were published yesterday and are available in the IR section of our website, and then take any questions that you might have. Nick.
Yes, thank you, Stelios. Good evening and good morning to all. I just wanted to note a couple of drivers that, as we usually do, that have impact our nine months performance. So the average traded value on a daily basis increased by 7% in the nine months of 2022, close to EUR 79 million, versus EUR 74 million in the last year's period. The average market cap stood 6.2% higher than the respective period in 2021. The listed banks market cap increased by close to 30%. The market cap of the rest of the market has increased by 2.5%.
In terms of those things that are shaping up in 2022, as we head towards the end of the year, you probably, as you're very well aware, market activity has been slowing down in each quarter compared to last year. We are basically a tale of two halves. First, yeah, half of the year was very strong, close to EUR 90 million, and then the second half, much less than that. Q3 numbers, you've probably seen them, over EUR 50 million per day, and it seems that Q4, so far, is not significantly different than that. On our OpEx, those have been picking up.
We've been through management changes and some restructuring as well as the wage inflation pressure that was expected as had been mentioned during our last call, to be more evident in the second half as most of the changes and some wages, wage adjustments did take place in June. Our electricity cost is up by almost 87%. However, the impact to the group is limited overall, as it represents close to 6.4% of OpEx. Nevertheless, because it is the movement is on the margin and it's quite notable, it's something that we're monitoring.
Overall, on a reported basis, our bottom line for the nine-month period of 2022 stood at EUR 6.8 million versus EUR 7 million last year, whereas last year, we do remind you that we had an abnormally low effective tax rate due to the loss incurred from the sale of the PDF shares that we had last year. At this point, I'd like to pass it on to Stelios to go through our nine months 2022 performance in more detail, and then we'll be open for any questions that you may have. Stelios.
Thanks, Nick. Let's start with the overview of our nine-month 2022 financial performance at the top. The consolidated turnover of the group in the nine-month period was EUR 29.3 million, compared to EUR 27 million in the nine months of last year. That's up 8.4%. If we dive a little deeper, we see that trading-based revenue, i.e., from trading and post-trading, was up 10% on the back of a 7% increase in ADPV in the cash market in the nine-month period this year compared to last.
Market cap-based revenue, i.e., from listings and services to issuers, was up 26% due to a 6% increase in the average capitalization in the market, even though corporate activity, rights issues, new share and bond listings were significantly lower in the 9 months period of this year compared to the 9 months of 2021.
Revenue from services, which is data services, IT, digital and ancillary services, was essentially flat. Looking at the top line in more detail, we see that revenue from trading, representing 16% of total consolidated turnover in the 9 month 2022 period, was up 5% to EUR 4.7 million compared to EUR 4.5 million last year.
Revenue from post-trading made up 40% of total turnover and amounted to EUR 11.8 million compared to EUR 10.5 million in the nine months of 2021. That's up 12%. The increase is due to a 6.7% increase in clearing revenue in the cash market, while the derivatives market revenue was down 3.3%.
As far as revenue from the derivatives market, both trading and post-trading is concerned, in the 9 months of 2022, trading activity, measured by the average daily number of contracts, dropped by 35% to 36.8 thousand contracts compared to 56.7 thousand last year.
However, revenue, in turn was down only 3.2%, and the average revenue per contract increased by 50% to EUR 0.219 per contract compared to EUR 0.146 per contract. Our fees for derivatives contracts, depend on the type of investor, the product being traded, and the prices of the underlying securities, and as a result, market volumes and our revenue rarely go hand in hand.
Lastly, in derivatives, trading and post-trading revenue in the nine months of 2022 was EUR 1.47 million compared to EUR 1.51 million, which corresponds to 9% of total trading and post-trading revenue. Revenue from listing makes up 13% of total turnover.
This line includes the quarterly subscription fees paid by listed companies, fees on rights issues, IPOs, and other services to issuers, and amounted to EUR 3.7 million, up 26% compared to the nine months of 2021 when it was EUR 2.9 million. Revenue from data services makes up 9% of total turnover and includes the fees that we collect from data vendors for the provision of ATHEX market data, as well as revenue from end brokers.
The fees that we collect from market data depend essentially on the number of data terminals to which these data vendors disseminate ATHEX market data to and increased by 5.5%. As you know, as we mentioned before, we have been gradually increasing our data feed prices. Revenue from IT and digital services makes up 18% of total turnover and includes revenue from digital services, infrastructure, and technological solutions to the Energy Exchange Group and Bolsa weight.
This category also includes revenue from services such as electronic book building, AXIAline, AXIA e-Shareholders' Meeting, colocation, and some others. Revenue from IT and digital services was down 1% to EUR 5.35 million compared to EUR 5.31 million last year.
Finally, as far as top line is concerned, revenue from ancillary services makes up 3% of total turnover, and in the 9 months of 2022, it was down 12% to EUR 877,000, compared to EUR 1 million in the nine months of 2021. Ancillary services include revenue from support services to the Energy Exchange, some rents that we collect, and some others. Moving on to the expense side, total operating expenses increased by 12.3% in the nine months of 2022, at EUR 16.9 million compared to EUR 15.1 million last year.
If we break that down, we see that personnel costs are up 5.5% in the nine months of the year, at EUR 8.6 million compared to EUR 8.15 million last year. All other expenses increased by approximately EUR 1.4 million, i.e., by about 20%, with the highlights being a 49% increase in utilities, due to the persistent high electricity prices in nine months of the year, that Nick touched upon, and in addition, a 26% increase in taxes, mainly due to higher VAT payments.
Personnel remuneration and expenses account for 51% of total operating expenses, and headcount at the group on September 30th, 2022 was 234 compared to 231 at the end of the nine-month period last year. Turning now to the bottom line, the earnings before interest and taxes of the group increased by 1.2% to EUR 7.7 million, compared to EUR 7.6 million in the 9 months of 2021.
In the 9 months of 2022, we booked EUR 635,000 in revenue from tax returns resulting from a favorable court judgment concerning the return of tax and penalties that were assessed following a tax audit for fiscal years 2008, 2009, and 2010. On that, we have appealed to have a further and final EUR 270,000 returned to us, and it seems we will be vindicated.
At the end of the day, the net after-tax earnings of the group amounted to EUR 6.8 million compared to EUR 7.0 million in nine months of 2021. That's a 2.4% decrease. In 2022 and 2021, the nominal corporate income tax rate was 22%, and while the effective tax rate on consolidated earnings this year was 22.5% compared to the abnormally low 11.1% in 2021.
On the balance sheet now, the cash and cash equivalents of the group on September 30, 2022 dropped to EUR 61.9 million compared to EUR 71.9 million at the end of 2021, with the drivers behind that reduction being the EUR 9.1 million dividend payment to shareholders, that was made in mid-June, and the continuing purchases of treasury stock that have been taking place throughout the year.
Approximately 18% of the cash, i.e., EUR 13.7 million at the end of the nine-month period, is kept at the Bank of Greece, where interest rates were until the 26th of July of this year at -0.5%. Now, the recent increases in interest rates by the ECB has eliminated the cost associated with the negative interest rates.
We'll see where that takes us. Also on the balance sheet, a further EUR 259.1 million that we report as both an asset and a liability are third-party cash assets and concern margins that our subsidiary, ATHEXClear, receives from its members in the cash and derivatives markets. These funds are also deposited at the Central Bank of Greece.
Lastly, as regards our share buyback program, on September 30, 2022, we had spent approximately EUR 7.1 million to purchase 2.1 million shares at an average price of 3.38 EUR per share. The share buyback program will conclude in a few days at the end of November, as we have reached the end of the time period that was mandated from the AGM a couple of years ago.
With that comment on the share buyback program, I'd like to conclude the comments with the overview of the nine-month 2022 financial results, and open up for any questions this call that you might have. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Please use your handset when asking your question for better quality. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question comes from the line of Manos Giouras with Ambrosia Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Many thanks for your time and detailed review of the results. Just couple on my side. Particularly on the revenue front, could you give us any color on why settlement fees, income from settlement fees doubled in one quarter versus the first half?
That's on the revenue side. On the cost side, particularly personnel costs, should we expect a typical quarter-on-quarter increase in Q4? Any color on how much so, and also any color on 2023 personnel costs. Are you done with the headcount increase, or should we expect more wage increases? Thank you.
Hi, Ozan. Thank you for the questions. On the settlement side, what we had is, in the third quarter, was a one-off increased activity on the OTC side. There was increased activity on some over-the-counter transactions, so we collected the revenue on the settlement side of that.
That was a one-off. With regards to the personnel that you mentioned, our headcount has been increasing over the past few quarters. I believe, towards the end of the year, maybe the beginning of next, we will have completed. We have already done most of the headcount increase that we are anticipating. There is a few more adjustments that are required.
Overall, in terms of the modeling that you mentioned, Like, in the first quarter of next year, the first half of next year, you will have the annualized impact from the fact that, you know, Most of the adjustments happened, at the end of Q2. You'll have that. I expect as we go into the second half of next year, that will come off a bit. Overall, I do not think that we will move significantly from the dynamics of this year with regards to next year, at least.
in Q4, could you remind me? It's not every year, but are Q4s seasonally higher maybe because of?
Yes. Yes. There is, yes. Q4 is seasonally higher, but we do not anticipate for the year-end number to deviate significantly from what we have talked about with regards to the overall growth rate of that number.
Okay. The one-off for settlement was roughly how much?
I don't remember the number off the top of my head. It was close to just over half a million euros.
Okay. Thanks.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Once again, to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. The next question comes from the line of Alexandros Boulougouris with WOOD & Co. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Sorry, just to clarify on the question from my colleague, before on the costs, in case I'm not missing something. You mentioned that cost growth in 2023 should follow a similar trend as in 2022, if I'm not mistaken, overall it is down. Maybe I didn't write correctly. Thank you.
Correct.
In the region of around in the nine-month period is close to 10%, correct?
More or less, yes. I, again, it's a matter of the fact that, as I mentioned, it was, you know, it's the comparison of the two halves. That's why overall you'll have the same impact. Just since I'm assuming that you do want specific numbers, then it's safe to assume that those numbers that you mentioned.
Okay, got it. Thank you very much.
To register for a question, please press star and one on your red telephone. Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to management for any closing comments. Thank you.
So, um.
Okay.
Thank you all for participating. Look forward to any questions that you might want to take up in private. Thanks again for participating. Have a great afternoon.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling, and have a good afternoon.