Greetings, welcome to the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Ramón Güemes, CFO. Thank you, Ramón. You may begin.
Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Bolsa Mexicana de Valores first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Before proceeding, I'd like to provide a brief safe harbor statement. This presentation contains forward-looking statements and information related to Bolsa that are based on the analysis and expectations of its management, as well as assumptions made and currently available at Bolsa. Such statements reflect the current views of Bolsa related to future events and are subject to risk, uncertainties, and assumptions. Many factors could cause the current results, performance or achievements of Bolsa to be somewhat different from any future results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, among others, changes in general economic, political, governmental, and business conditions, both in a global scale and in the individual countries in which Bolsa does business.
Such as changes in monetary policies, in inflation rates and prices, in business strategy, and various other factors. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary considerably from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated, expected, or targeted. Bolsa does not intend and does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. I would also like to remind participants that today's call is being recorded and a replay of this call will be available online on April 20th at Bolsa's corporate website, www.bmv.com.mx. During this call, all figures are in Mexican pesos and compared to the first quarter of 2022, unless stated otherwise. This call is intended for the financial community only, and the floor will be open at the end to address any questions you may have.
Joining us for today's call are José-Oriol Bosch, our CEO. José Manuel Allende, Chief Capital Formation, Markets, and Information Services Officer. Roberto González, Chief Post Trade Officer. Claudio Vivian, Chief Information Officer. Hugo Contreras, Chief Compliance and Regulations Officer. Alfredo Guillén, Managing Director of Equity Market. José Miguel de Dios, Managing Director of Derivatives Market. Rosa Crespo, Managing Director of Human Resources. Luis René Ramón, Director of Investor Relations, and myself, Ramón Güemes, CFO. I would now like to turn the call over to our CEO, José-Oriol Bosch.
Thank you, Ramón. Good morning, and thank you for joining us for the first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. As for today's format, first, we'll go over the financial highlights, and then we will focus on the main drivers of each business line. When comparing the first quarter of 2023 with the same quarter of 2022, it is important to consider two things. The first, Indeval and CIFICAP registered non-recurring revenue of MXN 129 million in the first quarter of 2022. Second, FX had a double impact in the quarter. About 30% of BMV Group's revenue and 25% of its expenses are linked to the US dollar. On one hand, the strength of the Mexican peso had a MXN 37 million negative impact in revenue, mainly in information services and the central securities depository Indeval.
Expenses were MXN 13 million lower than expected in technology, consulting and subcustody fees. Please let's get started in slide three to review the first quarter financial highlights. As you can see, we delivered resilient recurrent results after showing a good quarter for trading and clearing derivatives, listing of short-term and long-term debt and information services. Revenue was MXN 1 billion, down MXN 116 million or 10% compared with the first quarter of 2022, and up MXN 13 million or 1% after eliminating last year one-time items. Expenses were MXN 471 million, up MXN 21 million or 5%, mainly due to higher personal costs, the option to purchase the remaining 20% of CIFICAP Chile, 10% CMP and 10% ICAP, and CMP's building renovations.
EBITDA reached MXN 620 million, that is MXN 8 million lower or 1% negative when compared to the 2022 adjusted EBITDA, which only considers ongoing revenue. Net income was registered at MXN 415 million, 13% below quarter-over-year, and 9% higher quarter-over-quarter. In slide number four, in revenue by business line in the first quarter of 2023. As you may know, one of the strengths of our business model is its diversification. Our operations play a role across the value chain with highly recurring revenue in nature and a strong customer retention. Capital formation or the listing of equity and debt, as well as its annual maintenance, contributed this quarter with 13% of BMV's group revenue.
Transactional businesses, which consist of equity trading and clearing, derivatives trading and clearing, and OTC trading, generated 37% of revenue. Information services made up of data analytics, indices, valuation, and financial risk management services had a 19% weight. The central securities depository Indev al, which is responsible for the custody, settlement, and global market services, participated with 28% of revenue. As mentioned before, revenue was MXN 1 billion, down MXN 116 million or minus 10% compared with the first quarter of 2022. After eliminating the non-recurring items, the revenue was up MXN 13 million or 1% positive. Please turn to slide number five to go over equity trading and clearing.
As you can see, cash equity trading revenue was down MXN 10 million due to a lower average daily traded value at BMV, which was registered at MXN 18.3 billion. The regulatory changes regarding the best execution rule or the way we did the forced allocation of trades was implemented in August 2022. In first quarter of 2023, BMV's market share was 85% versus 91% in the first quarter of 2022. We were able to regain some ground, 200 basis points quarter-over-quarter, due to the liquidity found in BMV and the extensive experience and the quality service we provide. As for the equity clearinghouse, CCV, revenue was down MXN 4 million since the ADTV for the local Mexican equity market was down 8%. CCV acts as the central securities counterparty and clearinghouse for all the Mexican stock markets.
In slide number 33, on derivatives trading and clearing, the revenue in MexDer and Asigna was up 11% and 27% respectively due to higher trading of dollar futures, longer tenors traded of TIIE swaps and stock derivatives. The dollar future notional value amounted to $424 million dollars, the highest since 2014. However, the open interest at the end of the period was 32% lower than in 2022 due to institutional clients closing positions. Higher trading of dollar futures and IRSs represented a 28% growth in average margin deposits closing the period with MXN 38 billion pesos. As you know, last April, we implemented a liquidity provider program for dollar futures as part of our long-term strategy to increase the participation of electronic trades. This has been a success, and we are analyzing other derivatives that could benefit from this program.
We continue in the authorization process to list options and futures of shadow-listed securities traded in the global market or SIC. On slide seven on the OTC trading, CIFICAP revenue was down MXN 17 million or 9% lower compared to the first quarter of 2022. It is important to highlight that in the first quarter of 2022, CIFICAP Chile registered non-recurring revenue of MXN 32 million for VAT refunds without having an impact on personal expenses. Excluding this item, CIFICAP revenue increased MXN 15 million, MXN 9 million in CIF Mexico and MXN 6 million in CIF Chile, mainly due to higher trading of interest rate swaps by institutional clients. On slide eight on the capital formation, listing revenue reached MXN 10 million, MXN 2 million or 14% lower to that of first quarter 2022.
MXN 3 million less in equity due to fewer warrants registered in the period and MXN 1 million more in debt because of long-term debt listings. In short-term debt, 292 issues were placed for a total amount of MXN 56 billion, while in long-term debt, 21 issues were registered for a total amount of MXN 87 billion. In fact, the first quarter of 2023 shows a very strong start to the year in long-term debt listings, showing a 433% growth in amount placed. Financials were the most active sector in the quarter, which is good news for the economy thanks to its multiplier effect. This figure also shows the recovery in Mexico could be accelerating and BMV Group is playing an important role.
Moreover, 35% of the total long-term debt issued in BMV during the quarter was sustainable through thematic green and sustainable bonds and sustainability-linked bonds. We will continue promoting this market through our digital platforms and education programs as we continue to a more sustainable economic model. Regarding the equity market, Fibra M F Social issued that Fibra E for MXN 6 billion pesos. Regarding maintenance fees were up MXN 8 million due to the recovery of long-term debt, which last year showed 53% growth in amount placed from MXN 133 billion in 2021 to MXN 204 billion in 2022. In slide number nine, on the central securities depository, Indeval revenue was MXN 283 million pesos, down MXN 124 million. Last year, during the first quarter, we registered non-recurring revenue for MXN 97 million due to the prescription of liabilities.
Excluding this extraordinary item, revenues decreased by MXN 27 million. MXN 20 million explained by global market services and global custody, whose fees are in US dollars, and MXN 7 million due to a lower number of cross-border transactions and trade settle in the global market. Assets under custody increased 7% in the local market to MXN 31.3 billion, and decreased 10% in the global market to MXN 1.5 billion, partly due to FX and international financial market corrections. As mentioned during the last conference call, Indeval received authorization from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to operate as a qualified intermediary. During 2023, we will control the tax withholding process for American securities listed in the global market, bringing several operational efficiencies and savings which can be identified under sub-custody expenses.
On slide number 10, on information services, the revenue and information services reached MXN 200 million in the 1st quarter of 2023, up MXN 24 million or 14%. Market data showed a MXN 5 million increment due to international sales and the growth in the number of retail investor terminals. As for Valmer, sales increased MXN 20 million due to one-time licensing and implementation sales of a portfolio management software and more valuation and risk management services. It is important to note that the appreciation of the Mexican peso against the US dollar represented a negative impact of MXN 16 million in information services. Excluding the extraordinary revenue at Valmer and the exchange rate variation, information service and recovering revenue would have been MXN 206 million in the 1st quarter of 2023.
We expect this business line to continue growing at double-digit rate given the demand for our data locally and internationally. All in all, a good set of numbers in derivatives trading, including OTC trading, capital formation, and information services. As mentioned at the beginning of the call, the strength of the Mexican peso had a MXN 37 million negative impact in revenue. Let's look at our operating expenses in slide number 12. Operating expenses in the first quarter of 2023 were MXN 471 million, MXN 21 million or 5% higher than the first quarter of 2022. Expenses were MXN 13 million lower than expected due to FX. Personal expenses up 7% due to annual salary increments and higher recurring revenue in CIFICAP.
Technology up MXN 3 million because of a reclassification from consulting fees to IT related to hardware management. Expenses should have been MXN 7 million higher, assuming the same effect as in the first quarter of 2022. Depreciation was in line with last year's figure because on one hand, we registered MXN 4 million more in hardware leases for the segregation post-trade infrastructure, and on the other hand, we completed the amortization of the central engine of equities and derivatives, the MoNeT. Rent and maintenance up MXN 4 million because of higher maintenance costs and building renovation. Sub-custody is down MXN 10 million since Indeval was authorized as a qualified intermediary. This, in turn, transforms into lower costs associated with the administration of tax forms and W8 formats. This time, this line also benefited from a strong peso given that fees are in US dollars.
CCV fees are linked to inflation are up 8%. Other increased MXN 4 million because of the option to purchase the remaining shares of CIFICAP, which is planned for 2027. It is important to note that FX fluctuations had a positive impact in expenses and were MXN 13 million lower than expected. We continue executing with cost discipline towards increased operational leverage while investing in technology upgrades to strengthen the resilience of our platform. Please turn to slide number 12 for our conclusions. Notably, the third quarter of 2022 makes for a top quarter to compare with because of extraordinary revenue concepts and foreign exchange fluctuations. Nonetheless, CMP Group delivered resilient recurring results this quarter due to transactional businesses, new clients in information services, and a strong start of the year in long-term debt listings, as while keeping costs well under control.
We maintain our leadership position in capital formation and equity trading by capitalizing on our competitive strengths and our experienced management team. In derivatives, we continue looking for options to increase liquidity as well as other growth projects that require regulatory approval. We are committed to strengthen our analytics offering since data is the insight that drives trading and those trades generate new data and so on. Regarding CMP's technology transformation, we are strengthening our platforms with the aim of having an evergreen and seamless technology across all divisions. We continue working in a design study with a third-party market infrastructure to analyze gaps and evaluate the need of upgrading our post-trade platform to enhance our product offering and simplify our operations. The segregation of post-trade infrastructure is on track for both productive and disaster recovery.
With that, I thank you for your time, and together with my colleagues, we will gladly answer any questions you may have. Thank you very much.
Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star key. 1 moment please while we pull for questions. Thank you. Our first question is from Ernesto Gabilondo with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, good morning, José-Oriol, Ramón, and team. Good morning, everyone. Congrats on your results. I have three questions from my side. The first one is if you have an update on what to expect with the potential changes to the Mexican Securities Law. So far, we have seen that the Deputy Minister of Finance was expecting something around the second quarter of this year. Any color on when it would be happening and the key topics that are being analyzed, I think will be very helpful. My second question is on your maintenance fees. We saw they are growing in this quarter, likely they have reached the inflection point. Just wondering what should we expect for this line in the next quarters.
Should it be stable, or should we continue to see the growth we saw in this quarter? Then my last question is on your EBITDA margin. It has returned again to the 60%. How do you see it in the next quarter? Do you think it should be relatively at these levels, or do you see room it can improve to a higher level? Thank you.
Hola, Ernesto. Thank you very much for your questions. Regarding the first one, the regular session of the Congress in Mexico will close at the end of this month, at the end of April, and the next regular session will start in September. By this time, by the end of the year, the priorities in Mexico will be different. They're much more focused on the political race. As you know, in Mexico, we'll have presidential elections in June 2024. We hope, and this is what we have been also talking to financial authorities, in particular with the Ministry of Finance.
We hope that these changes in the Ley del Mercado de Valores, in the stock exchange law, that, as you know, includes the idea of local 144A, among other things, will be presented and approved in the Congress in the next days, before the month end. Let's keep our fingers crossed. We think that this initiative will definitely be much better to develop a new and bring new companies to the exchange market and opening more exchanges in Mexico. Let's hope that it is approved this month.
Ernesto, good morning. Regarding the second question about maintenance fee, it was positive quarter. We raised from MXN 113 million pesos to MXN 121 million pesos due to active placements in November, December last year. As these maintenance fees are charged at the beginning of the year to all the securities that we have listed on January first, we can expect that this Q first quarter number should the increase on this quarter should be repeated on the following quarters, more or less MXN 8 million pesos over each of last year's quarters. These are good news.
Is the first year, as you pointed, an inflection point, the first year since 2018 that we see growth in the revenues of the issuer segment due to the activity which is ramping up and we're gaining market share.
Ernesto, regarding your third question on where to expect EBITDA margins, we're expecting them to remain in this range. A little higher, a little lower, but definitely around this range.
Perfect. Excellent. Thank you very much.
Thanks to you, Ernest.
Thank you. Our next question is from Domingo Saldivar with JP Morgan. Please proceed with your question.
Good morning y'all, Ramón and everybody. Good hearing from you again. Two questions here on my side, I had some connection issues online, I'm not sure if you touched on that. I apologize if you do. You mentioned the CIFICAP option to buy in 2027, I think you mentioned 20% stake. My questions are if you could provide a bit more detail on that, what's the, you know, the agreement and pipe fee, and how much that, you know, would add in or reduce, I guess, in equity pickup and adding bottom line. The second question within maintenance, there were two, MXN 10 million, right? One you mentioned is non-recurring. The other one, you were MXN 10 million recurring.
I just, you know, curious if this is a recurring quarterly, or if this is a recurring kind of yearly or semesterly that happened to hit this quarter only? Thank you.
Ernesto-
Domingo.
Sorry, Domingos. Sorry. Sorry about that. Regarding your first question, the CIFICAP. We have a partner there who holds 20% of the shares, and we have an option where we can either buy or he can sell at a given point. It's depending on the results. It's a times EBITDA margin. Times EBITDA multiple that you can see. It's currently worth a little more than MXN 100 million liability on our balance sheet. We've had this for some time, and in the past we've renewed or extended the options. Regarding your second question, could you repeat that? We didn't hear it very well.
Yeah, no. The second question is your maintenance had, you mentioned two non-recurring events. I'm sorry, MXN 20 million, MXN 10 million being non-recurring, and the other MXN 10 million being recurring. One was risk engineering, the other one, I don't have the release in front of me. My question is the MXN 10 million that you did not mention that is not non-recurring, so the one that I'm assuming is recurring, is that a MXN 10 million per quarter or is it a MXN 10 million that happened. It has, you know, it's once a year and it happens to hit the first quarter or something like that?
This is not a maintenance fees. This is for balance, for information services.
Yeah, sorry, Information Services. Balance, you're right.
Okay.
Okay.
I will let José Manuel take this.
The MXN 10 million quarter of the MXN 10 million pesos of this quarter it should be just once a year for this quarter, will not be recurring.
Sorry. Just making sure. There is MXN 20 million, right? You mentioned one is risk engineering and the other one that... Can you remind me the second one?
It's a service that's a one-time sale. It also impacts a little of our expenses, and that is non-recurring. You have MXN 10 million recurring, MXN 10 million non-recurring.
Exactly.
Okay. The MXN 10 million that is recurring, is it only in the first quarters or can we, you know, replicate in every quarter?
No, no, you replicate it for Q2, Q3 and Q4.
That was my question. Okay. The MXN 10 million that is recurring is a quarterly MXN 10 million.
Okay.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Domingo.
Thank you, Domingo.
Thank you. Our next question is from Edson Nogueira with Twenty AP. Please proceed with your question.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. I have two of them. I think the first one is regarding on custodial asset. You mentioned on a global scale, decreased 10%, but on a local scale, increased 7%. I was wondering if you can give us a little bit more color about what's happened during the 1st quarter in the global market and the decrease in the custodian asset. The second question is regarding on what happened on April 10th, basically last week. If you can give us a little bit more color about the specifics about when the stock exchange suspended operation in the morning. Trying to figure out if it's related to operational because of the savings, or trying to figure out if it's more related to the electric framework.
That would be super helpful. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Edson.
Well, on the custody side, the revenues on the assets on the local side increased mainly on government securities that we have a continuously increasing the issuance of additional securities, and also recovery on the Mexican Stock Exchange. On the global market, we did have an impact on the FX. The valuation that you see is in MXN. Our budget was at 20.8, and I think that the average for the quarter is about 18.2 or something like that. It does have an impact on FX when you make the valuation in MXN. It's around 3% down in USD.
Okay.
That's for custody.
Regarding my second question.
Yes. This is Claudio here. Hello. Regarding the incident we had in the market, on the 10th, the good news is that we installed several applications regarding market data and the communication bus, to comply with the requirements of the market. As our technology director told us, this infrastructure will allow us to be more efficient in terms of delivering market data to the market. For obvious reasons, this was a massive change for the exchange during holiday season. Unfortunately, we had some troubles in during the morning and we had to halt the market in two occasions.
Rest assured that, we are prepared to cope with the new volumes and we have a very good track record in the last year, so we're confident that this is not a recurring situation.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from Carlos Gomez with HSBC N.Y. Please proceed with your question.
Hello, good morning. I wonder if you could give us an update about your share buyback, how much you have executed and how much you intend to do this quarter and this year. Second, can you give us an update also on regulation regarding Banxico? We understand that it had been difficult to get different changes approved because of changes in personnel at Banxico. We wonder if there has been any update there or you are closer to resolutions. The third is, how does it look? I mean, Mexico is obviously in fashion right now, and there's a lot of investor interest, but how far are we from the point where you will see increased issuance and increased volumes because of this additional interest from abroad? Thank you so much.
Carlos, regarding our share buybacks, we plan to continue with our program. How much we buy depends on how we see the price. It really depends on the combination of our results and the price of the and on our share price. Look, we analyze that and we decide how much we will buy every day. but we're still active in that we're still active in the program. What's pending at Banxico, Roberto will help us.
Maybe direct custody?
Mm-hmm.
Okay. For direct custody, we need approvals not only from Banxico but also from CNBV. We already presented the concept and the business to the new team of CNBV, which was well received. We are seeing additional interest now that we've seen some concerns about the financial health of some global financial institutions. Global custodians have reached again that they would, they have additional interest to go and come directly to the CSD. We continue working with them, and the intention is to get approval at some point this year.
At some point this year. Okay. You, and you don't need any further approvals from the central bank. It will be the CNBV that will be the key regulator at this point?
Yes, for the fees and anything related to that, we need approval from the CNBV, Mexican SEC, but with the okay or concurrence of the central bank. At the end, we are presenting all the different things in addition to our board or to both regulators.
regarding
Yeah.
The last one, I think that the in Mexico we are having a historical opportunity with the nearshoring. I think that this has been already reflected in the capital formation, in particular in the long-term debt that we have been financing in the vaults at the end of last year and this quarter. The numbers, as already mentioned, were quite positive. We're also seeing that in other products. As an example, in the Mexican REITs, in the FIBRAs, that we are seeing a couple of follow-ons and looking for new money to finance this big opportunity.
I think that, all in all, this is gonna be pretty positive for Mexico as a country and for the Mexican stock exchange as well.
You would say that you are already seeing, the signs of that. Do you expect a, you know, big acceleration this year, or this is a multi-year process?
No, I think that this is gonna be a long term. It already started last year. Last year, the numbers in capital formation in new companies, new amounts, was much higher than the previous years. I think that's in part because of that. We did see that in the first quarter, and I think that we'll continue seeing that in the next quarter. Hopefully this is gonna be the case.
Thank you so much. Finally, going back to the share buyback, do you expect to complete the program this year?
We don't have a fixed target as to the number of shares we want to purchase in the year, Carlos. As I said, it really depends on the performance of our share price.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from Rodolfo Ramos with Bradesco BBI. Please proceed with your question.
Thank you, Oriol and Ramón for taking my question. I just have one on the Afores and just like to hear your views there. I mean, they are starting to see greater flows as a result of the pension reform this year. You know, when you look at their portfolio, at least from the equity side, you know, the domestic part of their portfolio, relative to the global, it's rather small, around 30%. Just wanted to see your thoughts as to, you know, potential, you know, new flows into the domestic side of the equity part of the portfolio from the pension reform and going forward. If you see any, you know, what kind of upside you see there. Thank you.
We started seeing additional additional increases on the portfolios of the pension funds. This would not only impact the assets that normally what we see the invest in the global market, certainly more in equities, but also in derivatives. While this will be gradually, we will start seeing this this year. We might not have yet numbers on the size of the opportunity, but yes, we are seeing much more activity and interest in more, not only the traditional investment, but more on the global market and particularly on derivatives.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from Domingos Falavina with JP Morgan. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, guys. I had a couple of additional ones. Just an update on the cost to separate the infrastructure. I understand after you filed for the holding company, you may need to carve out some of the infrastructure from the back office from Indeval from different subsidiaries. You know, kind of the expected cost and if part of that is already reflected on your cost. That's question one. Question two is, I read in the newspaper recently, you know, that the Banamex deal could involve a potential listing.
Since you guys are certainly more informed than we are, just kind of pick your brain if any process has been done for that listing and if you guys anticipate any potential listing of Banamex either through, you know, the merger as it is with Portgoing or as an alternative for the merger.
Domingos, regarding the post-trade segregation, what we're doing is Rapidly, we used to, let me say, share infrastructure between the three post-trade entities, and now we're separating them so that each of the legal entities will have its individual infrastructure. This makes it safer in general. It's a safer environment. Regarding the cost, it's a combination of CapEx and OpEx, roughly MXN 50 million of each, where some of it is already reflected on Q1. Let me say, the proportional part on the OpEx side. On the CapEx side, we're on our way to on the investment. That project, I think, is going well. It's one of the major expenses we're planning for the year. On the possibility of listing Banamex, I will let Jose Manuel take that.
Of course, we're open and would love to to have it listed. It's an important bank, and it will be very good for our market. So far, we have nothing on it. We don't have any information besides that that is public on the media. So far nothing on that side.
All right. Thank you very much.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to Oriol Bosch, CEO, for closing comments.
Thank you very much for attending, participating, and for all the questions you had. If you need something else, you already have our contact information. Thanks again, and have a great day. Bye.
This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.