Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Audio Conference Call of B3 Earnings Results for the Q1 of 2021. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session and instructions to participate will be given at the time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded and broadcast live via webcast. The replay will be available after the event is concluded.
I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Daniel Sonder, Chief Financial Officer of B3. Please, Mr. Sonder, you may proceed.
Hello. Good morning to all. Hope everyone is I'm here with the Investor Relations team of B3 as well as Finance team. And I just wanted to first thank them for putting together all the materials for the earnings release together with the communications team. I'm going to make some very Brief remarks at the outset, myself and Marcela Bretas, who is our Managing Director for Investor Relations.
And Then we will take your questions. I just wanted to open by highlighting that we had an exceptional first quarter for the For 2021, we had our revenues up by 25% versus last year and our EBITDA up by 24 In the same period, we have had a very good environment for the development of our business, Deepening and strengthening of the capital markets in Brazil. We have seen strong Capital markets activity in the Q1 of 15 IPOs and 7 follow ons. And we've also moved forward in our product launches and new initiatives in the company. We have focused on operational resilience.
We are focused on client centricity. We have witnessed a large increase in the number of individual Trading equities in Brazil and a very strong brokerage sector, retail brokerage sector around our ecosystem, which is obviously very positive for B3. And we have, again, moved with the strategic objective strengthening our core business as well as adding new products and services to our platform and investing in some new initiatives. We announced recently also A succession process in our senior management team. We're very Happy to have the talent bread inside B3 to be able to make a consistent and planned Transition from the leadership of CECL who's been a very, very valued member of our team for over 20 years.
And I think the company is in a very strong position moving forward. And finally, I just want to make A note before turning over to Marcelo to detail some of the numbers regarding the health and social situation in Brazil, which Due to the pandemic, it continues to be very serious. B3 has taken a proactive approach towards that scenario by making and we have done that in we did that in 2020. We We're hoping that, that was not going to be necessary again in 2021, but regrettably, that's not the case. So we'll continue to make such and hope to have somewhat of an impact in the SAD, health and social emergency that is still around us.
So with that, I'll turn it over to Marcela, and she can detail some of the numbers, and I'll take your questions afterwards. Thank you.
Thank you, Daniel. Good morning, everyone. Hope everyone is well and safe At this time, as Daniel mentioned, we had a very strong quarter driven by volumes in our platforms across all businesses. Overall, revenues grew 25% year on year, reaching BRL2.6 billion in the quarter. Adjusted expenses raised 6.5% year on year, reaching BRL292 1,000,000 In the quarter, with that EBITDA was BRL1.9 billion, which is a 24 As I mentioned, we had revenue growth across all of our businesses.
For the listed equity segment, I would I'd also like to highlight that we implemented the new intermediary pricing model as it was announced in December last here. So starting February, we had this new pricing schedule in place that substitutes the The schedule that we had, which was based on discounts given by level of ADTV reached by the whole market. With that, the listed equity segment revenue was BRL1.3 BRL1 1,000,000,000 in the quarter, which was 20% up year on year. Listed Fixed Income and Derivatives segment reached BRL 625 1,000,000 in revenues and it was up 38 and Exchange over Q1 of 2020, driven mostly by an increase in RPC. The OTC segment had revenues of BRL270 million, which was represents a 10% increase versus Q1 2020 results.
And finally, Infrastructure for Financing had revenues of BRL122 1,000,000, a 17% increase versus last year. As I mentioned, adjusted expenses reached BRL292,000,000. Most of the increase was driven by adjusted personnel expenses, which was impacted by the annual salary adjustments plus some new hires that we had at B3 and data processing and Services, which were 14% up year on year. B3 ended the quarter with BRL7 1,000,000,000 We just announced through a material fact that we'll be raising an additional BRL 3 BRL1 1,000,000,000 in debentures. And we also distributed BRL400 1,000,000 to our shareholders in the in the form of ISC, dividends and share buybacks.
With that, I am here and I open up for questions. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session for investors and analysts. Our first question comes from Vinicios Figueredo, Itau BBA.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. In this quarter, We saw a very tight expense control with sequential improvement in data processing, 3rd parties and even personal. My first question is, is it reasonable to assume that this control will be maintained in the next quarters? And if yes, Would it motivate any changes in the company's guidance for expenses for the full year?
And my second question is regarding M and A opportunities. We saw the issuance of the demeanour of BRL 3,000,000,000 being announced yesterday. Of course, it optimizes the The capital structure of the company, but it also puts the company in a good position to capture some M and A opportunities. Does it make sense to think in this way? And if so, what would be the focus of potential in Como?
Thanks.
Great questions. Thank you very much. So we have not changed our expense guidance for the year. We Continue to be committed to the range that we have announced to the market. It is not unusual for us That the Q4 has slightly higher expenses than the rest of the year.
So the sequential decrease in expenses is, I would say, mostly due to a typical Q4 rather than anything, let's say, more structural that we're doing in the company. We have, I think, over the year established a culture in the company of Tight Expense Management, which obviously we are happy about, but we will continue to make the investments in the areas necessary to support the growth of our business, to improve client relationships and to move forward our and product development agenda. So no, let's say, no news on the expense guidance up to this point. And we don't foresee, let's say, any deep changes in that going forward. With respect to the financing opportunity or the financing Debt financing, pardon me, that we announced yesterday.
This is consistent with our wish To have an efficient capital structure, and we felt that at the end of the year, We finished a little bit lower than we had expected, and that came for a good reason because actually EBITDA cash generation came in stronger than we had planned. And so the Board Encouraged us to continue in this trajectory of raising debt and raising our cash position and making that cash available to our shareholders. Our M and A strategy does continue, but it's frankly not tied to this particular debt Issuance, these debentures that we are placing in the market. These are separate matters. We do have the liquidity at hand to make the types of M and A transactions that we are looking at.
Those are small relatively small Deals in the adjacencies of our business that plug in add ons that put us in the right places in the market, close to our clients in a position to add value to their businesses. So Yes, M and A continues, and we're looking at a few things, but those are not necessarily dependent on this money that we're raising now.
Our next question comes from Otavio Agnelli, Bradesco BBA.
Hi, Zondar and Marcella. Congrats on the results in the first place. I wanted to ask about the new price table implementation. This has been in place since February. And on a sequential basis, the Trading margins have declined only 2% per hour calculation.
So wanted to get a view on what should be the run rate of The further decline that we may or can expect in the coming quarters. And if you could also update us on the process of the Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Hi, Octavio. Nice to talk to you. So as you I pointed out correctly, we had the new pricing table implemented in February. So we had 2 months out of 3 for the Q1 with the new pricing scheme in place. We saw when we compare year on year a 7% in margin and also a 16% decline in our depository revenues that was mostly driven by this At the trading and post trading services of B3 and in particular discounts for Day Traders.
And on the depository side, it exempts investors who have up to The fee that they say is now lower than B4. You're correct when you compare quarter on quarter, which Leads to a lower delta in terms of ATPC. We saw a smaller decline, but again, it's not We didn't have the full quarter yet in effect in this Q1 for the new pricing table. And again, year on year, we saw this 7% discount. I think the back test that we announced back in 2000 and In the early days of 2020 and when also we announced the new pricing table, the intermediary model We continue to work towards the implementation of Full pricing table as we said we would, but we don't have a clear timetable In place as of now, because as you know, the implementation of other steps towards the full model depend on market readiness.
So we it's not fully under our control. Our wish It's to implement it as soon as possible. We would like to do that in 2021 still, but again, it's not fully under our control when we'll be able to do that.
Our next question comes from Ian White, Autonomous Research.
Hi, good morning, everyone. Thank you for the presentation and for taking my questions. I had a few detailed questions, please. First of all, I was interested if you might be able to say a bit more about what you're seeing in the data and analytics revenue line. Performance there was pretty strong versus 4Q 'twenty.
And I'm just keen to understand If this is basically a subscription based level from which you'd expect to grow or are there some one off items in there in the Q1? And maybe you could give us a sense as to the types of products where you're seeing better traction in that business, please. That's question 1. Secondly, I wonder if there's anything you might be able to update us on regarding the progress towards launching credit card receivables registration offering later this year, which I think was something that you mentioned with the last update of full year results. Is that still expected to proceed later this year?
And what are the remaining hurdles to clear for that, please? That's question 2. Lastly, wondered if you could provide any extra detail in terms of recent trends on retail derivatives trading. I think you disclosed, it was just over 200,000 active traders in the mini EBOV contract back in October. I wondered if you'd be able to share either the number of active traders that were in that contract at the end of the first quarter Or if you can kind of give us a sense if you're still seeing very strong growth in the user count there, please.
Thank you.
Hi, Ian. This is Daniel. Thanks for joining the call, and thanks for your Great questions as always. So I'll take the first one and then maybe Marcelo will take the next 2. On the data and analytics side, we have been working on that area and seeking to launch new products.
But the change that you saw from last year in the revenue is actually mostly driven by FX. So we charge our International clients such as Bloomberg and Reuters dollars for market data And obviously, the currency moved significantly in Brazil from the Q1. So That was the main driver there, but That's not to say that we're not investing in pushing more products and trying to, let's say, Educate the market on the opportunities for using some of our pricing and data services.
Thanks, Daniel. If I could just jump in there, please. I'm kind of interested really in the sort of sequential jump that you had from 4Q 'twenty to 1Q 'twenty one. I didn't think FX would be kind of a major driver there. The FX moves were more modest kind of relative to The Q4 last year, you're still posting kind of pretty healthy double digit revenue growth versus 4Q 'twenty.
It sounds a bit perhaps there's nothing for me to necessarily be aware of there, but just to make totally clear kind of what I'm thinking of.
Okay. So let me get into that. I don't have that
off the
top of my head. It might be also related with subscriptions for new funds that are part of our that are part of that line. So we charge, Let's say, access to our platforms for fund managers, whereby they pay a subscription fee and then they have, let's say, The opportunity to use a bundle of services and the fund industry has grown in Brazil with a number of funds expanding. So I will I think that's what's connected to that. So I will make sure that I have the detailed information and then reach out to you.
Thanks. Appreciate that, Daniel. Thank you.
Regarding the receivables platform, Ian, You're correct. We had some delays on the regulatory framework that We plan to launch our platform in the second half of the year. We are working to update our systems and adapt them to offer the service, and we are also making some So hopefully, we'll be able to On the number of individual investors for mini contracts, for the mini index contracts, We have more recently around 218,000 investors. Back in December, this number was
Thanks very much for those figures. Can I just check that I heard the first one correctly, about 218, 218,000 investors in many indices versus 185,000,000, I think it was at the end of the year that you said?
Correct. And all of them are active investors, which who have made at least one trade during the quarter.
Our next question comes from Mariana Tadeo, UBS. Hi. Hello, everyone. My question is related to the sale of the stake in Bolsa in Mexico announced at the last month. What was the rationale for the sale?
And was there any impact in this Q1 results? Or it will be fully accounted next quarter? Can you also give a sense on what could be the impact in terms of capital gain? And also, we have stakes in other LatAm changes. Do you also plan to sell these stakes?
Yes, Mariana, thank you for the question. We have made these investments over the last several years. So we basically did investments in 2016 at a very different time in our strategy planning. And the idea has always been that through these investments, we would try to Strengthen our relationship with these exchanges and discuss a product agenda that might allow us to do things together in our markets and that having those equity stakes Would, let's say, strengthen this relationship, give us access to the Board and to strategic decision making in these companies. We then we frequency or frequently I mean, we have, let's see, periodically evaluated the merits of these relationships.
And in the case of Mexico, we felt, together with the Mexican exchange that the ownership stake would not, let's say, be a necessary condition for us to continue to have a dialogue with them. So we remain friends and we remain, Let's say, thinking partners in terms of potential opportunities, but the we didn't have a board seat, and We felt that we could divest divest, pardon me, from the Mexican exchange without, Let's say any major impact on what we might be able to do in the future. Likewise, and we did it gradually, So we didn't make a one off sale. We sold it gradually over in several months. So the impacts of this is mostly accounted for in our numbers already, okay?
And there were no this is not a material number, but we can detail if you need additional information from what's in the financial statements. We can get into that for you. And the with respect to the other exchanges, We have a close relationship with the 3 exchanges where we We continue to have investments, which are Peru, Colombia and Chile. We have An associate of ours that is a Board member that is a former colleague of ours in the team, And we continue to explore opportunities with those exchanges. In Mexico, we didn't have a board seat And those are the companies we do.
So we will continue to be close to them and hopefully I'll be able to materialize on some of the opportunities in the future. And do the same thing that we have done over the last few years, which is periodically evaluate
Our next question comes from Tito Labarta, Goldman Sachs.
Hi, Daniel. Marcelo. Thank you for the call and taking my question. My question is on your EBITDA margin. I know you don't necessarily guide for any margin, Just want to see how you think about your current margin here, historically high levels, very good Volumes continue to be very strong.
You have a lot of operating leverage. Do you think this level is sustainable? Or in other words, do you think in a position Maybe give more discounts, also with the competitive environment, there hasn't been much news on the competitive environment lately. You think this could either one attract competition sooner or even maybe a regulator wanting to open up the market? Just want to put the margin into context and how you think about it would be helpful.
Thank you.
Sure. I think the margin and I know it's a relevant Item for you to try to, let's say, project the performance of the business. But it's not really something that we drive our decisions by, frankly speaking. We have made a strategic decision to reduce our fees. We are in the process of implementing that.
I think this is Something that we're not changing directions on, and this is a result of the, let's say, The trust and the relationship that we've developed with our clients, which has allowed us to see larger volumes going through our platform. And we completely understand that the direction that the company should go is, Generally speaking, lowering our fees. We don't do that indiscriminately. We try to be selective. We try to be Meticulous and careful about it, trying to address specific points that are Either a pain and a complaint to our clients or where we see an opportunity to drive additional volumes.
So where there is really price sensitivity in terms of seeing additional Business coming through when we lower our fees. We will continue to do that, and we'll continue also to invest in projects and initiatives That's for our growth. And our this business has high margins in most places. It is a Business where you have to invest significant capital in technology and in human resources and talent and, Let's say, building up your hard capital in terms of IT, but also your soft capital in terms of Systems and products and so forth. And then over time, you see lots of volumes going through When the markets are fine and when the markets retract and this might eventually happen as it has in the past, Then it's also a business that has not a lot of flexibility to reduce expenses, And you might see margins contract.
This is we are happy that, that hasn't been the case in Brazil over the last few years. But you and I were around when markets were less positive in 2014, 2015, 2016. And frankly our margins were suffering there.
Okay. That's helpful, Daniel. Thank you. And just anything on the competitive front. I mean, Seems there was a lot more noise last year around it, but have you heard anything about people entering the market?
How you think about the competitive landscape?
Sure. I think competition is definitely a reality and A part of the daily conversations that we have here in B3, We are very aware of the fact that the market is becoming more and more attractive for a number of opportunities around us, and we don't expect that someone will try to start A full exchange with all the equity derivatives and fixed income and all the services that we do, But rather that competition will come business by business from small initiatives around us. If you And if you look at the listing business, we are very happy that more and more companies have chosen to Although here and there, there are exceptions to that. In the derivatives business, obviously, clients can Trade Brazilian underlying assets away from B3 in OTC platforms abroad and even some exchanges abroad. But again, we've been able to maintain most of the business and the liquidity both for local and international investors in the listed and the OTC derivatives.
We obviously, there is competition in registration. There's a few small companies that have niche players that have sought In Brazil to answer that, and I think, again, the changes that we have made, both in pricing and in customer service, I think have been recognized by the market, and we continue to maintain close to full dominance. Although, again, these guys are there, and We have to, on a day to day, face that competition as well. And finally, in listing, In the, let's say, listed equities market, in the past, there were conversations in the market about people launching Other equities exchanges, I think that we haven't heard about for quite some time. But There are other ways of competing with us.
As you know, there is a regulatory discussion about market fragmentation and whether More transactions could be done off exchange within the platforms of brokers such as in some other markets. We have obviously Try to point out to the market and to regulators the some of the disadvantages of that and to try to have a balanced discussion and also introduce new features in our own systems such as Retail liquidity provider, which have tried to incorporate within B3's strategies some of the and new ideas and innovations that the retail brokers want to pursue. So competition It's a part of running this company, being aware of what's around us, and I think It's a motivation for us to keep investing and to keep meeting exactly what our clients want. And also, Just linking to your first question, it's obviously something that is collected with our view of reducing fees over time.
On your touch tone for now. This concludes today's question and answer session. I would like to invite Mr. Daniel Sandler to proceed with his closing statements.
Sure. Thanks, everyone, for joining the call, and please feel free to reach out to us if you need anything else. And again, Thanks to all the Investor Relations, Communications and Finance teams for their hard work this quarter.
Thanks, everyone. The Investor Relations team is available if you have any other questions. Have a nice day.
That does conclude B3 Audio's conference call for today. Thank you very much for your participation. Have a good afternoon and thank you for using Carusco.