Hello, and welcome to the Euronext fourth quarter and full year 2021 results call. My name is Josh, and I will be your coordinator for today's event. Please note that this conference is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen-only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero and you'll be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to your host, Stéphane Boujnah, CEO and Chairman of the Managing Board of Euronext. Thank you.
Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us this morning for Euronext fourth quarter and full year 2021 results conference call and webcast. I am Stéphane Boujnah, CEO and Chairman of the Managing Board of Euronext. I will start with the highlights of this fourth quarter before commenting on our full year performance. Giorgio Modica, Euronext CFO, will then further develop the main business and financial highlights of the fourth quarter. As you've seen, Euronext reported record revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021 at EUR 370.1 million. This is the highest quarterly revenue we ever disclosed. This strong performance translated into more than 50% growth in both revenues and EBITDA, and an almost 20% increase of adjusted EPS.
During the fourth quarter of 2021, our revenue grew by +59.5% or EUR +138.1 million from last year. This significant growth resulted from several drivers. First, from very solid organic growth across almost all our businesses. Giorgio will provide you with more details on this performance in a few minutes. Second, from the consolidation of the Borsa Italiana Group activities that contributed EUR 127 million of revenue this quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2021, non-volume related revenue accounted for 55% of our total revenue and income, slightly up compared to last year. While at the same time, our trading business has been growing. Our non-volume related revenue covered 126% of our operating expenses excluding D&A.
This is an increase compared to 118% last year. On the cost side, the increase is solely reflecting the consolidated cost of the Borsa Italiana Group, as well as the related integration costs. Because like for like, our cost base remained flat compared to Q4 last year. Overall, these numbers translated into a +64.1% rise in EBITDA to EUR 208.2 million and representing a 56.3% EBITDA margin, up 1.6 points from last year. Like for like, at constant currencies, we're reporting EBITDA margin at 57%, up +1.8 points from last year. Bottom line, in the fourth quarter, we delivered a +19.7% increase in adjusted EPS at EUR 1.31 per share.
On a reported basis, net income was up +68.7% to EUR 112.7 million. This record fourth quarter marks the conclusion of a very strong year, 2021 for Euronext. With more than 40% growth in revenue, EBITDA, and double-digit increase of adjusted EPS, 2021 was a record year compared to 2020, which was a very good year as well. In 2021, Euronext recorded a +46.9% revenue growth to close to EUR 1.3 billion. We generated EUR +414.3 million additional revenue in 2021. Thanks again to the combination of both organic growth, even compared, as I said, to a very strong 2020 year, and accounting only for eight months of consolidation of the Borsa Italiana Group. This combination of strong organic growth and combination of the Borsa Italiana Group.
This performance reflects first an organic solid performance of our non-volume related activities. In that respect, I would highlight the strong year of our listing business, posting a +8% organic growth, thanks to a record year in primary listings and the development of our corporate services. Furthermore, our advanced data services business also reporting robust organic growth, up +4%, reflecting growth across all our data and indices products. Second, the Borsa Italiana Group contributed EUR 337.7 million in 2021 for eight months of consolidation. As a result, non-volume related grew from 50% in 2020 to 55% of our top line in 2021, and these non-volume related revenues accounted for 131% of our operating costs excluding D&A.
On the cost side, I'm pleased to announce that we overachieved our 2021 guidance on costs, excluding the impact of the Borsa Italiana Group acquisition. As we consolidated costs from Borsa Italiana Group and Euronext Securities Copenhagen, and as we incurred related integration costs in relation to these two acquisitions, our costs mechanically increased by +49.8% compared to last year. Overall, this translated into an EBITDA of EUR 752.8 million, up +44.8% or EUR 232.8 million from 2020. EBITDA margin was slightly down at 58%, reflecting the cost from acquisitions and integrations I just mentioned. In that regard, I'm pleased to share with you that we delivered the first EUR 10.1 million of synergies in 2021.
Lastly, on a like-for-like basis, EBITDA margin was up 0.2 points to 59.7%. Overall, this performance resulted in a +17.2% increase in adjusted EPS to EUR 5.35. On a reported basis, net income is at +31% to EUR 413.3 million. Consequently, in line with our dividend policy of distributing 50% of reported net income, a dividend of EUR 1.93 per share will be proposed at our upcoming annual general meeting in May. 2021 has been a strong year, and 2022 is a year of transformational projects for Euronext. As I just mentioned, we delivered EUR 10.1 million of run rate synergies at the end of 2021, only eight months after the completion of the acquisition.
As a reminder, we are committed to deliver EUR 100 million of run rate synergies by 2024. Please note that the synergies we delivered over the past eight months of 2021 after the completion of the transaction and are delivered before any contribution from the identified business development opportunities that we are pursuing in relation to the acquisition of the Borsa Italiana Group. To deliver these synergies, we incurred a total of EUR 27.6 million of implementation costs, combined between operating costs and exceptional costs. As you can see on this timeline, our three major projects are underway, yet their delivery will be phased over the duration of the plan, starting with the migration of our new core data center in Italy, near Bergamo, which will happen in June this year.
We also confirmed the expected timeline for the migration of the Italian cash equities and derivative markets to Optiq for 2023, as well as the expansion of Euronext Clearing services to all Euronext markets by 2023 and 2024. Moving to the next slide, I would like to share with you the latest development on our ESG strategy. We believe that capital markets can and must empower sustainable growth. We see it as our role to promote the evolution of companies to more sustainable business models and to help them addressing the transformation of the investment community. As the leading index provider in Europe, we are continuously taking steps to accelerate the transition to a sustainable economy. This is why we announced yesterday the upcoming launch of the AEX ESG Index in Amsterdam.
This new ESG index is a new milestone in our ambition to offer investors an ESG version of our national flagship indices. After the successful launch of the CAC 40 ESG in France, and the MIB ESG in Italy in the past few months, we are now launching this new development in the Netherlands. All three indices allow investors to finance high-impact projects and companies in line with the UN Global Compact principles. All in all, we've launched more than 20 new ESG indices in 2021, and we are now offering a wider range of products to investors, including climate benchmarks, biodiversity or water and social criteria-based indices. These developments are very concrete results of our Fit for 1.5 degree ESG strategy, of which two other important milestones will occur in 2022.
The first one will be the completion of the migration of our core data center to a fully green facility near Bergamo, I've just mentioned. The second one is the release or the detailed announcement of our science-based detailed targets in the coming months for carbon footprint reduction. In 2021, we confirmed our position as the leading European market infrastructure, thanks to the Borsa Italiana Group joining, Euronext in April 2021, and benefiting from post-Brexit conditions. Today, Euronext is the largest equity listing venue in Europe, combining the strength and dynamism of its seven exchanges across Europe, united by its unique single liquidity pool. Therefore, we welcome 25% of European equity trading activities in 2021 on Euronext markets. Out of the 212 new equity listings this year, half of them were from tech companies.
This reflects the booming environment for tech and innovation-driven companies in Europe. As the leading listing venue, it is the mission of Euronext to support their financing needs and to accompany these companies on their growth journey. This is why we recently announced the launch of our new comprehensive service offering for tech companies, including our new segment dedicated to tech, named Tech Leaders. Tech companies will have access to a wide range of services, including pre-IPO programs and post-listing services, as well as to this unique dedicated segment. With this segment, we further strengthen Euronext's leading position for the equity listing of European tech companies, as we enhance visibility, activity, and credibility of our value propositions to both issuers, tech issuers, and investors, tech investors. I now hand over to Giorgio Modica for the review of our fourth quarter performance.
Thank you, Stéphane, and good morning, everyone. I am now on slide 10. In the fourth quarter of 2021, Euronext consolidated revenue income reached EUR 370.1 million, the highest revenue quarter ever for our company, representing an increase of EUR 138.1 million or 59.5%. These results were primarily driven by the consolidation of the Borsa Italiana Group and a strong performance on non-volume related business and clearing. On a like for like basis and at constant currencies, Euronext consolidated revenue was up 4.3% versus the fourth quarter of 2020. Moving now to the different business lines.
Trading revenues increased to EUR 132.3 million, up 50.4%, thanks to the consolidation of Borsa Italiana and MTS trading activity, as well as the organic performance of the business with good volume and revenue capture in our trading activities. Post-trade revenue, including net treasury income, increased 81.2% to EUR 103.8 million, primarily as a result of the consolidation of Euronext Securities Milan and Euronext Clearing, previously known as Monte Titoli and CC&G. Advanced data service revenue increased to EUR 50.7 million, up 50.1%, benefiting from the consolidation of Borsa Italiana data activity and dynamic index activity, and a solid performance of the core business.
Listing revenue grew 35.8% to EUR 51.9 million, thanks to the consolidation of Borsa Italiana and the continued momentum in equity listing. In terms of revenue mix, fourth quarter 2021 non-volume related revenue accounted for 55% of total group revenue versus 54% in the fourth quarter of 2020, reflecting the increased diversification in our revenue mix. Lastly, non-volume related revenues covered 126% of our operating costs, excluding D&A, compared to 118% last year. Moving to the next slide for listing. I'm on slide 11. Listing revenue was EUR 51.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Again, an increase of 30.8% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020. It was driven by the momentum in equity and debt listing.
With regard to equity listing, the fourth quarter of 2021 saw the continuation of a strong primary listing activity with 57 new listings on Euronext, including five large cap, notably AutoStore Holdings, OVHcloud, and Ariston Holding, the 2021 largest clean tech listing and six SPACs. Euronext continues to demonstrate its strong value proposition for tech companies, recording most capital raising from deals on tech and innovation-driven companies. In the fourth quarter of 2021, EUR 6.5 billion was raised on Euronext primary market, which is more than double the amount raised in the fourth quarter of 2020. EUR 6.2 billion were raised on secondary equity issues. I would like to highlight that for the fourth quarter in a row, we confirmed our position as the number one listing venue in Europe for equities, ETFs, as well as for debt worldwide.
Our debt franchise reported strong results across Euronext market in the fourth quarter of 2021, driven by favorable market condition and a continued momentum in ESG bond listing. In the fourth quarter of 2021, EUR 389.4 billion in debt was raised on Euronext market. Overall, this brings us to a total of EUR 402.1 billion raised in equity and debt on Euronext market in the fourth quarter of 2021. Lastly, corporate service reported EUR 8.6 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021. This performance is negatively impacted by approximately EUR 1.5 million of one-off revenue recognition adjustment and lower activity compared to a very intense fourth quarter of 2020. Let's move now to our trading business on slide 12, and let's start with cash trading.
ADV on a pro forma basis, including the Borsa Italiana, increased 4.7% to EUR 12.2 billion, supported by uncertainty around economic policies and material index rebalancing during the fourth quarter. Average revenue capture over the quarter reached 0.49 basis point, and the market share was 71.3%, both including Italian cash markets. The consolidation of the cash trading activities of Borsa Italiana, coupled with good volumes, resulted in cash trading revenue up 26.5% to EUR 79.3 million. Now, moving to derivative trading. Derivative trading was up 21.4% to EUR 14.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Pro forma average daily volumes on financial derivatives slightly increased by 0.4% thanks to higher individual equity derivative volumes offsetting lower volumes for equity index derivatives.
Commodity products reported a record quarter with average daily volumes up 14.8%, reflecting the successful commercial expansion undertaking in the past few quarters. The average revenue capture over the fourth quarter for derivative trading was EUR 0.30 per lot. Moving to fixed income, I remind you that fixed income includes the trading activity of MTS, both cash and repo, and the fixed income trading activity of Euronext and Borsa Italiana, such as the MOT and EuroTLX. Fixed income trading reported revenue at EUR 24.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. This is 45x the amount reported in the fourth quarter of 2020 as a result of the consolidation of the Borsa Italiana group.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, MTS Cash generated EUR 17.2 million of revenue, and MTS Repo generated EUR 4.8 million euros in revenue. The strong performance of MTS Cash trading activity, up 31.7% versus the fourth quarter of 2020, reflects the positive momentum in cash bond trading, supported by the steady issuance and support from the ECB and EU Recovery Fund activity and a continued risk-on attitude from investors. The fourth quarter of 2021, furthermore, saw a renewed interest in repo trading activity with adjusted ADV up 4.9% to EUR 292 billion. Continuing with trading on slide 13.
Euronext reported average spot FX trading daily volumes of $19.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021, down 3.1% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, resulting from a less volatile trading environment. Spot FX trading revenue increased 3.9% to EUR 6.1 million as lower trading volumes were more than offset by positive impact of foreign exchange rate over the period. Power trading reported EUR 8.5 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021, a solid double-digit growth of 18.7% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020 as a result of increased power trading volumes driven by cold winter in the fourth quarter of 2021.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, average daily day-ahead power traded was 2.76 TWh, and the average daily intraday power traded was 0.08 TWh, up 14.4% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020. Moving to slide 14, revenue from our post-trading activity, including treasury income, increased 81.2% to EUR 103.8 million. Clearing revenue was up 73.1% to EUR 30.1 million as a result of the consolidation of Euronext Clearing activity, again, formerly known as CC&G, and higher clearing revenue and treasury income received from LCH SA. On a like for like basis and at current currencies, clearing revenue was up 6.4% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020.
Net treasury income from Euronext Clearing was, for the quarter, EUR 12.9 million. Custody, settlement, and other post-trade encompassing the activity of the four CSDs we operate under the Euronext Securities brand reported strong revenue growth, up 52.3% to EUR 60.7 million. The strong performance was mainly driven by the consolidation of Euronext Securities Milan, a record EUR 6.5 trillion of assets under custody, and the higher number of retail accounts in our Nordic CSDs. Moving to slide 15, advanced data service revenue was up 50.1% to EUR 50.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, driven by the consolidation of Borsa Italiana data activity, a dynamic index activity, and a solid performance of the market data business.
Proceeding now with investor services, revenue was up 32.1% to EUR 2.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, reflecting the continued traction of the offering. Lastly, on technology solutions, revenue more than doubled in the fourth quarter of 2021 to EUR 26.4 million as a result of the consolidation of Borsa Italiana technology business, increased contribution from Nord Pool's technology activity, as well as an increase in SaaS and colocation fees. Moving now to slide 17 for the financial highlights of the quarter, starting with the EBITDA bridge. Euronext EBITDA for the quarter was up 64.1% to EUR 208.2 million. The EBITDA margin increased to 56.3% in the fourth quarter from 54.7% in the fourth quarter of 2020, despite the impact of integration costs.
On a like-for-like basis, the EBITDA margin was at 57% this quarter, up 1.8 points, and EBITDA increased 7.8%. From a revenue perspective, Q4 revenue at constant perimeter increased EUR 10.1 million compared to last year, reflecting mid-single-digit organic growth. Change of scope contributed EUR 125 million of additional revenue, reflecting the Borsa Italiana Group revenue contribution of EUR 127 million to the top line, but also the disposal of small businesses in 2021 not contributing to the profitability of the group.
Looking at cost, operating costs excluding D&A were up 54% at EUR 161.8 million as a result of EUR 54.8 million additional cost from change of scope as a result of the consolidation of the Borsa Italiana Group and from integration costs related to the acquisition. Stable cost base on a comparable perimeter, thanks to our continued cost control efforts offsetting inflationary trends. Moving to slide 18 for the net income bridge. Net income increased this quarter 67.8% to EUR 112.7 million, resulting from the following elements. D&A mechanically increased, mainly impacted by the consolidation of Borsa Italiana D&A and the impact of PPA for around EUR 16 million.
Exceptional costs were EUR 3.9 million higher vis-à-vis last year, mainly related to the integration cost of Borsa Italiana Group and a brand impairment linked to the implementation of our new CSD branding strategy. Net financing expense for the fourth quarter of 2021 was EUR 1.8 million higher compared to last year, reflecting the cost of recently issued debt. Results from equity investment increased EUR 3 million, reflecting higher dividend received from Sicovam and a stronger contribution of our 11.1% stake in LCH SA versus the fourth quarter of 2020. Lastly, income tax for the fourth quarter of 2021 was EUR 35.7 million. This translated into an effective tax rate for the quarter of 23.6%, benefiting from higher than expected deductible costs from the PPA.
In 2021, the average effective tax rate was 27.4%. For next year, for 2022, we expect a tax rate in line with the one of 2021. Adjusted for PPA and exceptional items, reported net income was EUR 140.2 million, translating into an adjusted DPS increase of 19.7% to EUR 1.31 per share for the quarter. Moving to slide 19 for cash flow generation and leverage. Net operating cash flow amounted to EUR 145.6 million. This would translate into a cash flow conversion of around 70%. Excluding the impact of CCP activities, the impact of Nord Pool and Euronext Clearing on change in working capital, 65% of the EBITDA was converted into post-tax operating cash flow.
Our net debt to EBITDA ratio was 2.6x at the end of the quarter versus 2.8x at the end of the third quarter of 2021. As a reminder, the net debt to EBITDA ratio at the end of 2020 was 3.2x pro forma for the Borsa Italiana Group acquisition. I would like to highlight that those ratios do not take into account the under EUR 60 million Euronext own short-term securities. Moving to slide 20, we now give a look at the evolution of our liquidity position over the quarter. Our liquidity position remains strong above EUR 1.4 billion, including the undrawn RCF of under EUR 60 million. Finally, I'm now on slide 21, let's spend some time together on our 2022 post guidance.
Following the Investor Day and during the interaction with you and analysts and investors, we registered an increased demand for adjusted financial metrics to better capture the underlying performance of the business in a time of significant transformation like the one we're living. I have discussed that with Stéphane and with our supervisory board, and together we have decided for an evolution of our reporting towards that direction. Starting from the first quarter of 2022, Euronext will provide information about its adjusted costs for non-recurring items and publish an adjusted EBITDA. We will do that for the aim of providing the market with a better sense of Euronext's underlying business performance. In practical terms, what will happen starting from the first quarter of 2022 is the following. We will remove the exceptional items line from our financial statement.
As you might remember, that line only included a portion of non-recurring costs. This means that from the first quarter of this year, all costs, recurring or not, will be classified by nature into their respective line in our P&L. We will provide a detail of all non-recurring costs by nature, and we will publish an adjusted EBITDA excluding those items. Now, looking at 2022, we expect the underlying cost, excluding D&A, to be EUR 622 million for the full year 2022. This compares to an annualized fourth quarter 2021 underlying cost of EUR 627 million. In other terms, we expect in a year of transformation and before the impact of the migration of Borsa Italiana to Optiq to generate savings able to more than offset the inflation for 2022.
In addition, Euronext expect to incur around EUR 50 million of non-recurring OpEx and exceptional items in 2022. I would like to highlight that those EUR 50 million are part of the announced EUR 160 million of non-recurring and implementation costs to deliver the Growth for Impact 2024 strategic plan. These implementation costs reflect the ongoing work of the Euronext team to deliver the key strategic priorities announced in November 2021, including the migration of our core data center to Bergamo in Italy, the migration of the Italian cash and derivative market to Optiq trading platform, and the European expansion of Euronext clearing activity. Now, with this, I conclude my presentation, and I hand over the floor back to Stéphane Boujnah.
Thank you all. The team here with Giorgio Modica, Anthony Attia, the head of primary markets and post trade, and myself are available to answer your questions.
Thank you very much. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad now, please. Please ensure your line is unmuted locally. I'll then speak to you individually and then introduce you into the call. Our first question comes from the line of Kyle Voigt from KBW. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. This is actually Matt Moon on for Kyle Voigt. Thanks for taking my question. I was just wondering if you could potentially walk us through the rate sensitivity of the legacy CC&G and TI line. I know it's a smaller line item, but I'm just curious on that front, particularly given that there's been some more increased expectations for rate hikes in the region near term. This is still clearly off a low negative base, so I was just curious at what level of rates we should maybe expect to benefit in this line item and maybe if there's been any change to any investment policy at Euronext in comparison to the legacy ownership of LSE. Thank you.
Let me take that one. The revenues of CC&G within the clearing line is pretty stable and is not directly impacted by changes in interest rate. I would like to highlight as well. The way you should look at that is more like a spread in basis points on the basis or on the margins which are actually contributed to the clearing house. These spreads in basis points tend to be pretty stable across periods and in the last several years. On the other side, when looking at the net treasury income of Euronext Clearing, this is the result of the investment of the cash margin invested in short-term securities.
In this respect, this is a short-term fixed income portfolio which is impacted by two elements. The first element is again the return of the portfolio, and the second one is clearly potential capital gains on that portfolio. Now, going forward, we anticipate that the result is going to be mainly linked to the performance of the portfolio itself, and we see more limited possibility to cash in capital gain given the trend of interest rates expected for the next quarters.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Coombs from Citi. Please go ahead.
Good morning. A couple of questions, please. First, if we could just come back to the costs. Thank you for the new disclosure. I do think it makes it easier. Perhaps you could just talk a bit more about underlying cost inflation pressures that you're seeing, and any investment projects that you have ongoing, outside of the Borsa Italiana integration. That'd be the first question. Second question is just can you remind us on any rate sensitivity that you might have, within your Post Trade business, both to dollar and also to euro rates? Thank you.
When it comes to the first question around underlying cost, I would like to highlight a few elements. The first one is that if you look at our cost for the fourth quarter year-on-year, those are stable as we have seen. I would like to spend like a few minutes in walking you through the changing cost between the third quarter and the fourth quarter, because this is an important step in my view. The first element that I would like to highlight is that the cost of the third quarter are seasonally lower. We have an impact of salary cost of around EUR 4 million, and this is linked to the holiday season.
You can see this has always been the case since the moment we've published result after the IPO of the company was the same last year. If you look at the increase in cost between the third quarter and the fourth quarter, this explains alone one third of the increase. Another third of the increase is explained by the increase of consultants that we've hired to execute the project related to the different migration and integration projects that we have. The last element that I wanted to highlight, because that might not be obvious, is that in the fourth quarter of 2021, what you see as well are a couple of million of increased cost related to the type of post-COVID environment.
As you might remember, in October and November, everyone started traveling and having marketing events, and this is new compared to the previous quarter, and this accounts for around EUR 2 million. I believe it's important because you might have an impression of an increase in costs in the fourth quarter, but reality is that things are progressing exactly as expected. The other element that you were highlighting is whether there are initiatives across the group to deliver savings, and the answer for that is yes. We always look at costs on a holistic basis, and thanks to that, we were able to achieve the EUR 10 million of synergies that we have announced. I take the opportunity to walk you through the different components of those EUR 10 million.
In there, what you have is one first element, which is related to Euronext providing to Borsa Italiana cheaper services with respect to what LSE used to do. Another element is related exactly to what you mentioned, optimization of Euronext organization, leveraging on Borsa Italiana, and therefore a saving from an organizational perspective. Finally, the last element is that we started to reassess every expense in Borsa Italiana, which is aimed at a perimeter which is not of our interest outside of Europe, and that does not generate a sufficient return on the investment. Thanks to these elements, which do not touch the biggest part of the value upside, which is coming from the integration, we were able to deliver a significant part of the originally announced EUR 45 million of cost synergies.
Moving to your second question around the sensitivities. Again, our P&L in general is not that sensitive to interest rates. If we look at our liabilities, we have EUR 3.05 billion in debt issued. This is all fixed rate. The only portion that we swapped into variable is only EUR 500 million. That was a very good idea when we started in 2018, and it's already paid off. You can see that in our balance sheet, we have a positive value of the derivative for around EUR 10 million. When it comes to your more specific question linked to CC&G, again, as I said, this is not a business which is positively or negatively impacted by interest rate directly.
The portion on which there is a sensitivity is related, again, as I said, to the fixed income portfolio, on which CC&G or Euronext Clearing invests. What I can say is that given the upward trends of interest rates, we see going forward the fewer possibility to cash in and book capital gains out of that portfolio. Apart from that, no major impact from interest rates.
Very clear. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Our next question comes from the line of Arnaud Giblat from BNP. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Again, good morning. Three questions, please. Firstly, can I ask on the tax rate, can you confirm that the PPA is deductible, and therefore that's why you're getting a EUR 0.27 guidance for 2022? Should we think about EUR 0.27 as a long-term guidance given that you're gonna have PPA going on for a while? And also, I'm curious as to why you don't strip out the tax benefit of PPAs and exceptionals when calculating adjusted EPS to get to a more homogeneous calculation since you are taking up PPA in the first place when calculating adjusted EPS. And secondly, I was wondering if you could talk a bit about the cash yield, it's at 0.49 basis points.
I think on a like-to-like comparable basis, it was at 0.52 in Q2, so a 0.03 reduction. Is that down to reduced retail activity? Finally, I was wondering if perhaps you could give us a bit of an update in terms of potential acquisitions, which areas you're currently looking at. Thank you.
Absolutely. Arnaud, I will answer your last question, and Giorgio will answer your question on the yield and on the PPA. As you have observed, Euronext is deleveraging faster than expected with the level of debt to EBITDA of 2.6x compared to 3.2x at the time of the completion of the acquisitions. We are, over time, regaining capital deployment flexibility. What we do is that we monitor very closely any situation which could contribute to diversifying the revenue mix and the growth profile of Euronext and/or expanding the European footprint of Euronext. This process is ongoing.
As we speak now, there is no process, no dialogue, but there are various situations that we are monitoring very closely. The purpose of our M&A strategy organization is to be ready to act decisively when a situation becomes actionable within the framework of our capital deployment discipline. It's clear that we keep a strong interest in any segment which could help us diversifying our revenue mix.
Yeah. Arnaud, with respect to your first question, let me clarify. What is relevant is that between the third and the fourth quarter. In the third quarter, we have booked a preliminary PPA assessment, which has been now finalized in the fourth quarter. As a result of this process of assessment, we have now on our books a slightly lower goodwill and higher intangible assets. This is what creates deductible cost. It's not the, if you want, the goodwill itself, but it's the intangible assets which are amortized over time that have an impact on our P&L and on our tax rate. On your second question, yes, in the adjustment, we take into consideration as well the impact of tax.
Your third question around the cash basis points, this is something that we have discussed many times, and I've shared with you the fact that the yield has been exceptionally high for a very long time. We have guided for a blended revenue capture at or slightly below the mark of EUR 0.50 basis point. Now, the key driver of that, there are many, and it is very difficult to single out the impact of each one of those. What we have seen, in general terms, is an increase of the average size of the orders. That was one of the factors contributing to the increase of the revenue capture.
It's true as well, as you said, that we have seen as well a reduction of the of the retail activity. Although the retail activity remains at a level which is higher with respect to what we had before the pandemic.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Our next question comes from a line of Bruce Hamilton from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi. Morning. Maybe just a couple more on the cost, just to check. On the EUR 622 million guidance, and thanks for that, this includes further synergy delivery to offset inflation. I don't know if you're able to give us what the sort of run rate synergies assumed in that number are versus the EUR 10 million already in 2021, but that'd be helpful. Plus any other guide on the phasing of the EUR 45 million, if that's possible. Second, simply on the integration cost. EUR 50 of the EUR 160 million comes through the 2022 cost base. Should we expect the majority of the rest comes through 2023, 2024 is relatively clean, or is it quite hard to tell?
Then finally, I guess for your current guidance for 2024, I think the implied cost base is around EUR 585 million. Obviously a bit, you know, a bit lower than we are today. I just wanted to check that that guidance still stands. Thank you.
Let me start from the last point. Yes, I want to clarify that the trajectory and the numbers that we've shared, the ambition for 2022 is absolutely consistent with the delivery of our 2024 ambition. Yes, I can confirm that the trajectory is exactly the one that we have described during the November Investor Day. With respect to your second question, we had EUR 27 million of one-off cost in 2021. We will have EUR 50 million next year. It's a fair assumption that 2024 is going to be a rather clean year. This gives you pretty much all the elements to assess a phasing of the exceptional cost.
When it comes to EUR 622 million, what I can say is the following. I will not provide you a run rate target for 2022, unfortunately. What I can say on the other side is clearly that you have a base and you can have an idea of what type of inflation 2022 could mean. The inflation rates across the industry are well known, and we will more than offset that. Even an inflation of 2%, 2.5% would imply an increase over cost base, which is significant between EUR 15 million and EUR 20 million. We will overcompensate that.
Brilliant. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Ian White from Autonomous Research. Go ahead.
Hi. Morning. Thanks for the presentation. Just a couple of follow-ups on costs as well from my side, please. Sorry, to actually go back to a short follow-up to Bruce's question. The guidance that was set out in November, I think gets us to a cost base. At the midpoint, it was saying 3.5% revenue growth, 5.5% EBITDA growth, cost base of about EUR 574 in 2024. Can you just walk me through, please, how we might get to a figure in that ballpark from the EUR 622 in 2022, please? That's question one.
Secondly, can I just clarify, do the integration costs, the total EUR 160 million for Borsa Italiana, does that include any one-time termination fee that might be payable to LCH to discontinue the clearing service, please? Thank you.
Yeah. Let me take the two elements. Let me start from your first question. What is important to understand, and I appreciate that is not easy, is the concept that the target of EUR 100 million is not a mix between revenue increase and cost reduction, but is an increase in EBITDA. Which means that could be a combination of the two elements. This is specifically true for the activity that we have today with respect to the data center and the clearing activity. What I'm trying to say is that if we look at the. Just to give you a practical example.
If we assess the increase of margin that we expect from clearing, which is the largest part of the increase of target from EUR 60 million to EUR 100 million, this is a combination of increased revenues and reduced costs. To a certain extent, in the EUR 100 million, there is, if you take it in absolute amount, more revenue savings to come as a part of the new setup that we will have for the data center and the clearing. You let me know whether this is clear enough or not, and I can expand. On your second question, the answer is yes. We are including all the costs related to the implementation of the plan, including the termination fee, the potential termination fee for LCH SA.
Got it. Thank you. That is helpful on question one. I guess just to clarify then, I took the, you know, the EBITDA margin that was implied by your targets in November was somewhere between sort of 61%-65%, maybe something in that ballpark. We should still be expecting the margin to land in that range, presumably for 2024. It might just be a mix of perhaps higher costs, higher revenues and vice versa, relative to sort of my straw man workings on the guidance. That's what I'm hearing there, if I've got that correct.
What I can say is that during the investor day, we gave a trajectory for the EBITDA and a trajectory of the revenue, and if you deduct one from the other, you would have implicitly the trajectory of costs, and this is implied into the EUR 100 million target. If you're asking yourself how is it possible to get to that level? What I can say is that a part of the business opportunity in doing the business ourselves will translate into further savings that you don't see today.
Okay. That's super. Thanks for your help.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Johannes Thormann from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Good morning. HSBC, three questions, please. First of all, a follow-up. Could you provide us a breakdown of the collateral for the net treasury income by currency or also by the different volumes? Secondly, on the cost on the green data center in migration in June, how long have you hedged your energy costs for that one, or do you produce your energy on your own in this data center? Last but not least,
If you could provide probably some clarity on the dividends from Sicovam and Euroclear you're expecting for 2022 and the contribution from LCH, if you can elaborate a bit on the seasonality from this. Thank you very much.
A few elements on my side. Let me start with the data center. This data center is green, not because it buys green electricity, but because it produce itself green energy with a combination of fully owned hydro power plant and photovoltaic panels, which are built on the roof of the data center itself. This is for the first question. We are not hedging. We are out producing. The second element is related to the dividend for next year. I mean, we will need to have the results of Euroclear. Once those companies will announce...
For LCH SA this is going to be an 11.1% share of their net income when this will become available. For Sicovam and Euroclear, once it's going to be announced, it's going to be publicly available, we cannot anticipate those elements. When it comes to your question around the collateral, we provide a breakdown of the elements that we collect from our client in terms of margin. This is, I believe, one of the last pages of the press release. At the moment, this is largely euros.
We don't anticipate to provide the breakdowns because, not because we don't want, but we don't feel that this gives really more insight into the revenue potential from that activity.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you very much. Our next question comes from the line of Martin Price from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thanks for the presentation. Just two questions, if I may. First, on post-trade, you reported a strong sequential increase in revenue in Q4. Just wanted to confirm that was just a function of stronger settlement activity and higher custody assets rather than any one-offs or seasonality in revenue. Secondly, I just wanted to come back to the EU consolidated tape proposal. Appreciate that it's still very early days in the process, but at the Investor Day last year, I think you said that you thought the impact was manageable. I just wonder if you could help us understand in a little bit more detail the revenue you think potentially could be at risk. Thank you.
I will answer briefly your question on consolidated tape, and Anthony Attia, the Head of Primary Markets and Post-Trade will answer your first question on the revenue mix within the CSD business. The debate on the consolidated tape is ongoing. We are spending a lot of time with the various constituencies that will have to form their final views on this matter at the European Parliament and within the relevant member states of the Council of the European Union. We are confident that a pragmatic manageable solution will be found. There are still open issues on the scope, the pace, the timing, the framework to operate such a consolidated.
For the moment it's more a concept and an ambition more than something framed precisely. There are a lot of moving pieces in finalizing what this consolidated tape, if any, will be in due course. It's very difficult for us to form a view on what will be the final regulatory framework that will apply to the real-time data produced by Euronext. That being said, we don't change the comment made at the Investor Day. On the basis of the various scenario we are analyzing internally, we believe that the consequences of this new piece of regulation will be manageable.
We are spending a lot of time and effort to make sure that these changes are minimal in terms of impact on our top line on the CSD.
Thank you, Stéphane, and good morning, everyone. I understand your question was about the drivers of the growth in our CSD businesses. As we explained in the press release, we enjoy a growth compared to the previous year and the previous quarter. It's not only due to the addition of the Euronext Securities Milan, formerly Monte Titoli CSD in the mix, it's also because we had an increased settlement activity and also a very strong retail account activity in the Nordics.
As you can remember from the previous calls, this segregated account business in our two Nordic CSDs in Copenhagen and in Oslo is one of the drivers of that growth.
I can confirm that there is no one-off component in the fourth quarter revenue. This is fully organic and recurring.
Understood. That's very helpful. Thanks all.
Thank you very much. Just as a reminder, it is star one if you would like to ask a question. We don't seem to have any further questions in the queue at this moment, so we'll hold just a second to see if any more questions come through. Okay, we have no further questions on the line, so I'll hand you back over to the speakers.
Thank you very much for your time. Happy to follow up with the team here, and have a good day.
Thank you very much for joining today's call. You may now disconnect your handsets. Hosts, please stay on the line. Thank you.