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Earnings Call: Q3 2021

Nov 4, 2021

Operator

Hello, and welcome to the Euronext Third Quarter 2021 Results Call. My name is Courtney, and I'll be your coordinator for today's event. Please note this call 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. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any time, please press star zero and you will 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, to begin today's conference. Thank you.

Stéphane Boujnah
CEO and Chairman of the Managing Board, Euronext

Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us this morning for the Euronext Third Quarter 2021 Results Conference Call and Webcast. I am Stéphane Boujnah, CEO and Chairman of the Managing Board of Euronext, and I will start with the highlights of this third quarter. Giorgio Modica, Euronext CFO, will then develop further the main business and financial highlights. Euronext reported a strong third quarter performance, with very strong revenue growth and double-digit growth in adjusted EPS. Revenue increased by EUR 145.8 million, up +71.2% to EUR 350.6 million. This solid revenue performance was driven by two main drivers. The first one is a double-digit organic revenue growth driven by good performance on our listing, on our trading, and on our clearing businesses.

This strong organic performance is the clear translation of our leadership position now in listing and cash equity trading in Europe. During this quarter, Euronext was once again the European leading equity listing venue with 51 new listings and the leading ETF listing venue. The second driver of this very strong organic revenue growth was the fact that it is the first quarter of full consolidation of the Borsa Italiana Group, contributing EUR 121.1 million to revenue in Q3 2021. Over the first nine months of 2021, despite very tough comparison base of 2020, which you may remember 2020 was a very strong year, and Q3 2020 was a strong quarter in a very strong year.

Despite this comparison effect, our organic growth was of 3%, and this shows the ability of Euronext to capture value. As you know, we keep close eyes. We monitor very closely the share of our non-volume related revenue in our revenue mix. This share of non-volume related revenue rose this quarter to 55% of total revenue and covers now 131% of our operating expenses, excluding D&A. On the cost side, the reported increase that you have seen is mainly related to two factors. The first one is the consolidation cost from Borsa Italiana Group and from the VP Securities in Copenhagen cost base.

The second driver, the cost related to the integration of the Borsa Italiana Group, which is the major post-merger integration project for Euronext at the moment, that this cost has been anticipated and announced previously. Overall, these numbers, both on the revenue side and the cost side, translated into a group EBITDA increase of +72.3% to EUR 203 million, and an EBITDA margin of 57.9% in Q3 2021. On a like-for-like basis, our EBITDA margin in Q3 2021 increased to 60.4%, hence by 1.8 points. This solid group business performance resulted in a +18.1% increase in adjusted EPS at EUR 1.21 per share.

On a reported basis, net income was up +64.9% to EUR 115.8 million, also boosted by a EUR 9.2 million dividend received this quarter. I now hand over to Giorgio Modica for the detailed review of all businesses.

Giorgio Modica
CFO, Euronext

Thank you, Stéphane, and good morning, everyone. I'm now on slide six. In the third quarter of 2021, Euronext consolidated revenue reached EUR 350.6 million with an increase of EUR 145.8 million, which translated 71.2%. These results were driven by the double-digit organic growth in trading, clearing and listing activities, and by the contribution of the Borsa Italiana Group that is consolidated for the first time for a full quarter. Please note that VP Securities was consolidated on August 4th, 2020, and thus accounting only for a part of the organic growth. On a like-for-like basis and at current currencies, Euronext consolidated revenue was up 10.2% vis-à-vis the third quarter of last year.

Moving now to the different business lines. Trading revenue increased to EUR 124.2 million, up 63.6%, thanks to the consolidation of Borsa Italiana and MTS trading activity, as well as the good revenue capture and efficient market share management in cash trading activities. Post-trade activities revenue, including net treasury income, increased 115.2% to EUR 96.1 million as a result of the consolidation of Monte Titoli and CC&G activities. These offset the lower activity in our Nordic CSDs, reflecting the normalization of repo activity and a seasonal effect in the third quarter of this year. Advanced data service revenue increased to EUR 46.5 million, up 29.7%, benefiting from the good performance of market data and indices and from the consolidation of the Borsa Italiana Group.

The strong listing revenue growth, up 42.1% to EUR 50.8 million, results from the consolidation of Borsa Italiana Group and from the continuing momentum in equity listing. At the same time, corporate service continued to record good performance despite the usual seasonal summer slowdown. In terms of revenue mix, in the third quarter of 2021, non-volume related revenues accounted for 55% of total group revenue, versus 54% in the third quarter of 2020, reflecting the increased diversification in our revenue mix. Please note that those non-volume related revenues include the net treasury income from CC&G. Lastly, non-volume related revenues covered 131% of our operating costs, including D&A, compared to 128% of last year. I now move to slide seven for listings.

Listing revenue was EUR 50.8 million in the third quarter of 2021, with an increase of 42.1% compared to the third quarter of 2020. It was driven by the consolidation of the Borsa Italiana listing activity, of course. It's also driven organically by record activity in equity and ETF listing and a very positive traction in ESG bond listing and the good performance of Euronext corporate services. With regards to equity listing, the third quarter of 2021 saw the continuation of a strong primary equity listing momentum with 51 new listings on Euronext, including five large cap Universal Music Group, Azelis Group, Antin Infrastructure Partners, Majorel Group, and Exclusive Networks, and 6 SPACs. Euronext continues to demonstrate its strong value proposition for innovative companies with most listings being tech companies.

In the third quarter of 2021, EUR 4.8 billion were raised on Euronext primary markets and quadrupled compared to EUR 926 million in the third quarter of last year. As Stéphane said, we again confirm our position as the number one listing venue in Europe for equities and ETFs. Secondary markets reported a solid third quarter of 2021, with EUR 39.7 billion raised in secondary equity issues compared to EUR 9.4 billion in the third quarter of last year. Let's move now to our trading business and slide eight. Let's start with the cash trading. On a pro forma basis, including Borsa Italiana, ADV increased 14.6%, reflecting an unexpectedly positive and volatile third quarter, while we usually see a cyclical summer slowdown.

Average revenue capture over the quarter reached 0.52 basis points and a market share of 71.4%. The consolidation of cash trading activity of Borsa Italiana and the strong volume environment resulted in cash trading revenue increasing 42.7% to EUR 75 million. Moving on to derivatives trading. Derivatives trading revenue was up 25.9% to EUR 13.5 million in the third quarter this year. Pro forma average daily volumes on financial derivatives slightly increased 3.4%, reflecting the low volatility environment for equity derivatives. Commodities products reported a record quarter with average daily volumes up 34.4%, reflecting the successful commercial expansion in the dynamic agricultural market. The average revenue capture over the quarter for derivatives trading was EUR 0.31 per lot.

Moving to fixed income trading, I remind you that fixed income trading includes the trading activity of MTS, Cash and Repo, and the fixed income trading activity of Euronext and Borsa Italiana, such as MOT and EuroTLX. Fixed income trading reported revenue at EUR 23.8 million in the third quarter this year. This is 50x more than what we had in Euronext in the third quarter of 2020 as a result from the consolidation of the Borsa Italiana Group.

In the third quarter of 2021, MTS Cash generated EUR 17.1 million of revenue and MTS Repo generated EUR 4.8 million of revenue. The strong performance at MTS Cash trading activity up 66% versus the third quarter of 2020 reflects the positive momentum in cash bond trading, supported by the steady issuance and support from ECB and EU Recovery Fund and by the political stability in Italy that support trading volumes. Continuing with trading on slide nine, Euronext reported average spot FX trading daily volume of $17.5 billion in the third quarter this year, down 9.4% compared to the third quarter of 2020, resulting from a less volatile trading environment. As a result, spot FX trading revenue decreased 4.2% to EUR 5.6 million.

Power trading was stable at EUR 6.3 million, reflecting lower trading activity offset by positive foreign exchange impact. In the third quarter 2021, average daily day-ahead power traded was 2.02 TWh, and average daily intraday power traded was 0.06 TWh. Moving to slide 10, revenue from post-trade activities, including net treasury income, increased by 115.2%, as we discussed, to EUR 60 million- EUR 96.1 million. Clearing revenue was up 85.3% in the third quarter of 2021 to EUR 27.5 million as a result of higher clearing revenue and treasury income received from LCH SA and the consolidation of CC&G activities. On a like-for-like basis and at current currencies, clearing revenue was up 14.8% compared to the third quarter of 2020.

Net treasury income through CCP business of CC&G was EUR 12.9 million. Custody and settlement and other post trade encompassing the activity of our 4 CSDs reported strong revenue growth to EUR 55.6 million compared to the second quarter. This year, we witnessed slower activity in our Nordic CSD, reflecting a normalization of the retail trading activity as we have anticipated in the previous quarters. Moving to slide 11, advanced data service revenue was up 44.3% to EUR 49.8 million in the third quarter of 2021, driven by a solid index business, a robust market share in market data, and the consolidation of the Borsa Italiana Group's various data activities.

Proceeding now with investor services revenue were up 9.3% to EUR 2.1 million in the third quarter 2021, reflecting continued commercial development. Lastly, on technology solution, the revenue doubled in the Q2 2021 to EUR 12.4 million as a result of the strong safety colocation revenue improvement in the C grid and the consolidation of the technology businesses of the Borsa Italiana Group, namely Gatelab and X2M. Moving to slide 13 for the financial highlight of the third quarter. I would like to start with the EBITDA bridge. Euronext EBITDA for the quarter was up 72.4% to EUR 203 million. The EBITDA margin increased to 57.9% in the third quarter of this year, despite the ongoing integration costs.

This quarter, we had in our P&L around EUR 7 million of integration costs in OpEx. On a like-for-like basis, the EBITDA margin was 60.4%, up 1.8 points, and EBITDA increased by 13.7%. From a revenue perspective, revenue at constant perimeter increased double digits and in absolute amounts by EUR 19.8 million compared to last year, reflecting the very good performance of listing, trading, and the organic growth in our clearing business. The Borsa Italiana Group contributed for EUR 121.1 million to the top line, and the other business acquired contributed for an additional EUR 3.7 million.

Looking at costs, group operating costs, excluding D&A, were EUR 147.6 million as a result of EUR 55.5 million of additional costs coming from the change of scope and mainly as a result of the consolidation of the Borsa Italiana Group, VP Securities and other smaller recent acquisitions. Also, from the integration costs mainly related to the Borsa Italiana Group, we just discussed around EUR 7 million this quarter. EUR 4.3 million of additional organic costs, mainly reflecting higher staff costs. Moving to slide 14, now I would like to comment the bridge of net income. Net income increased this quarter 64.9% to EUR 115.8 million, resulting from the following elements. D&A mechanically increased, impacted by the consolidation of recent acquisition D&A and the PPA.

PPA this quarter accounts for around EUR 20 million on the total D&A. Exceptional costs were EUR 1.5 million lower than last year. Net financing expenses for the third quarter of 2021 were EUR 3.9 million higher compared to the last year, reflecting mainly the cost of the debt recently issued. Results from equity investment increased EUR 9.9 million, reflecting the contribution from LCH SA and the dividend received from Euroclear. Lastly, income tax for the third quarter 2021 was EUR 48.5 million, which translate into an effective tax rate of 29%. This tax rate reflects as well some integration costs which are not tax deductible.

Adjusted for PPA and exceptional items, adjusted net income was EUR 132.4 million, translating into an adjusted DPS increase of 18.1% to EUR 1.21 per share this quarter. Moving to slide 15 for the cash flow generation and leverage. Net operating cash flow amounted to EUR 213.5 million. Excluding the impact of CCP activities in mainly Nord Pool and CC&G on the changes of working capital, 86% of the EBITDA was converted into cash flow after tax. Our net debt to EBITDA ratio was at the end of the quarter at 2.8x versus 3.1x in the second quarter of 2021.

As at the end of September 2021, we are therefore below the targeted leverage announced at the time of the acquisition of the Borsa Italiana Group that was expected for the end of 2022. Last slide on my side, I'm on slide 16, and I would like to comment the evolution of our liquidity position over the quarter. Our liquidity position was and remains strong above EUR 1.4 billion, including the undrawn RCF of EUR 600 million. This is all for me, and now I hand over the floor back to Stéphane Boujnah.

Stéphane Boujnah
CEO and Chairman of the Managing Board, Euronext

Thank you, Giorgio, and thank you again for participating to this call. We'll be happy to introduce next week on Tuesday the 9th of November, our new strategic plan. We hope to meet some of you in Milan where this plan will be released and discussed. We are now available for your questions with Giorgio Modica, our CFO, and Anthony Attia, Global Head of Primary Markets and Post Trade.

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question on today's call, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Please ensure your line is unmuted locally, and you will be advised when to ask your question. If you change your mind and wish to withdraw your question, please press star two. Our first question comes in from the line of Kyle Voigt, calling from KBW. Please go ahead.

Kyle Voigt
Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst, KBW

Hi, good morning. Maybe a few questions from me. The first would be on fixed income, very strong quarter. You cited strong issuance across Europe. Just wondering if you could help us understand how much of the growth MTS is seeing is related to the environment versus market share, maybe trying to understand how much is secular versus cyclical growth. Sorry about that. Second question is on the settlement and custody line. Guess we were a little bit surprised to see the revenue down sequentially from 2Q into 3Q, given the full quarter consolidation of Monte Titoli in 3Q. I think in the deck you cited a normalization of retail trading activity in the Nordics.

Can you help us understand whether most of the normalization has already happened, or there could be further declines from here, with a further normalization of that activity? Lastly for me is on expenses. You mentioned there were EUR 7 million of integration costs in OpEx. Can you give us a sense of that EUR 7 million of integration costs? Is that something you anticipate will have to continue for some time into the future and through the duration of the integration, or were some of these more one-off in nature? Thank you.

Giorgio Modica
CFO, Euronext

Okay. Thank you very much for your question. When it comes to your first question, one element that I would like to highlight is that, as you know, MTS has two main activity, the cash and the repo. From a financial standpoint, the cash activity is very beneficial from the bottom line. Now, in these very specific circumstances we are living, where we have the combination of positive effect, traders are more inclined to take trade position in cash trading rather than getting exposure to repo. The conditions are very favorable, and this translate into the increase of 66% that we have highlighted, which is certainly a very high level of activity.

Just to give you another data point, I believe that in the last week, MTS had its record day for cash trading ever. We're certainly at the high point of the cycle. Again, this is supported by the environment and by the stability of the Italian government. Going forward, we believe that MTS will remain a growth asset for Euronext. Again, we will focus on expanding the activity of MTS to make it more internationally relevant. With respect to your second question on custody, as you can see, if you look the organic growth year-on-year, you still see a very strong performance. What has happened between the third quarter this year and the second quarter, a couple of factors.

First, as you might know, comparing consecutive quarter might lead to their own conclusions because there is a seasonal effect, because certain activity which are charged by the CSDs do not take place at the same rate throughout the year, and there are specific seasonal effects. This is one element. The second element, which is something that we anticipated, as you might know, the business model in the Nordic is different from the rest of the other CSDs, and therefore more exposed to the interaction of the retail trading, which has reduced, and therefore the revenues have suffered from that.

Now, going forward, what we anticipate is that we are now at the more normalized level and future growth is going to come using a level similar to the one that we've witnessed in the third quarter in the quarters to come. Finally, on when it comes to the integration, I mean, I don't want to spoil the surprise for the investor day, but clearly, we see those integration costs remaining in our P&L for quite a while. We have quite an ambitious integration plan. But for further details around that, I believe it makes sense to wait a couple of days, and we will be much more explicit the 9th of November.

Kyle Voigt
Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst, KBW

Fair enough. Very helpful. Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes in from the line of Benjamin Goy, calling from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Benjamin Goy
Head of European Financials Research, Deutsche Bank

Yes. Hi, good morning. Two questions from my side, please as well, please. First, coming back on the cost. So, OpEx + 5% on like-for-like basis doesn't sound very much Euronext-like. Now you mentioned the EUR 7 million, which is essentially almost the entire increase. Is that the right way to think about it, or do you calculate it differently? i.e., excluding post-merger integration, you would be flat on a cost base. Then the second question is on the revenue capture in cash trading, another good quarter outperforming your expectations. Was it more retail activity or you see the first benefits of sort of working with Borsa and improving the revenue capture? Thank you.

Giorgio Modica
CFO, Euronext

When it comes to your first question, it's always tricky and would not be Euronext-like trying to highlight the one-off impact of the quarter. What I can say is that the EUR 7 million are fully in the OpEx. It's a mixed effect because the good way to look at that is that we keep reducing costs every quarter, but on the other side, we have integration costs and we have the evolution of our OpEx. It's very difficult to split and would be a bit artificial to do that.

What I can say with certainty is that if you look at the increase, EUR 7 million of integration costs were included in the OpEx. The second element that I would like to highlight on the revenue capture is that the revenue capture, as you correctly pointed out, remains strong. What I would like to highlight as well is that comparing the revenue capture with respect to the previous quarter would be misleading, because in the previous quarter, we did not have the full integration of Borsa Italiana, which is dilutive on the overall impact. Again, this points to the fact that revenue capture was strong. We believe remains higher than what we project longer term.

As we said, we see more of a normalization at or slightly below the 0.50 basis point. The second element that comes that relates to the advantage of having Borsa Italiana. Now, it's far too early for that. Borsa Italiana operates on a different technology platform, which is still the one of the London Stock Exchange, and it's going to remain this way until the migration to Optiq. It's too early to think of a common trading platform and a common pricing strategy. No impact from the integration of Borsa Italiana on the revenue capture.

Benjamin Goy
Head of European Financials Research, Deutsche Bank

Understood. Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes in from the line of Arnaud Giblat, calling from Exane BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Arnaud Giblat
Senior Equity Analyst, BNP Paribas Exane

Yeah. Good morning. Two questions, please. First on costs. Thanks for splitting up the integration costs. I was wondering if you could tell us how much of your planned cost synergies have been delivered over the quarter, and what that could look like in Q4. My second question was a follow-up on what you just said in terms of revenue capture. Is there a firm plan to align the pricing of Borsa Italiana cash equities to that of Euronext Group?

I mean, from LSE times, I think, the pricing structure is very different actually. It's more skewed towards a trade-based basis rather than a. So, I'm wondering if that could change. My third question is, I'm wondering about MTS. Could you shed a bit more color on the actual pricing model? I'd like to understand a bit more how sensitive revenues are to various volume items. Thank you.

Giorgio Modica
CFO, Euronext

When it comes to the clearing, when it comes to the time to change the fees structure at Borsa Italiana, this is really too early to tell. We are discussing with the teams. We will be engaging with the regulators and with clients, and this is something that will come later in the process. As you know as well, we will need to make sure that this is done the right way to make sure that the contribution of the local ecosystem remains as strong as it is today.

This is part of a process that has started, but we conclude after the migration to Optiq. What I can confirm on the other side is the fact that the pricing structure of Borsa Italiana is fairly different from the one of Euronext. Your question with respect to the integration cost, again, I would like to wait a couple of days to tell you where we are, because commenting targets now and projection for the end of the year and the next year, it's a bit premature. A few days more and then we can clarify on that.

When it comes on the MTS model, I believe that what you have and what we provide is the split of volumes and revenues by repo and cash. Now, to give you more information on how sensitive and evolution in the different parameters, I believe it'd be early for this call. Let me come back to you on that and we can see what we can do.

Arnaud Giblat
Senior Equity Analyst, BNP Paribas Exane

If I can just follow up. I mean, can you tell us how much of the synergies have been realized in this past quarter?

Giorgio Modica
CFO, Euronext

Again, on this, we would like to give a complete picture on the day of the Investor Day. Because, as you might understand, things might have slightly evolved, and therefore, rather than commenting a few days before the Investor Day, we prefer to give a full analytical picture in a couple of days. Sorry for that.

Anthony Attia
Global Head of Derivatives and Post‑Trade, Euronext

Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes in from the line of Johannes Thormann, calling from HSBC. Please go ahead.

Johannes Thormann
Equity Research Analyst, HSBC

Morning, everybody. Thanks. Just have two questions, two follow-up questions, please. First of all, on the settlement activity in the Nordic market. Just understanding the seasonal pattern will help me. In the U.S., we have quarterly dividend payments. In Europe and some countries, we have it as well, or half year payments. Can you probably provide some more details what has driven up the activity in Q2 and what is now down in Q3 in the Nordic business? Or if you can quantify the fee amount, which you would consider as one-off in that kind of business. Secondly, sorry, coming back to your EUR 7 million one-off costs in the operating costs. If you say so yourself it's difficult and artificial to strip them out, the auditor doesn't wanna strip them out.

Why is it then, in your view, still one-off costs? What kind of costs are these? Or is this? We need more details to understand this. Thank you.

Stéphane Boujnah
CEO and Chairman of the Managing Board, Euronext

The CSD business in the Nordic region and then Giorgio on the treatment of those one-off costs.

Anthony Attia
Global Head of Derivatives and Post‑Trade, Euronext

Thank you, Stéphane. Good morning. As Giorgio explained earlier, we have seasonality in the CSD business, and the seasonality is increased by the exposure to retail activities in VP Securities in Denmark and VPS in Norway. The seasonality translates into several things. One is the peak of revenues in Q2 due to dividend payments and general meetings organization. It's related to corporate actions. In Q3, we have the usual summer decrease of activity, in particular for the retail.

Giorgio Modica
CFO, Euronext

When it comes to the KPIs that we track, the key KPIs are assets under custody. Then we have the number of accounts opened. We have the number of corporate actions and the number of settlement transactions. Those KPIs account for in excess of two-thirds or even higher of the revenues of CSDs. What has happened is simply that the assets under custody keep going up. The number of accounts have remained stable. What has decreased is the number of settlement instructions and the number of corporate actions. Those are the KPIs that we that have decreased. Coming to your question, when I said it is artificial, I didn't mean that it is artificial, the EUR 7 million.

What I meant is I fully appreciate that you would like to understand what costs are not run rate. What I say is artificial, the exercise itself, to make the list of all the good news and bad news, and this is the reason why different from many of our peers, we don't do that. You do not have an adjusted EBITDA for bad news. On the other side, the integration costs are very well specified and include things like, if we need to migrate, and if we need to migrate the data center to Basildon, we need to have a specific engineer to work on the project. This is going to be one-off because it's going to be over.

If we need to migrate the Millennium technology to Optiq, again, we need to have efforts which are time-defining and which are aimed to reach the integration of Borsa Italiana. Those are the costs that we consider in the revenue. Again, we are not proposing any KPI, and we do not adjust our accounts for D&A. Our 57%-58% margin you see today includes everything. If I get the question, what portion of your OpEx is related to costs which are specifically aimed at the integration of Borsa Italiana, the answer is EUR 7 million.

Johannes Thormann
Equity Research Analyst, HSBC

Okay.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes in from the line of Ian White, calling from Autonomous Research. Please go ahead.

Ian White
Equity Research Analyst in Banks and Diversified Financials, Autonomous Research

Hi. Morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Just a couple of follow-ups, please. Firstly, on M&A, can you just clarify, are there any firm commitments that you've made to the rating agencies, regarding the group's leverage prior to another substantial deal, or is there still some short-term flexibility there? I wondered if you might be prepared to comment on the recent situation involving ICE's Euroclear stake and kind of why that wasn't attractive to Euronext, if possible. Just secondly, is there any update you could provide regarding the progress of the data center migration at this stage? I just wondered if it was your expectation that all Euronext market makers will make the shift with you to Bergamo or do you anticipate some attrition there, please?

Thank you.

Stéphane Boujnah
CEO and Chairman of the Managing Board, Euronext

I'll take your question ICE and your question on the data center, and Giorgio will answer the questions on rating. We are aware of the situation that is taking place whereby ICE is disposing its approximately 9.8% stake in Euroclear. We have taken note of the announcement they have made that they have entered into an agreement with Silver Lake in this respect. We analyze this situation as a shareholder in Euroclear, which is represented at the board. I can't say more about the situation for the moment.

On the data center migration, we will have detailed description of the update on this front in Milan on Investor Day, because it's a significant part of the integration process. What I can tell you is that things are proceeding extremely well. The vast majority and more, I mean, we will disclose the details on Tuesday of our clients that were co-located in Basildon are taking the appropriate steps in a timely manner to be co-located in the new data center near Bergamo. There is no concern about that. For the moment, we can reiterate that the target date for implementing the migration remains the 6th of June 2022.

Giorgio Modica
CFO, Euronext

Now, with respect to your first question, we did not take any commitment with S&P, which means that we defined our financing structure now in August last year, so it's more than 12 months ago. The financing structure was aimed at having a solid Triple B rating. Now, what has happened is that the actual performance of the business has been vastly superior to the one that we were expecting at that time. It was the case when we finalized the financing mix of the Borsa Italiana transaction, but we decided to keep the mix unchanged. Therefore, we gain, if you want, some flexibility in this respect.

To this very first day, the results have been better than expected. Especially because it was difficult to anticipate that despite the exceptional 2020, we would have been able to generate an organic growth in excess of the previous year in the 9 months of this year. What I can tell you is that there is no commitment. The business has performed better. This has given us more room to maneuver. Euronext and S&P will assess where we are in the deleveraging journey every quarter. They will base its assessment and will give us a rating. Again, no formal commitment on... We gave to them on a specific deleveraging profile.

By the way, we will meet them at the end of the month for our yearly discussion. When it comes to speculation around potential transaction, I believe Stéphane already answered. Thank you.

Ian White
Equity Research Analyst in Banks and Diversified Financials, Autonomous Research

Super. Thanks for your help.

Operator

The next question comes in from the line of Philip Middleton, calling from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Philip Middleton
Managing Director and Head of Equity Research, Bank of America

Yeah, good morning. I just wonder if you could say a little bit more about tax, 'cause the tax rate seemed a little bit higher than I'd expected. You're suggesting that this is coming from integration reasons. I wonder if you could therefore just give us a bit more detail there, please.

Stéphane Boujnah
CEO and Chairman of the Managing Board, Euronext

Is there any other questions from this group, please?

Operator

Of course. The next question comes in from the line of Andrew Coombs calling from Citi. Please go ahead.

Andrew Coombs
Senior Financials Equity Research Analyst, Citi

Before I ask my question, I don't think Philip's was asked. I think Philip was asking for thoughts on the tax rate, so perhaps you'd like to address that first.

Operator

It appears as though we may be having some technical difficulties. Please stand by whilst we reestablish the connection with your speakers.

Stéphane Boujnah
CEO and Chairman of the Managing Board, Euronext

The Investor Relations team at Euronext, in particular Clément Kubiak and Aurélie Cohen. In any event, I look forward to talking to you, to meeting with you in person if you travel to Milan on Tuesday, the 9th of November. But feel free to reach out to us at any time before that date. Have a good day.

Operator

Thank you for joining today's call. You may now disconnect your handset.

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