Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to HKEX 2024 Full Year Results Analyst Presentations. Today, we are very pleased to have our Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Bonnie Y Chan, and our COO and Group CFO, Ms. Vanessa Lau. Bonnie and Vanessa will first give a presentation about our business highlights, strategic progress, and financial results. Then, we are very happy to take some of your questions. Without further ado, over to you, Bonnie.
Thank you, Ricky, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us for the presentation of our financial results for 2024. I am especially pleased to be presenting my first full-year results as CEO of HKEX. To begin, I will give some very quick highlights, and after that, our COO and Group CFO, Vanessa Lau, will share more details on our numbers. Then, I will return to talk about some of our business highlights. So, let's get started. HKEX delivered record financial results in 2024. Revenue and other income were up 9% on the previous year, with the fourth quarter seeing a 31% year-on-year increase. Profit attributable to shareholders was up 10% on 2023, and the fourth quarter saw a remarkable 46% increase year-on-year. In a few moments, Vanessa will share more about these and other results.
In the meantime, I would also like to point out that throughout the year, we continued to make strategic progress in enhancing the resilience of our business and Hong Kong's market by introducing reforms, multi-year initiatives, new products, microstructure enhancements, and more, some highlights of which you can see on this slide, and at the same time, the diversification of our business is continuing to deliver results. Our cash, commodities, and ETP markets all recorded double-digit growth in average daily turnover and volume, while our derivatives market had record average daily volumes. More on these later, but first, let me hand over to Vanessa.
Thank you, Bonnie. Good afternoon, everyone. I am Vanessa Lau, and would now like to share with you highlights of our 2024 financial results. HKEX had a strong year in 2024, with revenue and other income and profit both reaching record highs on the back of more favorable investment sentiment since September last year. Driven by the announcement of economic stimulus measures in Mainland China, several new daily and monthly trading records were set in the cash and derivatives markets in the third and fourth quarters. Headline ADT reached HKD 186.9 billion in Q4 2024, more than doubling that of Q4 2023. Northbound and Southbound volumes of Stock Connect also reached record quarterly highs. As a result, Q4 total revenue and other income reached a record quarterly high of HKD 6.4 billion and was 31% higher than Q4 2023.
Profit after tax of HKD 3.8 billion reached a record fourth quarter high, 46% higher than Q4 2023. Looking at the full year, driven by the surge in cash market volumes since September and the growth momentum of both the derivatives and commodities markets throughout the year, 2024 revenue and other income was 9% higher than in 2023. The increase was mainly driven by higher trading and clearing fees from higher trading volumes across all markets and the LME fee increment. This was partly offset by the decrease in investment income from margin funds. Profit after tax was HKD 13.1 billion, and earnings per share was HKD 10.32, both up 10% year-on-year. The board has declared a 2024 second interim dividend of HKD 4.90 per share. Together with the first interim dividend of HKD 4.36, the 2024 full-year dividend is HKD 9.26 per share, up 10% against 2023.
Turning to the next page where we look at the detailed financials of Q4 2024 versus the same quarter in 2023. With headline ADT and Northbound volumes more than doubling, total revenue was up by 31%, driven by the increase in trading and clearing fees from the vibrant cash market and higher investment income from margin funds due to increased fund size. OPEX was 6% higher, mainly driven by higher staff and IT costs. Next, we look at the 2024 full-year results against 2023. Headline ADT was up 26% versus prior year due to the vibrant cash market in Q4 2024. HKEX's diversification strategy in recent years continues to pay off, with derivatives trading volumes reaching record highs and commodities market performing strongly. In particular, stock options, RMB currency futures, Hang Seng Tech Index futures, and HSCEI futures options were the major contributors to the growth in the derivatives market.
Both Northbound and Southbound Stock Connect trading volumes also saw record highs. LME's volume has continued its growth momentum throughout 2024, with chargeable ADV up 18% from 2023. Total revenue was up 9%, driven by higher volumes across all markets and the LME fee increment. The increase was partly offset by lower investment income from margin funds. OPEX was up by 6%, reflecting higher staff and IT costs, partly offset by the partial recovery of legal fees from the LME nickel incident. Profit after tax was up 10%. Moving on to look at the trend line. You can see we continue to follow the general upward trend of the last few years for both revenue and profit, with Q4 2024 results above the historical trend line due to the vibrant cash market.
Throughout the years, HKEX continues to maintain an attractive EBITDA margin, reflecting the successful diversification of our business in recent years and our continued cost discipline. Next, we take a look at our investment income. Net investment income comprises of internally managed corporate funds, margin and clearinghouse funds, and an actively managed external portfolio. Total net investment income in 2024 was HKD 4.9 billion, broadly in line with that in 2023. A good performance despite the slightly lower interest rate environment. Hong Kong margin fund size remained stable, while the LME clearing margin fund size reduced by 13% due to lower margin requirements for certain base metals contracts. Net investment income of margin funds fell by 13%, reflecting an increase in rebates to participants as incentives to attract volumes and an increase in proportion of the Japanese yen collateral posted by our clearing participants, which generated lower returns.
The external portfolio recorded fair value gains of HKD 447 million compared with gains of HKD 421 million in 2023, reflecting the improved performance of global equities and fixed income markets and the proactive management of the portfolio. Lastly, let's look at our operating expenses. OPEX was up 6% year-on-year, reflecting inflationary increases and our continued investments in talent, infrastructure, customer, and operational excellence, partly offset by the partial recovery of legal fees from the LME nickel incident. To summarize, despite the macro environment uncertainties and geopolitical developments weighing on sentiment, stimulative policies in mainland China and monetary easing policies adopted by central banks are expected to provide renewed vibrancy to our IPO and secondary markets. We will maintain cost discipline and continue with our commitment to modernize our infrastructure, enhance the attractiveness and competitiveness of our product offerings to ensure the long-term vibrancy, resiliency, and sustainability of our markets.
With that, I'll now hand back to Bonnie for the business and strategic update.
Thank you, Vanessa. As I mentioned a few moments ago, HKEX had a strong performance in 2024. Despite the challenging macro conditions, global investors demonstrated that they are still eager for China opportunities when the conditions are right. After the mainland government announced stimulus measures in September, investors responded enthusiastically, and they mostly chose Hong Kong to access those opportunities. Fortunately, our long-term focus on building and enhancing the right channels, platforms, and products meant that we were able to capture those flows. As a result, our cash market, which was resilient throughout the year, experienced a surge in trading volume in the fourth quarter. Headline ADT for 2024 reached almost HKD 132 billion, up 26% from 2023. The cash market also experienced a historical daily turnover of over HKD 620 billion on October the 8th.
The Connect program channels reflected the increased momentum of two-way flows, with Stock Connect trading volumes seeing all-time highs as well. Northbound ADT was up 39% year-on-year. Southbound saw a 55% increase, reflecting the appetite that China's domestic capital has for offshore opportunities. In 2024, IPOs raised a total of HKD 88 billion from 71 new listings. That included three listings under the Specialist Technology Chapter, Chapter 18C, three GEM listings following its reforms, and the first De-SPAC transaction, which brought another Southeast Asian company to our markets. We continue to attract some of the most innovative companies in the region, with new economy companies accounting for more than 80% of the capital raised in IPOs in 2024. As I mentioned a few moments ago, in 2024, we continued to introduce new products and microstructure enhancements, and we also continued to expand our client engagement.
These strategic enhancements are driving the competitiveness, liquidity, diversity, vibrancy, and quality of our markets, and this is having a positive effect across our business from cash to derivatives. But just zooming in on the derivatives market specifically, which has accounted for almost 30% of our revenue in 2024, these enhancements have helped to drive robust growth. On the right-hand side of the slide, you will see that our derivatives business has been going from strength to strength over the last few years. Average daily volumes hit new records again in 2024, up 15% from 2023. In terms of the market development initiatives, the introduction of weekly options has been met with a fantastic response, with the weekly options on 10 single stocks introduced in November growing to an average daily volume of almost 80,000 contracts in a few months or so.
We also expanded our weekly index options in September by adding the weekly Hang Seng Tech Index options. With this, the aggregate ADV, together with the weekly HSI options and weekly HSCEI options, have reached a record high of nearly 20,000 contracts in 2024, up 25% compared with 2023. Investors clearly welcome the increased efficiency and flexibility that weekly options offer. Another highlight was the successful introduction of severe weather trading arrangements, which were implemented for the first time on November 14th when Typhoon Toraji hit Hong Kong. The ability to continue trading during tropical cyclones increased the availability and dependability of our market to global investors, reinforcing Hong Kong's competitiveness as an international financial center. Now, moving on, let's take a look at our strategic progress in 2024. As an IFC, Hong Kong is unrivaled in connecting China and the rest of the world.
In 2024, we continue to build on this unique advantage by further developing the capital market channels, products, and partnerships that support this connectivity. The most important examples of this were the enhancements we implemented to the Connect program during the year, which was also the 10th anniversary of the program. We relaxed ETF requirements under Stock Connect. We updated the list of eligible ETFs for Northbound and Southbound trading. We introduced international monetary market trades, backdated trades, and Solo Compression service to Swap Connect. We also announced that OTC Clear would start accepting China Government Bonds and Policy Bank Bonds as collateral for Swap Connect from January 2025. The announcement of the inclusion of REITs in Stock Connect and the introduction of RMB counters for Southbound trading will further reinforce Hong Kong's role as a super connector between China and the rest of the world.
Now, turning to how we enhance liquidity, vibrancy, diversity, and competitiveness of our markets. In addition to planning updates to our listing framework and expanding our product ecosystem, several other initiatives were launched to elevate market liquidity and quality. We continue to enhance market microstructure and infrastructure in 2024, with highlights including the updates made in our derivative market and ETP markets. We also finalized the implementation plan for reducing minimum spreads of eligible securities, following strong support after a market consultation. The Phase I is set for implementation in around mid-2025. We introduced severe weather trading arrangements, which I described a few moments ago. Additionally, we continue to foster and expand partnerships we have been developing in the Middle East.
We announced plans to open an office in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, and we added Abu Dhabi and Dubai to our list of recognized stock exchanges, opening the door to the possibility of secondary listings in Hong Kong. Ensuring that our market remains competitive also means their quality evolves in line with global investor demands and megatrends. In 2024, we continue to promote robust ESG standards to further elevate the quality of our market ecosystem. A major highlight includes the deadline for the ban on single-gender boards on our markets, a historic move that was overwhelmingly embraced by almost all of our listed issuer community. We also published the conclusion of a market consultation on climate disclosure requirement, reflecting IFRS S2.
This supports the Hong Kong government's mission of a set of local sustainability reporting standards that are aligned with IFRS sustainability disclosure standards, an important step towards a common global language to understand climate transparency. In commodities, the LME added Jeddah in Saudi Arabia as a warehouse delivery point and announced in January the addition of Hong Kong as well. The LME also followed the successful rollout of an enhanced electronic closing price methodology with the publication of a white paper on further evolving its market structure to enhance liquidity. It also announced that it will launch its new trading platform, LMEs elect 10, in March 2025. Now, to building future-ready technologies, HKEX is developing future-ready capabilities that will enable real-time trade processing and around-the-clock derivatives trading, ensuring that our market infrastructure can meet the needs of the next generation of investors.
To this end, in 2024, we announced plans to introduce new post-trade services and features on our integrated cash market platform, the Orion Cash Platform (OCP). We also announced plans to develop the Orion Derivatives Platform (ODP), an in-house platform that will differentiate the group's derivatives offerings. Also, HKEX will ensure its systems are technically ready for a T+1 stock settlement cycle by the end of 2025. We will facilitate discussion in 2025 on a suitable settlement cycle for Hong Kong's markets, with plans to publish a white paper in the first half of this year. And finally, allow me to quickly touch on exploring adjacent business opportunities. In 2024, we introduced the HKEX Virtual Asset Index Series and the Hang Seng HKEX Stock Connect China Enterprises Index, marking the group's first steps into the index business.
In addition, HKEX launched a new web-based data platform, the HKEX Data Marketplace, to distribute our historical data products and support the needs of our global investors. We will continue to explore adjacent business opportunities to remain competitive as a global exchange. So, to wrap up, for HKEX, 2024 was defined by a dynamic macro backdrop, renewed market momentum, and continuous strategic progress. Looking forward, our outlook for 2025 is cautiously optimistic. We expect the macro uncertainties that have characterized the last few years to persist. At the same time, we are encouraged by the renewed interest in trading and IPOs in Hong Kong so far this year. In the coming months, we look forward to implementing Phase I of the minimum spreads reduction, the publication of a white paper on an optimal settlement cycle for Hong Kong, and the consultation conclusion on optimizing IPO price discovery.
All of these are important steps that will help us to further enhance the competitiveness of our business. We had a strong year in 2024, but most importantly, we remained steadfast in our commitment to further enhancing the vibrancy, resilience, and competitiveness of our market as we move deeper into 2025. This commitment has enabled us to be resilient enough to weather challenges and dynamic enough to capture opportunities, and we believe this is an essential combination of strengths for continued success in a volatile macro environment. Thank you very much for listening. We are very, very happy to take your questions.
Thank you, Bonnie. Thank you, Vanessa. I'm also pleased. We are also joined by Ms. Katherine Ng, our Head of Listing, and Mr. Brian Roberts, our Head of Equity Product Development, to take some of your questions. Operator, could you please give the audience an instruction how to raise questions either via webcast or audio? Thank you. Over to you, Operator.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question over the phone line, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. We will now take our first question from the line of Gary Lam from HSBC. Please ask your question, Gary.
Thank you, Management. Really appreciate it. And congratulations for your success in sort of reviving all the platforms, activity levels, and the confidence around. Two questions, if I may. Firstly, on IPO pipeline, particularly on the secondary listing of Asia companies, can you share more of sort of like your latest discussion with potential issuers?
What are the sort of incentives and motivations for them to further engage in the listing around? Looking, some companies may have a sort of share price discount in the H-share listing relative to the trading A-share market. And a small follow-up there is that there's a recent sort of news market discussion that SAFE might be stepping up the scrutiny of the IPO proceeds raised in Hong Kong, maybe needing additional approvals to decide whether it could be deployed for overseas expansion versus some repatriation into China. Have you heard of similar sort of discussions around, or would that affect some IPO momentum? Second question, if I may also get a quick update on the progress for the RMB counter for the Southbound Stock Connect.
Looking at yesterday in the Financial Secretary's budget, he mentioned a proposal to put RMB-denominated stamp duty into the legislative process, likely in 2026. I'm not sure whether the introduction of RMB counter for Southbound sort of is conditioned to having that passed or it can be done earlier. Thank you.
Thank you, Gary. Let me answer your first question first, which is on very specifically the IPO. You were asking about specifically A-share listed companies pursuing a dual listing in the form of H-share in our market. So let me say, first of all, that I think I will call it a trend. The movement started in September last year, and you would recall that we did a very successful IPO for Midea, which was $4.6 billion , a very popular deal. In fact, it was the second largest IPO in the world last year.
That was very successful. Then shortly after that, we saw a few others, including Shun Feng, which was also an A+H listing. Now, I would say that a very big reason you asked about motivation of these companies, what drove them to want to take advantage of an H-share listing is really the fact that a lot of these companies already have an international footprint and, more importantly, ambitions to expand further internationally. In fact, we did some analysis of the recently listed companies, and we found that a very big portion of them, in fact, do have international operations already.
And therefore, even though I think you're absolutely right because of the dilution and the fact that there is a price differential between the A-share market and the Hong Kong market, and as a result, some of these companies, when they come for the H-share listing, will have to price their deal at a discount to the A-share price, I do not see that as a deterrent to these companies wanting to pursue their H-share listing. So much so that I will share that as of now, we know that between those A-share companies which have already filed an application to list in Hong Kong, as well as those which have announced their plans to do an H-share listing, there are already about 30 of them, as we are aware. And obviously, we're speaking to more.
So I do feel that this will be a very meaningful portion of our IPO pipeline this year. Now, to your question about this news, and I think it was reported by one of the media outlets, that the SAFE may be stepping up on approval for the use of proceeds for these companies. Now, I, first of all, have no direct conversation on this topic. But I would say that, as all of you on the line are aware, there is capital control in Mainland China. And SAFE approval is already a feature that companies wanting to move capital are very familiar with. Now, that said, I am not particularly concerned because we also know that the country is encouraging enterprises to pursue a plus-one strategy. So to choose, right?
We also know that China is, in fact, over the last few years, one of the top countries in terms of foreign direct investment, FDI. I think between the year 2019 to 2022 or 2023, it spent $777 billion , according to some sources. I don't see that trend retracting. Therefore, I think it is simply a matter of compliance. We cannot obviously comment on what other jurisdictions' requirements are in terms of seeking approval for these kinds of events. Suffice to say that we should focus on the fact that there is a very strong momentum in terms of encouraging the plus-one strategy. Therefore, to the extent that these companies want to pursue offshore investments and make use of, in fact, Hong Kong as a fundraising platform to help them with that, I think that we anticipate to be an ongoing trend.
To your second question about the RMB counter and yesterday's budget speech reference to the stamp duty, the payment of stamp duty in RMB. So first of all, those are two separate things, I would say. But we announced the Southbound RMB counter last year, and we have been working diligently to set it up. We are still looking with very confidence, and we are looking to roll it out sometime this year. I think the objective of doing that, obviously, is to make sure that we make it more convenient for investors to trade, Southbound investors to trade in a currency which, frankly, they have plenty of, an abundance of. And I think if the government, on the HKSAR government side, they can also introduce features which improve the ease of transacting in the RMB, that would obviously be welcome.
Thank you, Bonnie. Operator, next question, please.
Thank you.
Next question comes from the line of Gurpreet Sahi from Goldman Sachs. Please ask your question, Gurpreet.
Thank you, Management. Congratulations. Good set of numbers. So two, please. One for Bonnie and maybe one for Vanessa. But Bonnie, on the listing, staying on that, yesterday, maybe the government alluded to that listing requirements and post-listing obligations could be looked at for corporates. So can you please elaborate on that? We know listing pipeline is strong already. So if we kind of be more receptive to the market, are we expected to gather more momentum on listing? So that's the first one. And then for Vanessa and housekeeping, thanks for the flag regarding the tax rules and amortization. So what are we looking at? Effective tax rate was 11.4% last year. So is it going to 15% as a minimum from this year on?
And then on depreciation and amortization, seemed like did not grow last couple of years. Are we expecting to return to mid-single-digit growth? Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you, Gurpreet. Let me answer the first question, and Vanessa can address the second one. So yes, yesterday, the Financial Secretary mentioned in the budget speech about us reviewing our listing regime, both listing eligibility requirements as well as post-listing compliance requirements. To that, I would say that actually we always look for opportunities to improve our listing regime, whether on the pre-listing eligibility side as well as the compliance side. And the reason for doing so is that we need to make sure that we always fit for purpose and that we have the right rules and framework to attract companies from both the mainland and around the world.
If you have been tracking the introduction of these new chapters, and I would point specifically to the development since 2018, we've expended a lot of efforts to create more user-friendly listing frameworks for new economy companies from the 18A, which is pre-revenue biotechnology company, to 8A, which is weighted voting rights, 19C secondary listings, to more recently 18B on SPACs, 18C on specialist technology. The list goes on. In the meantime, aside from the listing chapters, we have also improved other things such as the vetting process as well as many other requirements on the post-listing compliance side. I would say that it's to make sure that we're fit for purpose. Also, you would have picked up a lot of recent news that other exchanges around the world are also reviewing their listing regime and framework, including London, Singapore, most recently.
So I think it's really upon us to make sure that we stay competitive and we stay fit for purpose. Katherine, do you have anything to add?
Yeah,
I'll let Katherine add a comment.
I think we're continuously kind of reviewing our regime. We've done a lot last year. I think at the end of last year, we started the competitiveness exercise around price discovery. And it is a public consultation, and we'll wait for the market feedback. But this work, like Bonnie says, never stops. We continue to be working closely with the SSC on more initiatives. And I think you can expect more listing regulatory consultation to come out later throughout this year. And to your question about whether or not we'll, as a result, bring in more listings, now I'll just maybe point to 18C, right?
It's still a very early, or we've rolled it out not too long ago. We have already successfully brought three H-share companies onto our market. But more importantly, some of them have even done follow-on offerings. I think it is very necessary for us to continue to review our listing rules and make our market as attractive and accommodating as possible. Vanessa, answer now the second question.
Sure. Sure. Thank you, Bonnie. Gurpreet, on the effective tax rate and what happens with BEPS. Now, BEPS 2.0, the global minimum tax, it's very likely going to be retrospectively applied to the full year of 2025. And what that means, as you know, is that it will have a minimum 15% tax rate. Now, the impact for us is clearly dependent on how much is non-taxable.
The non-taxable components right now would be the interest income and also the income that we have from our external portfolio. Those are the largest components. For those, of course, the interest income would depend on the interest rate cuts in 2025, how fast those come along from the U.S. Fed and so on. That will impact how much interest income we would end up receiving in 2025, which in the past was not taxable, but under the new BEPS regime would become taxable if we are below the 15% minimum tax. It's difficult to exactly right now pinpoint in dollars how much of the impact we would see because it really depends on the non-taxable elements becoming taxable.
But I would say that overall, it will have a meaningful impact to our financials, which is what we have been talking about to our analyst community for quite a number of months now. And then secondly, on your question on depreciation and amortization, if you look at the 2024 versus 2023, it was slightly down by about HKD 40 million. And the reason for this is that we had a number of assets which became fully depreciated during 2024. And we also had our office lease renewals, which were done at a lower rent. But this was offset by a number of new systems that went into production. So FINI and Synapse, they were launched in 2023 and 2024, respectively. So as new systems get launched, then you'll see the associated depreciation amortization going up for the next coming years.
I would highlight that in 2025, we are delighted that we will be launching the trading system at the LME. And when that goes into launch, then the depreciation will stop. And that will also be quite a significant difference versus 2024. So I think as you model the depreciation, the key thing is to look at which are the systems which are getting fully depreciated and which are the new ones that are being brought into line. And I'm sure the IR team would be happy to provide further details.
Thank you, Bonnie, Katherine, and Vanessa. Next question, please, Operator.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Charles Zhou from UBS. Please ask your question, Charles.
Hey, hi. Hi, good afternoon. So congratulations on the strong results. And we're also very happy to see the Hong Kong bull market. So I have two questions.
The first one, could you please share more about your 2025 strategy? I think, Bonnie, you talked about some review for 2024, and especially on the key policy initiative and also the timeline. And also, any color to share on your OPEX, given the pay freeze in Hong Kong public servants, any impact on our budget plan. The second question is, what's your pipeline for Hong Kong Stock Exchange international strategy this year in 2025? Thank you.
Thank you, Charles. Let me answer the first question first, and then maybe Vanessa can address the second one. Plans for 2025, I think that there is a lot because we are, just like you, very happy about the current momentum. Of course, we need to make hay while the sun shines.
You would have seen, and I mentioned earlier in my speech, my presentation, that we have already achieved quite a lot in 2024. Let me maybe just sort of reiterate what we are planning in the coming months. Now, at the end of the day, it's all about making sure that we increase the vibrancy of our market as well as the resilience of our operations. On the market, along those lines, in the coming months, obviously, as you know, we have already published the consultation conclusions in terms of the minimum spreads reduction. The Phase I, we plan to implement in the middle of this year. We are now working diligently to do that. We also want to make sure that Hong Kong stays competitive as a market.
Therefore, we alluded to it earlier that we will start the discussion on, or we will prepare the market to start the discussion on whether or not Hong Kong should move to another shorter settlement cycle, which is T+1, which, as we know, the US market has already started doing so last year. Now, the way that we will do it is to, well, first of all, I will mention that technically, we will be ready ourselves by 2025, by the end of 2025. We need the market to be also ready. In fact, I think the market needs to discuss whether they believe T+1 is the optimal settlement cycle for Hong Kong. With that in mind, we will be publishing this white paper. The purpose is to set out all relevant information and points for consideration to spark off that discussion.
And we plan to do so in the middle of this year. You may also know that we are currently, as Katherine alluded to earlier, consulting the market on how we optimize the IPO price discovery mechanism. These sets of rules have been around pretty much unrevised for many years now. But we do feel that the IPO market has changed quite considerably over the years. And there is room for enhancing the price discovery mechanism. And therefore, we have put out a set of refinements. And so far, the response has been very enthusiastic, shall we say. The consultation period will carry on until the middle of March. And I do hope that with all the responses that we're getting, we will be able to therefore refine our proposals. And hopefully, before long, we will be able to issue the consultation conclusions.
Now, those are the sort of immediate few steps. But I would say that aside from that, we continue to obviously strengthen our operations. So I mentioned just now that we are working on developing the Orion Derivatives Platform as well as looking for opportunities to improve our cash settlement functions. This all are designed to make sure that we are future-proof in terms of our operations and technology. Now, last but not the least, I also touch on the fact that we will be continuously exploring adjacent businesses. So last year, at the end of last year, we rolled out two things: the Data Marketplace as well as a fund repository for our Integrated Fund Platform. Those are first steps, I would say. And we will continue to look for opportunities to further explore our adjacent business.
So essentially, in a nutshell, the three important strategic pillars we'll continue to pursue: increasing vibrancy of our markets, future-proofing our technology and our operations, and exploring adjacency.
So Charles, for OpEx, the way to look at it is more a longer-term trend. So while there may be fluctuations quarter on quarter and some seasonal impact, if you look at the longer term, our OpEx has generally been very well controlled and single-digit, high single-digit. And therefore, our EBITDA margins have consistently been very strong around or above 70%. So we will continue to keep the tight cost discipline. But on the other hand, it is very important for our business to keep investing, and especially in talent and in our IT systems. Those are really the fundamentals of us running a very sustainable and competitive business.
So, on talent, which on staff costs, it's over 60% of our total OPEX. We are very happy that we have been able to attract a lot of very good talent recently. And you would have seen our announcements on hiring the Head of Issuer Marketing, the Head of Markets, the Head of Strategic Projects. So these are very important additions to our senior management team in those respective areas like IPO marketing and head of markets for us to further develop and enrich our ecosystem. And then on the IT systems, again, you'll see the post-launch OPEX coming in for a whole host of our new systems. And I think we talked about it last time. We're developing our own cloud. We're building a lot on the data lake to ensure that we are competitive.
So I think on talent and infrastructure, those are the areas that we will continue to invest in. And you'll see some offset in this year because we're still recovering some of the legal fees in respect of the LME nickel incident. So there was a partial recovery that's already been booked in the 2024 accounts, but we're expecting a little bit more in 2025. So net net, I would say expect us to still maintain the cost discipline and the very, very consistently attractive EBITDA margin.
Thank you, Bonnie and Vanessa, for the very comprehensive answer. Maybe let's take the very final questions from the operator. Operator, please.
Thank you. Our final question comes from the line of Michael Lee from Bank of America. Please ask your question, Michael.
Hi, thank you. Thanks, Management. Congratulations on the performance and the results.
Actually, I have only one question about adjacent business. This is the first time I hear from Bonnie and Vanessa about adjacent business. And this is also what I am interested in because I talked to a lot of international investors who invest at different exchanges. And they always ask me one question that, why doesn't Hong Kong Exchange have very strong data revenue compared with London Stock Exchange and some other stock exchanges? And I think Bonnie talks about the data market. And I think can you talk more about this potential growth of data-related business, which could give us more diversification in terms of revenue growth and the evolution of business model? Thank you.
Thank you, Michael. Thank you for that question. So first of all, I think you're absolutely right.
We do get the same question or challenge even from our board as to what ideas we have in terms of further diversifying our revenue streams. Now, that said, you alluded to the fact that other exchanges are also very actively pursuing that. I feel that the dynamics are obviously very different. And the challenges facing the other exchanges are also very different. I would say that, at least on our part, I think we're very thankful that our core business has stayed very resilient and strong. And in fact, with the recent renewed interest from especially international investors, we will keep our eyes very much focused to continue to develop our core business. And we think that the untapped opportunities are actually plentiful, very abundant. That does not mean that we're not looking at the adjacent business.
And I think data is the one you want to talk about. But I do want to call out the fact that last year, we also have started an index business. And we have, a couple of years ago, for example, created a carbon credit trading platform. But on data, yes, absolutely. We sit on, we ourselves generate a lot of data, right? Every second we trade, there is data coming out. And these data are very valuable. And we also know that, and you are obviously very aware that as investors become increasingly sophisticated, the kinds of trading strategy which will deploy a lot of this data is also proliferating very quickly. And therefore, the thinking behind the market data plays is really to create the venue through which I would use the word even democratize, right?
Where data can be democratized and investors can have access to our database and create for them a selection of the data that they would like to have access to in order that they design their preferred trading strategy or research or whatnot. So that's the thinking behind it. I think we're at an early stage. And we are obviously looking at other models pursued by other exchanges in terms of how they monetize their wealth of data. So yeah, I think in due course, we will, when we have more to report on, share more details as to how we continue to develop that business. But suffice to say that even, as I said, we enjoy the benefit of having a very strong, robust core business. Management will continue to devote time to look at adjacent opportunities.
Thank you, Bonnie.
I think this marks the end of today's session and thank you to everyone joining the call today. We hope to meet and speak with you again soon and have a good evening.