Very good evening to everyone joining us here today, both in person and via the webcast. I'm Liana from Investor Relations. Welcome to SGX Group's FY 2026 full-year results briefing. In a while, I will invite our CFO, Mr. Daniel Koh, to present the financial highlights, followed by our CEO, Mr. Loh Boon Chye, who will present the business updates. Following the presentations, we will have a Q&A session with SGX senior management. Please introduce yourself before you ask your questions. It's now my pleasure to invite Dan to present the financial results. Dan, please.
Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us here today. It is a real pleasure to share with you SGX Group's standout performance for financial year 2026. We achieved another milestone year, delivering our highest ever full-year revenue and earnings. Net revenue grew by 14%, and adjusted earnings grew by 25%, continuing the strong momentum from a high base in FY 2025. Net revenue for our equities cash business or SGX Stock Exchange grew significantly by 28% as the securities daily average value rose 35% to its highest level in 18 years. This strong performance was built on structural market changes and focused execution. SGX FX delivered another record year with net revenue increasing 12% on average daily volume of $190 billion, driven by client expansion and platform innovation.
Currencies and commodities continued its strong growth trajectory, led by record volumes of several products, including CNH and INR currency futures, INR, freight, petrochemicals, and dairy contracts. Equity derivatives net revenue was comparable, maintaining momentum from a record-high base last year as our flagship China and India index franchises continued to capture risk management needs. Expenses increased by approximately 6% at the higher end of our guidance as we stepped up on investments. I will elaborate on the key cost drivers shortly. More importantly, we remain focused on operating leverage as the business scales. We are confident in delivering medium-term growth. We expect broad-based growth across all operating segments in FY 2027 as our diversified multi-asset strategy positions us well to deliver strong performance amid ongoing global uncertainties. We remain disciplined in capital management, balancing strategic investment and shareholder return.
In FY 2027, we expect expenses to increase by 6%-8% alongside CapEx spend of approximately SGD 100 million. This is important to support our long-term growth and competitiveness. At the same time, I am pleased to announce that due to this year's capital recycling gains, the board has proposed a one-off additional dividend of SGD 0.125 per share, i n addition to the previously guided fourth quarter dividend. This brings FY 2026's total dividend to SGD 0.57 per share, representing a 52% increase from the last financial year. Our strong balance sheet supports our plan to redeem our outstanding bonds in FY 2027 while positioning us well to pursue business opportunities. Now, let us walk through the headline financials. Group net revenue increased by 13.9%. Group expenses on an adjusted basis increased by 5.5%. Group NPAT on a reported basis increased by 7.8%, while on an adjusted basis, it increased by 24.6%.
Our margins continued to improve. Adjusted operating profit margin and adjusted NPAT margin increased by 3.1 percentage points and 4.4 percentage points, respectively. Let me now elaborate on the group's net revenue performance across our four operating segments. Our FICC revenue grew SGD 55 million or 17%, accounting for 25% of total revenue. I had touched on the record volumes of SGX FX, commodity, and currency derivatives earlier. The breadth and depth of our multi-asset product suite and global client network position us well to capture increased risk management needs during heightened uncertainties. The equities cash revenue grew by SGD 100 million or 28% and contributed 34% to total revenue. The strong growth in SDAV reflected positive structural trends, including stronger fundraising activity and higher levels of participation across investor segments. Equity derivatives revenue was comparable year-on-year, maintaining last year's high base and accounted for 23% of total revenue.
Equity derivatives volumes increased by 6%, driven by sustained demand in China A50, GIFT Nifty, and Taiwan contracts. The higher trading and clearing revenues were offset by lower treasury income. Platform and others revenue increased by 7%, driven by higher data and co-location sales and higher fees since second half of FY 2025. This segment has grown at a steady average rate of 5% over the past three years. Moving on to expenses. Adjusted expenses increased by 5.5% as we increased resources to support growth initiatives. Total staff costs increased by SGD 27 million in both fixed and variable portions due to merit increments, higher headcount, and higher profitability. Technology expenses increased on various upgrades and system enhancements. Adjusted expenses were SGD 19 million lower than reported expenses because it excludes amortization of intangible assets, transformation-related costs, and other one-off items.
The transformation is focused on enhancing our technology capabilities as part of our strategy for future growth. This will be an area of focus for the next two years as we continue to invest here. Adjusted earnings reflect our underlying core performance by excluding non-cash and other adjustments. First, we removed a non-cash net fair value gain of SGD 10 million, in line with our announcement in the first half of FY 2026, relating to the sale of Trading Technologies in July 2025. Second, we added back Scientific Beta's FY 2026 impairment charge of SGD 53 million, given the divestment on the 8th of July 2026. This transaction underscored our disciplined approach to capital management as we sharpen our focus on growth priorities. Lastly, we added back SGD 18 million consistent with items elaborated in the previous slide on expenses. Turning to capital management.
We remained disciplined and proactive in deploying capital to create long-term value. Our strong execution has delivered a consistent growth track record while we undertake strategic capital recycling initiatives. We maintained a balanced approach, continued investment in growth opportunities while delivering sustainable returns to shareholders. Turning to how we invest for growth organically. We will continue to deploy capital into opportunities that strengthen our competitive positioning. FY 2027 CapEx will increase to around SGD 100 million, reflecting targeted investments in product innovation, i ncluding the expansion of our SGX FX franchise and growth initiatives, platform modernization, and enhancing enterprise capabilities. In line with these, FY 2027 expenses are expected to increase by 6%-8% as we continue to invest in technology and talent to drive growth. Now, moving on to shareholder return.
We remain fully committed to a sustainable and growing dividend and are confident to deliver the dividend growth trajectory of SGD 0.0025 increase every quarter to FY 2028, as previously guided. As highlighted earlier, the board proposes a SGD 0.125 one-off additional dividend from capital recycling gains this year, an amount higher than the fourth quarter planned dividend. This rewards our shareholders for your continued trust in SGX. FY 2026's total dividend will be SGD 0.57 per share, a 52% increase from FY 2025. With that, let me now hand over to Boon Chye, our CEO, who will deliver the business updates. Thank you.
Good evening, and thank you for joining us. As Daniel has shared, FY 2026 was a strong year for SGX Group. Our performance demonstrates the strength of our multi-asset strategy that we've been executing over the past decade. We have deliberately built a broader, more resilient, and more global business. As a result, we are able to capture new opportunities across changing market environments. As we look ahead, global capital markets are being shaped by major structural shifts. Geopolitical uncertainty remains elevated. As capital allocation to Asia continues to grow, global investors are seeking cross-asset solutions and more efficient ways to manage their risk. Concurrently, rapid innovation is reshaping market infrastructure and client expectations. These strengths underscore the relevance of SGX long-term strategy. We're uniquely positioned to help clients navigate uncertainty across investment opportunities and connect capital across markets.
To maintain this leadership and drive sustainable growth, we are investing with discipline across products, platform, and enterprise capabilities. Our established derivatives franchise is where the benefits of our global multi-asset business are most evident today. In FY 2026, we delivered another milestone year as we broaden and deepen our market leadership. The deep and diverse liquidity across our franchise anchors global participants with activity increasingly extending beyond Asian trading hours. T+1 volumes have risen from 18% in FY 2023 to 22% today, reflecting broader international participation. In listed FX, we see robust momentum. Volumes in our listed FX franchise has grown at 38% CAGR over the past three years as clients navigate heightened geopolitical and macroeconomic crosswinds. Our RMB and rupee contracts are the second and eighth most traded FX futures contracts in the world.
Adding to these flagship products, our fast-growing Korean won futures with derivatives daily average volume growing at a three-year CAGR of 77%. In a world where Asia is gradually shaping global capital flows and currency markets, SGX has become the exchange where global participants come to manage Asian FX risk. For commodities, geopolitical risks are redefining the role of this asset class in global portfolios. We're seeing a critical inflection. Financial participants now represent over half of our trading volumes, with more than 70% of all futures volumes traded on screen, enabling robust price discovery and furthering liquidity. Our commodity derivatives volumes have expanded at a 24% three-year CAGR, anchored by iron ore. In equity derivatives, our strength lies in the scale and liquidity we have built across key Asian equity benchmarks. Liquidity attracts liquidity, creating powerful network effects that are difficult to replicate.
In Greater China, our China A50 contract remains the most liquid international futures contract for Chinese equities, anchoring substantial pools of liquidity as DAV grew 9% year-on-year in FY 2026. Our Taiwan futures contract is the most widely traded international futures, tracking one of the world's most important technology ecosystem, with almost 90% market share by volume and open interest. This has allowed investors to express their market views on the global chip industry, AI, and digitalization. We introduced micro Taiwan futures to provide more precise and cost-efficient access for a broader range of participants and have since applied this approach for our Japan and Singapore benchmarks. To maintain this growth, we are accelerating product innovation and deepening our partnerships with global index providers. This allow us to expand our product shelf in areas where we're seeing evolving customer demand and long-term opportunities.
In FY 2026, we further expanded our partnership with FTSE by launching Asian government bond futures tracking FTSE's Asia Pacific Liquid Government Bond Index Series, extending our derivatives offering into fixed income and providing clients with another way to manage Asian market exposure. By the end of this calendar year, through an enhanced licensing agreement with MSCI, we will introduce new contracts that span a wide range of global markets, sectors, and themes. Our longstanding relationship with S&P Global Platts has been instrumental in establishing globally recognized benchmark contracts across iron ore, coking coal, petrochemicals, and other energy products. Alongside these partnerships, we have leveraged capabilities within our own index business, iEdge, to launch Crypto Perpetual Futures in FY 2026.
Our Crypto Perpetual Futures are an example of how we are extending our relevance into new structures and asset classes by building adjacent ecosystem around franchises where we already have strong market positions. Looking ahead into FY 2027, gold is another natural adjacency for our commodities franchise. We are building a more comprehensive ecosystem with the industry and MAS to build the OTC gold market and a deliverable futures contract, providing clients with more ways to access and manage gold exposure, while developing Singapore as a leading gold hub. In PERA, we're seeing opportunities to expand cross-asset participation. Our multi-asset platform enable clients to manage their risk and investment needs more holistically. By leveraging our insights and connectivity across our platforms and markets, we can anticipate client needs and deliver more tailored solutions. As client engagement deepens, so too our relationships and ability to capture a greater wallet share.
Let me now move on to SGX FX, where our client-centric approach is delivering strong results. SGX FX was the fastest-growing exchange-backed OTC FX platform in FY 2026, with average daily volume at $190 billion, a 36% CAGR growth from FY 2023. What is notable is the quality of this growth. We saw strong, broad-based expansion in both bank and non-bank segments, with EMEA and the Americas driving fastest revenue growth. Going forward, we will elevate our client proposition by strengthening our competitive moats. First, we are enhancing the synergies between our OTC and listed FX franchises. This include making it easier for clients to move between bilateral OTC execution and listed FX futures through our Exchange for Related Positions, or known as EFRPs, and enabling participants to transfer risk efficiently while reducing friction, lowering costs, and improving capital efficiency.
In addition, we will further expand our client coverage, building on the strong traction in newer markets we have entered, such as the Middle East, Korea, and Brazil. Finally, we are enriching our offerings in emerging market currencies, options capability, data, and API-based services. Together, these initiatives position SGX FX for continued growth as we meet clients' needs for greater connectivity, integrated workflows, and deeper liquidity. While our derivatives and FX businesses scale globally, we are equally focused on sustaining the momentum in our stock market. FY 2026 was an exceptional year for our stock market, marked by improving participation, liquidity, and trading activity. Securities daily average value, or SDAV, grew substantially across all investor and stock segments. Retail participation reached a five-year high, while institutional interest has broadened beyond the STI index constituents. Small and mid-cap activity has strengthened with institutional inflows into this segment growing three times.
This reflects the combined impact of better research coverage, stronger issuer engagement, and growing investor attention. On the issuer side, the IPO pipeline is strong. We welcome 21 new listings in FY 2026. In our pipeline, we see interest from diverse sectors, including digital infrastructure, healthcare and consumer, real estate services, and REITs. What is encouraging is the stronger institutional participation in IPOs, including support from EQDP fund managers and long-only investors. Together with our Value Unlock movement and other initiatives to grow demand and supply, we continue to work with the ecosystem to drive sustainable liquidity, while also expanding the ways investors can access opportunities through SGX. Initiatives such as the Global Listing Board, cross-listing of ETFs, and SDR expansion to include U.S.-listed stocks further enhance SGX connectivity with global and regional markets. These efforts are mutually reinforcing.
Greater participation improves liquidity, which attracts higher quality listings, reinforces investors' confidence, and in turn, drives deeper market engagement and creates a virtuous cycle. We're committed to creating a more vibrant and connected stock market that reinforces Singapore's position as a leading capital markets hub. The progress in our stock market, together with the momentum across derivatives, FX, and commodities, reflect the broader SGX story. We have significantly transformed the composition of our business. Our overall operating revenue base has nearly doubled, growing from just over SGD 800 million in FY 2016 to more than SGD 1.5 billion in FY 2026. Importantly, this growth is driven by multiple businesses across the group. Our strong performance provides a solid foundation to capture the next phase of growth. First, we will continue to innovate around franchises where we already have liquidity and leadership, creating new ways for clients to access markets, manage risks, and deploy capital.
Second, the scale of our franchises gives us a strategic view of how capital, risk, and liquidity move across markets. As clients increasingly invest across asset classes, we will harness the data we have to secure a larger share of our clients' trading portfolios. Alongside this, we are focused on executing the stock market initiatives that are underway. In close collaboration with market participants, we will work on translating the momentum in our stock market into enduring and sustainable liquidity. Finally, we will enhance our enterprise capabilities by investing in technology, data, and automation, including AI. This will enable operational efficiency, strengthen decision-making, and build a more agile, future-ready SGX. At the same time, we are also investing in product innovation and platform modernization, as mentioned by Daniel earlier. FY 2026 was another year of growth for SGX Group.
Notwithstanding market conditions, we are confident that with focus and consistent execution, we will capture the opportunities ahead of us. Thank you for your attention, and I invite my colleagues and I to take questions now. Yeah, Nick, you can have the first question.
Thanks very much, and congratulations on a very strong set of numbers. Can I talk a little bit about costs? You've obviously signaled in this presentation huge opportunities ahead on the revenue side, and obviously, therefore, there's a need to invest. I wonder if we could do two things. First of all, can you talk a little bit about the process that you and Daniel go through when you're giving this money to people? You obviously want a return, so c ould you talk about how that works, and what sort of return you're looking for on the additional spend, and how you're going to measure people and make sure that return comes through? Then, I guess, the second thing is that a lot of this is about technology and investing in technology. I get there's also investing in people and products and things like that.
And you've got a new CTO. So, I wonder if you could talk a little bit about some of the technological changes that are happening in the exchanges world, and what you need to do and what you're doing to sort of meet those challenges.
Thank you for the question, Nick. First, I think in the last two years, as we've mentioned in briefings, the cost base was lower, I think on two considerations. One, in the timing of hiring of additional staff, and then two, in terms of the full-year impact. That's clearly not sustainable, but I think more importantly, is our increased focus to be agile and nimble to react to increasingly client needs. Thereby, we'll continue not just to invest in capabilities in people, but also in technology upgrade, which then relates to your second question. In the world where AI is evolving and changing client needs and the environment we are faced with, the ability and agility to bring an idea from conception to eventual product probably has to shrink quite a bit.
In that, the tech development clearly has to shift towards more of a product-led, enabled by engineering capabilities, and that is what we are looking and will do in the next two to three years. We are starting not just right now, but in the last few months. And given the structural shifts that we are seeing in various markets, we are confident that these are investments well-made. Importantly, I hope we have also demonstrated, as a group, as a team, a continued discipline focus on cost, very consistent execution, and then very targeted focus to capture the opportunities that we see. I hope that answers your question. Okay, Jayden, and then one in front later on.
Thank you. Just a couple of questions on the equity derivatives piece. First of all, I think, there was 6% growth in the volume, but the clearing fee declined, so the revenue was comparable. Do you want to talk if there was anything that was one-off and if we should expect that to recover, maybe some more color on that? Then my second question, sort of in the same business line, I think you mentioned during the presentation, Boon Chye, that there will be a new suite of products with MSCI. I remember years ago there was a partnership and then there was some changes. It would be really good to understand how that partnership might take place and what we should expect. Thanks.
Maybe Mike, you take the first one.
Yeah. So, part of it is just dollars versus reported currency in Sing, and part of it's just the customer mix. In the environment with equity derivatives, we had a larger mix of customers who were on volumetrics, and that accounted for it. Typically, when you look through cycle, this doesn't sustain like that because markets tend to settle, go through air pockets. Apart from the FX, we're pretty relaxed about the mix.
Jayden, to your second question, first, we're very focused on global partnerships with the index provider. So, it's not just MSCI, it's FTSE Russell and S&P Global Platts. To answer that question, as I also mentioned, increasingly with the environment that we're faced with, clients no longer just manage risks in siloed or concentrated regional portfolio. Requirements has broadened. And to Nick's earlier question, we also need to think about from a product ideation to execution and launching, that clearly has to shorten. Part of the MSCI suite of indices or contracts that were launched by the end of this calendar year is to stretch in cases beyond Asia, so be across market, across countries, and then within Asia, be across thematics, across sectors, because i ncreasingly, that's what investors expect.
We want to clearly be the leader for all access into Asian economies and markets, but I think we're going to build adjacency from our strength.
Thank you so much.
I think we have one question in front. Here, right. Second row.
Hi, thank you. I'm Felicia from The Edge Singapore. Congrats on the results. I have a few questions. Sorry. The first one is, do you guys have any updates on the third tranche of EQDP fund managers? Because th e third tranche should be coming up. Do you want me to take them one by one, or you want me to ask all at once?
I think one by one so that we don't lose track.
Okay, thank you.
I think MAS has indicated, I believe, Q3, so we are eagerly awaiting the announcement.
Okay. The second question is, do you all have any updates on the pipeline for the Global Listing Board?
So, Global Listing Board, of course, is live now, fully operationally ready. A number of companies have started preparations towards the listing on the GLB. We would hope that that translates into actual listings in the next while, l et's say, in the remainder of this year. But of course, timing around these things is always tricky. There's a lot of factors that play into that, market circumstances, and other factors. That's what I would say. We are generally very encouraged by the type of discussions that we're having with candidate issuers for the GLB.
Sorry, just to follow up, do you have a sense of the sectors? Are you able to share?
Yeah. Naturally, because this is, of course, a link together with NASDAQ, the goal is for this board to attract more higher growth companies, and t hat is also reflected in the types of discussions that we are having with companies that are interested in this.
Okay, sorry. Two more, I promise. The third one is, so Singapore, we have welcomed IPOs this year, obviously, so far. Do you have any thoughts on the post-IPO performances so far? Because there's a mixed bag.
Yeah. We are in a phase of rebuilding our market, growing market confidence, and so, d ata points do tend to be amplified, good and bad data points. I think that's the first point I want to make. Second, I think the feedback from the market participants, including issuers, clearly indicates that the day one performance is not the only thing that they look at. It's about the post-market structural liquidity, the level of investor participation, research coverage. This is where the GEMS Research program, the Value Unlock, and so on, programs are designed to deliver. The third thing is, I think, some things do get conflated when these things happen, so t he quality of the companies that come online or list versus the price discovery process, which is the IPO, so I think when we look at the 21 companies that have listed, I think, by and large, we can say that these are companies that we welcome to SGX.
So then, it comes down to the price discovery process, which is the IPO, and then you have it on day one. There's always been feedback on things, whether we can tweak and improve things. I think there are things around information that can be made available, whether it's sooner. I know RegCo or Boon Gin has made changes to allow preliminary prospectors to be made available to retail much earlier. Can we think about providing research earlier on in the process or immediately post-IPO? So, these are the things we think about. These are tweaks. If we can make more information available and can engage a wider public, a wider investing group of participants, then I think that's helpful to the price discovery process.
Okay, thank you, sir.
Yeah. Maybe one last one, and I think next to you, there's one.
Yeah.
Yeah. Then, we'll take some online.
Do you have more color on the sale of Scientific Beta? Sorry, because there was a very short release on July 8th announcing the sale, but do you all have any color on it? Was there a particular moment or realization that led to the sale?
Yeah, so, when we invested first in Scientific Beta, or for any investment, is to really to grow our adjacency or deepen our moat. Scientific Beta is a very research-focused index provider. Over the months that we have, we have realized that the very research-focused, high-quality factor indices reaches only a certain segment of customers, where SGX has a broader set of customers. Given our focus on growing our platforms across different asset classes and a focus on capital allocation, we decided that Scientific Beta, with the new owner, which is also essentially an index company, would allow Scientific Beta to continue in their journey on research-based factor indices and grow. Yes.
Hi. [Bolin] from [Zaobao]. Just to follow on her questions there, do you think that this post-IPO mixed spec performance, will that affect investor sentiments or the companies' listings sentiments? Also, could you share a bit more about the pipelines or companies of IPOs for the second half of the year?
Maybe share the sectors.
Maybe, I'll take the second question, and it's somewhat linked to your first question. Certainly, from an issuer perspective, we see that companies are still very much engaged when it comes to their listing plan, so w e haven't really seen an impact. In fact, the pipeline keeps growing. We've got about 50 companies now that are at various stages of engagement and preparation. That has grown from where we were at this point last year. That's very encouraging.
50.
50. Yes. Yeah, not 15, no. It's 50. The other encouraging thing around this is the greater diversity that we are seeing. Boon Chye mentioned a couple of the sectors there. To give you a bit more context, we now, within the pipeline by number of companies, we see about 1/3 of them in the consumer and healthcare sectors. About another 1/3 are in tech, advanced manufacturing, and digital infrastructure. That's certainly a part of the market that is growing for us. And then, 1/4 is in real estate, of course, a market in which we've built a very strong track record and still continue to see deals happen there. Then, the rest is fairly balanced across all our sectors.
So, I'll come back to the point that issuers take into account the range of data points that they get. It's not just about day one performance. I think it's about the entire ecosystem support and liquidity that they can get. I do think that in other respects, we do rank quite well in the other things that we are able to provide. So, it's not just one data point, but a more comprehensive set of data points that people tend to look at.
Maybe, take one or two questions from online.
Yes. From Mizuho, Willer. First two questions. First question, thank you, and it's encouraging to see the one-off additional dividend. Any views on the dividend per share going forward?
Any views on the dividend per share? As we have guided for up to FY 2028, we are confident of delivering the SGD 0.0025 a share increase a quarter to FY 2028. We are focused not only just on capital recycling, which is why we have a one-off additional dividend in FY 2026. We also focus on growing and investing, and we'll take that into considerations as we grow our business, noting that obviously, the group overall is very cash flow generative.
Second question from Willer. Are there any new products or pipeline products in derivatives?
I think Boon Chye has previewed quite a number of them. Clearly, one big expansion area is into interest rates. I think we all know and believe that not only risk-free interest rates, but sovereign and risky interest rates are going to be very important heading forward, so w e've launched five Asian government bond contracts. These are fairly unique. We hope to grow them. We're also getting quite significantly stuck into the Japanese interest rate market. We launched 20-year JGBs. We had, a while ago, launched short-term Japanese interest rates because Japan is back in a very large and idiosyncratic way. Even more than that, we're heading into a category of physical collateral and physically linked derivatives. So, it's not just a futures contract in gold.
We are helping MAS and the gold, the bullion ecosystem in Singapore, try to create a complete local Singapore ecosystem, which includes physical gold clearing, vaulting, as well as gold warrants and futures and derivatives. It's a big lift. I think what we're trying to lean into isn't just saying, "Here's something interesting that we should list." It's actually thinking ahead to what are the monetary conditions or capital conditions for the customer base that we serve, and it is very clear to us that even for very globalized things, there are going to be locational prices where once upon a time, only one price was needed.
We feel that we have a very strong right to play when someone says, for certain locational things, maybe the Singapore price is valuable to us, and that could be the Singapore price in any number of things, and we're starting with gold. The final one was something we launched earlier, which is the perpetual futures contract. We put a lot of thought into that format. That's a brand-new format in listed derivatives. I think we've seen in the recent news that even in the U.S., the regulators there are getting up to speed to whether how they regularize this. We already have them listed, and we absolutely hope to expand that format with other things that benefit from being perpetual in nature.
Maybe one more, then we come back.
From Aakash of UBS. One of the structural challenges that's widely known is that dual listings, there's hardly any liquidity on that, so a ny transmission mechanism that gets us from a NASDAQ-anchored listing to the liquidity in Singapore, c ould you elaborate on that?
Thank you for the question. I think the usual format for a dual listing is dual jurisdiction, dual documentation, by and large. If you look at the Global Listing partnership that we have with NASDAQ is two markets, two pools of capital that effectively are fungible across the world, part of this one document. Yes, the question's been asked, how's the pipeline? When do we get listed? I think that is a significant structural change versus all other dual or separate listing that exists in global markets today. We are substantially reducing the friction for companies who want to access global capital, and in particular, for us in the GLB with our partners at NASDAQ, is high-growth companies with a nexus to Asia.
Maybe, to add one important point to that, and that is the requirement for companies that come to the GLB to also raise capital in the Singapore market. That from day one, there is natural demand and a natural supply of shares available. That is not always the case in other dual listings that we have seen where there is just a technical listing without a fundraise, and that's a very important difference.
Any other questions from? Yes, I think the two or three over there. Yeah. Maybe, the one from the back first. Yeah.
Thank you. Thomas from Goldman Sachs. Just a quick question on capital allocation. You've decided, in a way, you return what you got from Scientific Beta sale. So, with a lot of investment you need to do internally, is it fair to say that you're more looking at organic growth, investing your capability, rather than inorganic opportunities when you think about the next two or three years?
Just a small correction. The capital recycling is not from the Scientific Beta sale. It's from Trading Technologies, a 7RIDGE fund that we had disclosed earlier. With regards to how we think about growth, o rganic, yes, comes first, and there is no shortage of requests to Nick's earlier question about how we look at organic investments, and we look at the ROI, and Boon Chye and I really look at it with a lot of vigor, to answer your earlier question, Nick. But we are still actively open to evaluating opportunities from an inorganic perspective. We need to continue to focus on the discipline that we have. We want to stay patient. Anything we look at h as got to have a strategic fit and add shareholder value. So, we are actively open.
Yeah.
Hello. Hi, thank you for taking my question, management. Just on cash equities, of course, a great year this year. How much of this was market-driven, and how much of this do you think is sustainable, like going to grow into FY 2027? And a quick follow-up there also, we benefited this year from EQDP, a good pipeline of IPOs. What do you think were the biggest factors which led to some of the growth this year within these, and what would be, going into next year, some of the biggest growth drivers from among EQDP, IPO pipeline, and other factors?
I would say there's no one single factor. I think what is important is the various factors to the overall ecosystem coming together. I think that's one important, notable starting point when this review group was formed. Secondly, it is very focused amongst the ecosystem with SGX in that too, that this has to be sustainable. It should not be a one-off. And then that leads to the various things that are happening, whether that is the EQDP managers, the program around that, Value Unlock movement, the GEMS, which is research, enabling and making access to the market easier, education, the mix of participants. It's important for us to keep the flywheel going. So, no particular ones. They all come together in the ecosystem with the mind that we need a vibrant, active stock exchange. Is it Jayden? You had another one? Yeah.
Thank you. I just wanted to ask a follow-up question about the dividend. I think it's great that you've made this move. Just to understand, would you only consider this kind of outcome if you were to recycle capital, or is there a point where you say, "Hey, we didn't do any M&A like we were budgeting for, and now, we actually have some extra capital to return to shareholders"? How do you think about whether it's possible to do more?
Well, you can also look at it that way. We're one year into a three-year guidance. We could also increase or propose to try and deliver a higher quarterly shift, but it's one year into a three-year plan. Given it's a very strong year, we kept the recycling. We thought, let's have a reward for our shareholders more upfront.
That makes sense. Thank you.
Yeah, Nick, and then we go online.
Can I just build on that question, and the answer Daniel gave? I guess the issue you've got is that if everything goes to plan, you're going to be generating a lot more cash going forward than you have done historically. And so, yes, I accept that things are changing. There's lots of opportunities. You absolutely should invest to take advantage of those opportunities. But in your mind, is this like a two-year or three-year sort of hump? We invest, and then we get the returns coming out, and we give those back by higher dividends, or i s this, you're just going to be investing forever? I mean, how are you thinking about how you get the benefits of this investment coming back to shareholders, and how should we be thinking about it in sort of timing terms?
Yeah, I'll say the following. Yes, there's going to be organic investments. We're also focused on building adjacency or deeper moat in our asset classes, and t hat could entail not just organic, but inorganic. But also, we want to be patient. I think it's important that we look at any M&A that could really be strategic, as Daniel said, value accretive, and build our moat further. But there's probably a limit to the patience by shareholders. So, if after a period, we still think that we have more than sufficient cash and very strong balance sheet, we clearly would then want to return the capital to shareholder. We're keeping a very close eye on what are the opportunities, and if this does not prevail over a period of time, then we probably don't need that much cash on our balance sheet.
Sorry, just to add on specifically with regard to the question on technology spend and the platform modernization that we see, capability building in terms of engineering and product, that's going to take about two years, to be clear.
A follow-up question from Aakash, UBS. Will the GLB-listed companies be eligible for the STI, FTSE ST, and MSCI Singapore?
Yeah. If they meet the criteria.
Maybe, we can take one from a retail investor. Are we looking to expand our Singapore Depository Receipts, for example, to Australia or other borders?
Yeah, so, we have recently launched three. That is our fourth market doing quite well in terms of retail investor receptivity. I think we're looking to build increased accessibility, so c ertainly, we are looking at more markets around the region, and p ossibly a bit further ahead and some more thematic names. The idea is to build a cluster of instruments in which our market participants, including retail investors, can invest. I also want to point out that this will not just be in SDR format, but ETFs and so on. You would have seen that MAS is now consulting on allowing a broader range of instruments or ETFs that can be listed on the exchange. I am hopeful that that will go through, and that will allow issuers to respond to market demand and be able to be more agile to meet customer needs.
Maybe, one last question from those of you present here. Okay, if not, thank you for joining this. I know for those of you in Asia, it is a bit late in the evening but thank you.
All right. I had one last question. Just now, Boon Chye, you mentioned about the Value Unlock Programme. Do you have any updates to that? Because we are eagerly waiting for an update.
I think the Value Unlock Programme is a long-term, is my, o kay, yeah, i t's a long-term program. We had a good initial response in terms of finding out what that was. We've got more than 50 that have gone through the IR training, and then a handful of companies clearly have signed up for the Elevate, which is more of the corporate restructuring and IR narrative. But this has only been six months. I think the more important thing, as for many things, is about the mindset shift, and that clearly doesn't happen overnight. If I could sum it up, the results of what we see is encouraging, but I would like the movement to be a lot broader, and that will take a bit more time.
Yeah. Maybe I can supplement. I think, as you have seen, the Value Unlock movement is something that's really sweeping across Asia, and a ll regulators, including ourselves, we are very encouraged. We are also encouraging this movement because we think that it is good for the market, it's good for shareholders. In particular, what we're trying to do is that we're trying to encourage greater transparency. We think this will drive market discipline, and this will, in turn, drive this Value Unlock movement.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.