Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Q2 Results Conference Call. All participants are present in a listen-only mode. Following management's presentation, instructions will be given for the question- and- answer session.
For operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded August 8th, 2022. The recording will be publicly available on TASE's website. With us on the line today are Mr. Ittai Ben-Zeev, CEO, and Mr. Yehuda van der Walde, CFO.
Before I turn the call over to Mr. Ittai Ben-Zeev, I would like to remind everyone that this conference is not a substitute for reviewing the company's annual financial statements, quarterly financial statements, and interim report for the second quarter of 2022, in which full and precise information is presented and may contain, inter alia, forward-looking statements in accordance with Section 32A of the Securities Law, 1968.
In addition to IFRS reporting, we might mention certain financial measures that do not conform to generally accepted accounting principles, such as non-GAAP measures, are not intended in any manner to serve as substitute for our financial results.
However, we believe that they provide additional insight for better understanding of our business performance. Reconciliations between these non-GAAP measures and the most comparable related GAAP measures are included in tables that can be found in our earnings press release and in the slide presentation accompanying this call. Both can be accessed on the English MAYA site and in the investor relations portion of our website at ir.tase.co.il/en. Mr. Ben-Zeev, would you like to begin?
Good evening, Israel time, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm happy to host you in our earnings call. We are concluding another strong quarter with record results and impressive growth in the core activities. The second quarter was characterized by continued organic growth in TASE's areas of activity.
This quarter, we are proud to report new records in the financial results, with a growth in TASE's revenue and a 36% increase in the EBITDA compared to the corresponding quarter last year. At the end of the first half of 2022, the TASE markets stand out compared to international exchanges. TASE's leading indices, TA-35 and TA-90, outperformed many of the leading global indices with a decline of 8.5% on average.
This is due to favorable macroeconomic conditions in Israel and the wide variety of securities listed on TASE and the balancing of the traded sectors which place us ahead of other exchanges. The TA-Oil & Gas Index alone soared by 33% in the first half of the year as a result of the surge in global oil and gas prices and the growing demand for the export of gas from Israel.
The higher than average volatility in the capital market resulted in strong equity trading volumes in the first half of the year, which reached an average daily volume of ILS 2.5 billion, 33% increase over the average volume in the full year 2021. While IPO activity was down compared to 2021, we still had nine IPOs that raised ILS 1.4 billion in the first half of 2022.
In total, 14 new companies joined TASE since the beginning of the year, including one company that was split off another company, one that performed dual listing and four reverse mergers. The first half of the year was also marked by strong capital raising in secondary offering on the equity market, which totaled ILS 13 billion Shekels out of the total amount of ILS 14.4 billion Shekels raised on the equity market, representing 56% of the total amount raised in 2021, which was a record year.
Capital raising from the public on the bonds market remained strong at ILS 43 billion Shekels , representing close to 55% of the total capital raised from the public in year 2021. In bond indices, we approved a significant reform in the calculation of bond indices to align them with global bond indices and with TASE's equity indices methodology.
Additional upcoming upgrades to the bond indices will enable us, among others, to launch new and more complex bond indices for a more innovative and advanced universe of bonds. Another growth was recorded in TASE's revenue from the line of data products that focuses on B2B sales.
In this context, I would like to announce the launch of a new service in the coming quarter, TASE Insight, a specialized analytical product for the listed companies, which down the road will also be made available to other audiences such as investment managers and fund managers.
We are constantly investing in the development of the technological infrastructure alongside the development of new services and products, all in alignment with cutting-edge international standards. In our last call, we reported that we invited several significant international trading entities to operate on TASE, both through existing members and by becoming members themselves.
The entry of international trading entities and the increase in the number of clients contributed to a steady demand for the connectivity and Colo products and for the London point of presence. To accommodate this level of activity, we recently upgraded the capacity of these services all the way from London to Tel Aviv.
The Colo 1 compound is at full capacity, and we already have new clients in the Colo 2 compound. In addition, I am delighted to inform you of a new remote member at TASE, Jump Trading Europe B.V. Jump is among Europe's top-tier international trading entities, which operates as a provider of liquidity and trades on multiple exchanges around the world. Jump is an example of an international trading entity that joined Colo in the second quarter.
Another international trading entity joined Colo alongside Jump, and I'm confident that we will soon be seeing more such entities join TASE, both as members and as Colo clients. These moves are expected to increase the trading activity on TASE. I'm also pleased to report that Artisan Partners has informed TASE that it has received approval from the Israel Securities Authority to acquire TASE shares above the 5% limit and up to 10%.
Artisan further informed the company that it has reached the 5% threshold requiring reporting as an interested party. Artisan Non-U.S. Small-Mid Growth Strategy, managed by Reuven Kanovich, first invested in the share of TASE in July 2019 around the roadshow phase. We continue the alignment of TASE with international standards.
In this context, I would like to inform you that the Israel Securities Authority has recently approved our plan to cancel maximum commission on OTC transactions, which will come into effect soon. In addition, our board approved a plan to update our index licensing fees. An application for approval of the updated fees is under review by the ISA, which we continue to pursue with the regulator.
Finally, before I hand over the stage to Yehuda, I would like to give you an update on the status of the share buyback of which we announced last quarter and referenced on the last quarter earnings call. As you recall, we announced the launch of the first stage of the buyback plan with a purchase of up to ILS 36 million Shekels over a period of six months.
As of August 4, 2022, we repurchased 1.1 million shares, representing 1.11% of the outstanding shares of TASE, for a total amount of ILS 18.5 million Shekels . We will continue our purchases in the coming months until we complete the first stage of the buyback, totaling ILS 36 million Shekels . Now, I would like to hand over to Mr. van der Walde, who will continue with a review of the second quarter results.
Thank you, Ittai. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm very pleased to participate in our earnings call. This is my last earnings call as CFO of TASE. Over the last four and a half years, it was my privilege to act as CFO of TASE.
During this time, I successfully lead our finance, accounting, and investor relations, and help lead the transition from a private company to a public company through a global offering IPO as the first company trading at TASE to do so. I leave TASE in the very capable hands of Ittai, the board, and their senior management, who will continue to lead TASE to great achievements and records.
In the second quarter, TASE's strong performance continued. This was the second consecutive quarter with over ILS 90 million Shekels in revenues. In addition, the adjusted EBITDA margin reached a new record of 39%, as I will show in detail in the upcoming slides. I will begin with slide four, which shows some of the key highlights from our results of the second quarter.
Our revenues for the second quarter of 2022 increased by 8% compared to the second quarter of 2021 and amounted to ILS 91 million shekel. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2022 totaled ILS 35.8 million shekel compared to ILS 26.2 million shekel in the second quarter of 2021, an increase of 36%.
Financing expenses in the second quarter of 2022 totaled ILS 3.4 million Shekels compared to the financing income of ILS 1.3 million Shekels in the second quarter of 2021. The adjusted net profit amounted to ILS 14.3 million Shekels , an increase of 16% compared to the corresponding quarter last year.
Tax expenses in the second quarter of 2022 totaled ILS 5.2 shekel compared to ILS 3.4 million Shekels in the corresponding quarter last year. The increase in the effective tax rate was due to the reduction in the fair value of the company's investment in government bonds, for which deferred taxes were not created. After going over the highlights of our financial results, let's take a deeper look at the composition of our revenues and expenses.
Let's go to slide five. Our revenues from trading and clearing commission increased by 13% compared to the second quarter of 2021 and totaled ILS 35.9 million Shekels . The increase between the second quarter of 2022 and that of 2021 resulted from higher share trading volumes, which contributed 10%, and from an increase in corporate bond trading volumes, which contributed 5% to the increase, and was partially offset by a reduction in the effective commission rate, primarily in mutual funds and T-bills.
Our revenues from listing fees and annual levies increased by 10% compared to the second quarter of 2021 and totaled ILS 20.3 million. 5% of the increase resulted from listing fees and 7% resulted from annual levies as a result of an increase in the number of companies and funds, and was partially offset by examination fees.
Our revenues from the clearing house services increased by 8%, totaling ILS 18.3 million Shekels . 6% of the increase resulted from existing services rendered by the clearing house members and listed companies.
Our revenues for distribution of data and connectivity services increased by 14% compared to the corresponding quarter of 2021 and totaled ILS 15.1 million Shekels . 7% of the increase resulted from a raise in the revenue from connectivity services, and 4% of the increase is due to a distribution of trading and derivative data outside of Israel. I will now discuss our expenses in the second quarter of 2022.
Please go to slide six. In the second quarter of 2022, our adjusted expenses totaled ILS 68 million Shekels compared to ILS 70.2 million Shekels in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, and a 3% decrease year-over-year. The expenses related to employee benefits increased by 1% and totaled ILS 38.3 million.
The increase in expenses mainly result from the annual salary updates and bonus provisions. Computer and communication expenses increased by 1% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year and totaled ILS 7.4 million Shekels . Marketing expenses decreased by 72% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year and totaled ILS 1.6 million Shekels . The decrease is a result of the timing of marketing campaign launches for digital media and traditional media.
The depreciation and amortization expenses increased by 8% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year and totaled ILS 12.7 million Shekels . The increase in depreciation and amortization expenses is due to the launch of several new products and services in the last 12 months.
The financing expenses totaled ILS 3.4 million Shekels compared to the financing income of ILS 1.3 million Shekels . The transition to financing expenses result from a negative return of 1.9% on the company's investments in marketable Israeli government bonds. I would now like to review our financial position highlights.
Please go to slide seven. As of June 30, 2022, our equity totaled ILS 677 million Shekels and comprises 76% of the balance sheet, excluding open derivative position balances from our clearing house activity. In addition, we have approximately ILS 391 million Shekels in cash and investments in financial assets. We don't have any financial debt. We have ILS 154 million excess liquidity and ILS 317 million Shekels excess capital above our regulatory requirements. With that, I will turn the call back to our moderator to conduct the Q&A.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question- and- answer session. If you have a question, please press star one. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you are using speaker equipment, kindly lift the handset before pressing the numbers. Your questions will be polled in the order they are received. Please stand by while we poll for your questions. The first question is from Dan Fannon of Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good evening, gentlemen.
Hi, Dan.
Wanted to follow up on the Co-Location comments. You mentioned, I think the first facility is full, and you moved on to the second. Could you remind us how many racks or how many customers are in the first or what makes up that first facility and, you know, how much capacity you have to add additional participants?
Well, the first rack, the first Colo consists of 17 racks altogether. We have clients that took, like, one complete rack. We also have some clients that took, they are sharing basically one rack with two clients. As you know, you know, we started and we build it over time. We do see increased demand for the data info connectivity. The location is in our building, and we have more capacity to bring more clients on board. This is basically the Colo, the second one that now we opened.
Okay. Is the second one as large as the first one?
Right now, not, but according to the demand, we can find extra space in our premises.
Got it. Okay. Is there a way that you could contextualize the difference in activity for someone that is using that service versus what would be just a traditional member or participant in the market, so we have an understanding of what this means in terms of the potential magnitude to velocity and activity?
Well, we can't identify it entirely. I would say that, you know, by definition, clients that use the Colo, not only that they pay some fees by using the Colo, but, you know, they will be using a lot of the data, and they will have more trading activity.
By having more Colo locations over time, you know, it will contribute to our trading revenues. It's not like we can assess, you know, a methodology of how many more clients we have on the colo, that amount it will contribute to our trading revenues.
You have to remember that this is a relatively new activity on TASE. It's not like that we have been doing that for five, six years. It's important to me to add, we have both, Israeli players that are active on the Colo and also international ones.
Understood. You also mentioned that. Oh, go ahead.
Yeah. We will consider in the future maybe to give the percentage of the volume through the Colo. We will look at it.
You have how to measure the change with the number of members in the Colo of trading, so when it's increased, how it can contribute to the trading.
Okay. You mentioned that the license fees were under review by the regulator. Can you give us a sense of, well, I guess, what the fees are today and what you're, like what type of fee increase you're talking about? Is it, you know, in terms of the magnitude?
Yeah, sure. Well, the direct revenues that we get from the total business of index that we run here is $1 million a year. This is the direct r evenue that we receive. We have conducted a thorough analysis on other benchmarks in the world, and as we all know, we are extremely cheap.
Our board of directors approved, obviously, a higher number. As you know, Dan, our regulator basically has a process that all of our fees has to get his approval. It has been quite a while under discussion.
Currently, we cannot assess what will be the decision of the regulator. We are investing over time in technological infrastructure, and we run around ILS 85 billion Shekels AUM in all of these indices, and this is an important business for the capital markets community in Israel. We wanna make sure that we get the proper revenue out of it to support the growing business. As I mentioned, we will continue to pursue this with our regulator.
Okay. In terms of other fees and or, I guess products and services where you could potentially change or adjust higher, are there other areas that you are contemplating or are actively looking to raise?
Well, obviously, there are other areas in our business that we are below market standards when you compare us to other exchanges. As I mentioned in the past, over time, we will try to modify our revenues to what is common in other places. This is part of the process that we are dealing now with our regulator. I've mentioned the index fee schedule, but obviously this is a more general question.
Right. Okay. Just with regards to the buyback, you've basically executed, as you said, roughly half of what you announced. If we just fast-forward and we get to the end of the buyback, you know, over the next quarter, should we be anticipating an update on another amount in terms of what you're going to do o r is this a one-time authorization? Just trying to think about the prospective use of capital beyond this.
Well, if a quarter from now we will be at the same level of the share price, the management recommendation for the board will be to continue with the share buyback. We believe that, at this level of the share price, that's a very good use of the excess cash that we have to buy TASE shares.
Okay. Makes sense. Then just with regards to expenses, again, you know, your margins, another record in terms of EBITDA margin. You continue to have very good operational leverage across the business.
As you think about the second half of the year and expenses, marketing was a bit subdued. I think, Yehuda, you mentioned just some timing of marketing spend. Is there in the second half of the year, any pickup in expenses that you would highlight or changes in the trajectory from what we saw this quarter to be aware of?
Well, starting the third quarter, we don't have. We basically finished a three-year contract with the Israeli football league. We won't have any expense since the third quarter. But as we mentioned, we plan to do in September a TV media campaign, which probably will be around a $1 million cost.
I think that also with the expenses, this is something that even though we continue to grow in all of our business segments, and as you mentioned, you know, we've reached an EBITDA margin of 39% in the second quarter. We constantly are monitoring very closely our expenses. We, as you know, are still far away from industry standard of EBITDA margins. We still have a long way to go to reach a point that we will feel where we should be.
Understood. I guess just as, you know, obviously capital markets activity has slowed, in terms of primary issuance, you still had. You gave us some stats on what's happened. You also mentioned a dual listing. I guess as you think about the globalization of the TASE and the attractiveness of that market, any change in the conversations with, you know, some of the large entities that have not yet chosen to dual list back on the TASE? Is that something you're more optimistic about here in the second half of the year or just any change there at all?
Well, I'm not more optimistic. Even though most of them are not as large as they used to be, eight,nine months ago. There was a very big change in many of the tech companies that trade only in New York. Most of them are dealing now with a completely different environment.
We don't see currently any indicators that will show us that some of them plan to come, even though it makes a lot of sense for them to join TASE, get the liquidity, get the ETF market, get more visibility. As I mentioned before, when I look at it, at some point it should happen because this is the right decision for those companies. We cannot decide for them to do so. There's nothing new on that front.
Understood. Okay. Well, thanks for answering all my questions.
Thank you very much, Dan.