Hi everyone, thanks for being here. My name is Aravinda Galappatthige, I'm one of the TMT analysts here at Canaccord Genuity. Very pleased to have the TMX Group for the second year in a row to present here at the Canaccord Genuity Boston Conference. For those of you who may be new to TMX Group, they operate key global markets and clearinghouses, as well as data and analytics platforms in the broader capital market space. With me to sort of give us an update is David Arnold, the Chief Financial Officer. David, thanks for being here. It's good to see you again.
Thanks for having us again. It's good to be back.
Absolutely. Let me start with a kind of a high-level question on Global Insights, very central to your strategy. You know, above 40% of your revenues now, probably creeping up towards half of your EBITDA. Can you sort of elaborate on your broader strategy there? Because there's a variety of businesses here, how they're kind of tying together, and we can drill into each of them later on.
No, it's a great question, Aravinda, and it's one that there's a lot to unpack there. If you think about it, you know that that business is now all consolidated under common leadership. Peter Conroy is now overseeing that. He most recently ran TradePort. Now he's overseeing both TradePort, TMX Verify, as well as TMX Data Links. You're correct. I mean, it is important to the strategic thesis of our growth trajectory. Global Insights, we have a long-term aspirational objective for it to be more than 50% of the revenue of the company. It's currently in the low to mid-40%, which is excellent progress. If you go back in the history of the company, that number would have been in the teens at one point in time. We acquired TradePort back in 2017, and it started to move up.
Obviously, organic growth is the primary driver of the growth in that kind of segment, but it has absolutely helped adding TMX Verify to the equation. If you think about that business and its kind of growth trajectory, it's more recurring revenue than transactional revenue. That's also part of our long-term strategic thesis, which is to grow our recurring revenue to be more than two-thirds of the total revenue of the company. The third piece, which is so important to us, is really growing revenue outside of Canada, right? The Canadian core part of our business is fundamental to us, the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Venture Exchange, Alpha XUS in Canada, but also the Montreal Exchange, and then all of our clearing businesses, as you alluded to. The core is critical to us, but we want to do more, right?
We want to take some of the core to other jurisdictions, but also we want to leverage the superpower of the network effect within the company. Global Insights is really the second part of that trick. We need the core to grow and to fire on all cylinders, and then Global Insights, we hope, will actually accelerate the growth of the company. In part because we've set out a couple of objectives for Global Insights, which is, you know, most of the businesses in that segment, as I said, TMX TradePort, TMX Verify, we aspire to grow them as high-growth businesses, which we define as effectively, you know, high single to double digits. Both of those businesses have actually grown at the upper end of that kind of range. The third business is obviously TMX Data Links, which is around 5+%, which we define as strong.
Critical to the execution of our strategy, those businesses, and I'm sure you're going to ask me a lot more questions about them.
Yeah, absolutely. Let's start with Verify. You know, we're probably 20 months in since the acquisition. Obviously, very catalytic for the company, for the stock. When you think about all the due diligence you did, the plans that you had, having now consolidated it, what's being new? What have been your learnings? How has it performed relative to your initial work that you did?
That's a great question. For those that aren't as familiar with TMX Verify, this was a business that we acquired a minority stake in initially. We had two board seats. It gave us a really good opportunity to understand the business even better than we did when we did the initial due diligence on the first stake that we took in the company. We very rapidly decided that we would love to own the rest of the business. We were able to announce that transaction in December of 2023 and closed on it in January of 2024. You're right, it's a good 20-odd months. The investment thesis was really a couple of prongs. The first prong was addressing a client need, right? A lot of our clients had asked for some custom and bespoke index and benchmark capability.
We've really done a good job of addressing that need in the U.S., but now also into Canada. Part of the investment thesis was for that business to be what we would define as a high-growth business, which is to grow the business high single to double digits. On a pro forma basis, it's always been in the teens since we've acquired it. It is delivering on our expectations. To be clear, Aravinda, if we say expectations, people think that it's just meeting. Our expectations are very high, right? We wanted this to be a high-growth business for us, and it is meeting those very high expectations.
Yeah, that's what I wanted to kind of maybe develop on because, you know, when you think about the ETF market, as long of a growth curve as it's experienced, it's still growing 20+%. I mean, if you go from an AUM perspective, obviously the dynamics are changing. There's a bigger shift towards active, a bigger shift towards team, and obviously fixed income, which you've sort of looked to build on. How can TMX Verify sort of continue to leverage this high growth in the market, especially as it sort of twists and turns with these changing dynamics?
No, you're right. I mean, the dynamics are changing, and it is quite different in Canada versus the U.S. Also, as we look to expand into other geographies, it is going to be quite different. If I really focus on the U.S., for sure, that is a shifting dynamic. TMX Verify is really well positioned to address the changing dynamic because of the depth and breadth of our offering, right? We obviously have what we consider to be a best-in-breed index and benchmark capability. Obviously, some companies are very focused on bringing an ETF to market, and it might be actively managed, but others have got ones that are tracking to indices. We are able to service both sides as this market is evolving and changing, as opposed to only being focused on one end of it.
It is really about how we help those investment managers that are creating this product get traction, right? That is part of what we see. You're right, the landscape is changing. We're well positioned for that different kind of path as it evolves. It has also been growing incredibly strong, right? It is one of those fastest growing investment segments, ETFs. We have seen the benefit on the Toronto Stock Exchange. I think John McKenzie, our CEO, mentioned on our most recent call that the amount of ETFs that we've listed in the first half of this year is almost more than what we did all of last year.
You alluded to sort of helping investment managers gain traction, which, as I kind of got to know TMX Verify, I realized the significance of that part, the distribution part of the business. Can you speak to that component, the digital distribution? I know that you've sort of, you're evolving how the economics are working there, how that can continue to contribute to the story.
That actually is very important for us, Aravinda. Some firms that provide index and benchmark capabilities, that's effectively all that they do, right? It's a very important part of the business. For us, and it's part of really the TMX mantra, our client's success equals our success. Across various different parts of our business, we will build based on market capitalization or funds raised. Just like in TMX Verify, we will build based on the assets under management and as they grow. Part of that is actually helping bring that investment product to the investable eyeballs out there. Our network at TMX Verify of registered investment advisors across the U.S. is unparalleled. Many of them are subscribers and active participants on two of our web properties, ETFtrends.com and ETFDB.com.
Digital distribution was very attractive to us in our original hypothesis to purchase TMX Verify, but also how we're seeing it grow. While we sometimes talk about digital distribution and analytics as separate, it's really an extension of the index and benchmark work. It's the part that really helps bring eyeballs to the new product, helps actually bring investable assets to new investment opportunities. Some of it's done through both of our webinars, webcasts, and/or profiling or highlighting. That's cool because for us at TMX, it means we're not just going to help you launch your ETF. We're really going to help you be successful in your ETF growth. That's something that we really found is a bit of a unique proposition with TMX Verify.
Okay. Maybe lastly on Verify, when you think about the synergistic opportunity, obviously, low-hanging fruit in Canada, which is one of the reasons, as you alluded to, you acquired it. I know you've made two acquisitions in the EMEA region. Can you kind of give us an update on how the penetration outside of the U.S. is progressing?
Yeah, you touched on both of them. I mean, the initial hypothesis with TMX Verify was to partner with TMX Verify. At the time, it was just Verify. We had the minority stake to help grow similar capabilities in Canada, right? Now, Canada is slightly different from the U.S. You know, the registered investment advisors, a ton of unique independents in the United States. A lot of the folks in Canada are attached to either a large brokerage and/or a wealth management firm. Slightly different, but that has proven out to be very, very successful. The part that you touched on, the second part of your question, and really the first part with Canada is meeting expectations, as I said, which are very high earlier. The European expansion was something that was really attractive to us, right? It was on the strategic roadmap for Verify.
When we became full owners of the business, we really helped them accelerate that, right? Most recently, we added Index Research to our capabilities. What attracted us to Index Research is they have a number of European-based AUM ETF and benchmark products. That attracted us as a foray into Europe. Most recently, we just added ETF Stream to the team. It's a team based out of London. They are busy being integrated into our London office alongside TradePort and Data Links and other team members. That's really exciting because they've got digital distribution capabilities much like Verify in the U.S. has. I expect us to do some very interesting things in the next 12 to 24 months, both in adding some additional AUM tokens, but also growing organically in the European space. I'd watch this space carefully in the next 24 months.
Absolutely. Let's move on to TradePort. You provide a lot of metrics to investors, and whether it's licensees, ARPU, retention, the numbers look impressive. Can you explain the value proposition? I still get a lot of questions about what exactly is TradePort, the value proposition they offer, because you're consistently growing in the mid-teens, right? Even just in the European market, maybe just develop a little bit on that.
Yeah, so I mean, I could spend a lot of time trying to explain TradePort and really get into a deep dive. The best way to really explain it to folks is what TradePort is able to do for the asset classes that we're currently playing in. I'll really focus in on power and natural gas in Europe. We bring together a network of brokers, traders, and exchanges, because some contracts are traded on exchange. A lot of the contracts, though, are over the counter, right? I'm bringing those all onto a screen, so digitizing it, so that a trader can do full price discovery in the marketplace, assuming they have the appropriate authorization and bilateral credit agreements with a broker. They're actually able to then on the screen trade.
If they do happen to want to trade an exchange-traded contract as well, that will actually go right through to the exchange venue. It really becomes this digital portal to see all of the network pricing, execute all of their trading strategies. Quite frankly, it is a digitization effort, if you think about it, Aravinda, because prior to TradePort in this space, people would have picked up the telephone, right? They would have phoned a trader, would have phoned a broker, and the broker would have executed the trade, and then the back office paperwork would follow. That is all digitized within the TradePort environment, which really helps us as we think about other asset classes, right? We brought renewables onto the environment, and that is really, once again, digitizing something that might have normally been via a phone call or a fax machine.
When you think about, I mean, the similar question as for TMX Verify, when you think about the international expansion there, you have over the last year or so touched on your efforts in the U.S., Japan, including new products as well, crude oil and so forth. As you think about the longevity of this growth curve, maybe just talk a little bit about how those initiatives are trending.
I do want to speak to those initiatives, but I also like to bring it back to the core of TradePort is really subscriber growth, right? Our trader subscriber growth numbers continue to impress. We continue to add new logos month after month after month, quarter after quarter. The core is growing really well and really healthily. How else are we growing TradePort? First is the other geographies, as you touched on. You know, when we first acquired TradePort, it would have done no revenue in the U.S. That number is now almost pushing GBP 7 million annually. That's off a base of zero, right? We've recently heard about Japan that is deregulating. We are working very closely with folks in Japan to bring TradePort to that geography. The other asset classes that I touched on, renewables is really live on the TradePort platform. You mentioned oil.
We spoke about that at our investor day a year ago. I was going to say town hall, but it was an investor day. Long story short is that expanding the asset classes just creates more opportunity. If you give some sizing to it, right, Japan is effectively the same size as Germany and France added together. The U.S. is effectively the same size as all of Europe. That kind of gives you some scaling. Lastly, over geographies and asset classes, it's also functionality. We've been adding premium subscriber services like charting and analytics, algorithmic trading to the TradePort platform, all of which is driving the growth.
Yeah. In the interest of time, I'll just jump into derivatives. We can obviously talk about TradePort a lot.
We can.
This has been, I mean, the growth in the last, since you were last here, I would not have guessed that it's grown like, I don't know, 40%. I think the last quarter was 33%, 50% before that. How can you kind of demarcate between sort of what's sustainable, what was driven by the volatility that we've seen in recent times? Obviously, you're developing your product suite as well, so that's a big part of it. Maybe just touch on that.
Yeah, it's a great question. In fact, a lot of people have been asking me that in Q1 and in Q2. What I go back to, and your numbers are bang on, Aravinda, we did 17% in 2024 in growth in the Montreal Exchange. That was absent some of the volatility we've seen in the first six months of this year. That's kind of the best way that I can answer the question, which is, because it's tough, right? We see the volumes, and now the question is, is that volume due to some of the products and offerings that we've put on the table, like Term, CORRA, CORRA, and other types of futures? Is it because some of our products have really now matured and there's lots of average daily volume, open interest is up? Now we're sunsetting a market-making program.
How much of it is that versus, let's say, some of the macroeconomic factors that are going on around the world? I would guide people to look back to 2024 as kind of in that 17%- 20% range. Maybe the delta one can attribute to kind of what we're seeing right now.
That's a good way to think about it. Yeah. We got seven minutes to talk about tokenization. There has been some, it's been discussed quite a bit, even in exchange circles. I think ICE has an MOU with Circle, and I think CME is making some, has a few initiatives in play. What's your high-level take in terms of what's going on there?
Yeah, so I think there are a couple of things. I would not say we are going to be a pioneer or leader in that. I think we will be a fast adopter. Part of it is really understanding the SEC are going through a bit of a consultation period right now. We want to actually see what the market structure and the rulebook looks like as it goes through the consultation process. We are involved in that process. I think it will be how does Canada actually react and adopt and follow, knowing that Canadian capital markets have always been inextricably tied to U.S. capital markets. As we see where the U.S. lands on that, also given Washington's sentiment now towards digital assets and tokenization, it is going to be an evolving space, and we are paying attention to it.
We oddly enough did spend quite a bit of time on this a few years ago, and it was driven by our Canadian banking clients who called us and said, we have got wealth management clients who are asking how they can actually get involved in digital assets, crypto, and so forth. There were some unfortunate turn of events in some of the crypto marketplaces, which we will not belabor, and people kind of eased off. There is a resurgence right now, and I think that as that evolves, we will look to pick up the baton again.
When you think about the different areas you can go forward here, is the sort of the low-hanging fruit, the collateral efficiency, is that really the way?
I think that's part of it. I also think that there's an ability over there for the players in Canada to actually rely on our clearinghouses to at least provide the security and robustness around the process, which I think a lot of people need because, you know, losing tokens, losing access rights, and/or, you know, ability to actually trade. When you've got a trusted FMI player in the marketplace, like CDS or CDCC, which are our two clearinghouses in Canada, I think does give a lot of comfort to a lot of market participants. I want to see how it evolves in the U.S., and then I think we're going to be a fast follower in Canada.
Okay, very good. Your U.S. ATS, I mean, I think you commented in the recent call that it's progressing well in terms of volumes adoption. I think the use of what John mentioned, that you're also thinking about sort of enhancing the offering to the clients, the early adopters. Maybe just kind of develop on that. I wasn't clear what areas, what the value proposition was beyond the trading execution.
No, it's good. I mean, that once again goes back to the original tenet for the U.S. ATS, right? That really came from a client demand and client request. We launched Alpha X in Canada. It was really well received by many of the market participants who like the fact that it is all geared towards order execution quality, right? Order execution quality is the mantra for the team. The U.S. ATS is doing much the same, right? It's meeting that client demand for higher quality of execution of their orders. As we've gone through the first several months since we launched in January, we're in constant dialogue. The team in New York, led by Heidi Fisher, with Luke's guidance, are in constant discussion with many of our clients. That's what John's alluding to, individuals are really satisfied with the quality of the platform.
They're now expanding, would you be considering additional order types? Would you be considering additional features and functionality that we can now direct some of our other orders to this marketplace versus an existing marketplace? That's what John was touching on. Our team is focused right now, Aravinda, on meeting clients' needs and demands for the existing scope, but they have already started some early use case, business case prototypes with the team that are hopefully for the next phase of growth.
Okay, it's exciting. Anything from the room before I go ahead, sir?
Go ahead, sir.
When you exclude ETFs from IPOs this year, the number of the equity IPOs, not secondaries, equity IPOs in Canada on the Toronto Stock Exchange, I think I can count on one hand.
It's one.
It's nuts, right?
Yeah.
Does that concern you at all? What sort of, what's that kind of telling?
It's a great question. Your facts are not wrong. It's something that has been a 2024 phenomenon too. If you look at most of the global exchanges, pretty much everyone was struggling with IPOs and additional capital raising activities. We're quite excited for what we see in the pipeline heading into the second half of this year. We recently had an IPO of a corporate that was well celebrated, but one doesn't create a streak and doesn't create momentum. The pipeline is really strong. Our clients that are in the pipeline are at various different stages, and it's really a little bit of confidence, both in terms of, you know, how does the IPO perform post-launch? Where are valuation expectations by some of the founders? It's quite intricate and complicated. What we have looked at, though, is Canada tends to follow the U.S.
between a three to nine-month kind of lag. When we look back historically, we've seen whenever we've been in a bit of a trough on IPOs and capital formation activities, as the U.S. starts to come back, Canada anywhere between three and nine months starts to gather that same momentum. There's also a confidence factor, right? The first IPO that's successful enables some others that are sitting close to say, okay, I think the waters are being tested and I'm ready to go. We're for sure in a cyclical low. In the early stages of the pandemic, we were at a cyclical high. This too shall pass. We just need some confidence from those that are waiting to bring IPOs to market.
The interesting thing, which I'd love to add to that, Aravinda, is because we are such a diversified business, while it pains me to have capital formation activity at cyclical lows, we've delivered record results quarter after quarter because we've diversified. That was part of the strategy. The health of the Canadian capital markets ecosystem is strong. It's just we're not seeing it yet in the kind of IPO activity that we would like to see.
Thank you, David.
You're welcome.
We're out of time.
We're out of time. Okay, thank you.