Earnings Call: Q4 2020

Feb 5, 2021

Good morning, and welcome to the Cboe Global Markets 20 24th Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. All participants will be in listen only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note that today's event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Debbie Koopman. Ms. Koopman, please go ahead. Thanks, Keith. Good morning, and thank you for joining us for our Q4 earnings conference call. On the call today, Ed Tilly, our Chairman, President and CEO will discuss our for the quarter the year and provide an update on our strategic initiatives. Then Brian Shale, our Executive Vice President, CFO and Treasurer, We'll provide an overview of our financial results for the quarter and the full year as well as discuss our 2021 financial outlook. Following their comments, we will open the call to Q and A. Also joining us for Q and A will be our Chief Operating Officer, Chris Isaacson and our Chief Strategy Officer, John Dieter. In addition, I would like to point out This presentation will include the use of slides. We will be showing the slides and providing commentary on each. A downloadable copy of the slide presentation is available on the Investor Relations portion of our website. During our remarks, we will make some forward looking statements, which represent our current judgment on what the future may hold. And while we believe these judgments are reasonable, These forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain assumptions, risks and uncertainties. Actual outcomes and results may differ Materially from what is expressed or implied in any forward looking statements. Please refer to our filings with the SEC for a full discussion of the factors that may affect We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise after this Call. During the course of the call this morning, we will be referring to non GAAP measures as defined and reconciled in our earnings materials. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Ed. Thank you, Debbie. Good morning and thank you for joining us today. I hope 2021 is off to a great start for everyone And you are keeping safe and well as we continue to navigate this pandemic. I'm pleased to report that Cboe posted solid 4th quarter and record full year results, highlighting the strength and diversification of our global business. For the year, we grew net revenue by 10% and adjusted earnings per share by 11%, Despite an unprecedented macro environment that for much of the year did not favor index trading, Our results were driven by record trading volumes in U. S. Cash equities and multi list options, fueled by strong retail trading, Growth in recurring non transactional revenues and increased efficiency enabled by our fully integrated superior technology. Importantly, While achieving strong growth, we continue to successfully execute key growth initiatives to advance our strategy to leverage product innovation and superior technology, Expand our customer base and diversify our business mix with recurring revenue. We also maintained our commitment to operational excellence in 2020 as evidenced by the continuity and resiliency of our markets despite the year's unrelenting challenges. Our ability to provide reliable and continuous markets in that environment, while continuing to execute key strategic initiatives and post strong growth is a testament to the dedication and expertise of our entire global team. Additionally, our record results and strong cash flow generation enabled us to return $520,000,000 to shareholders in 2020, a new all time high and a 69% increase compared to 2019. Our commitment to returning capital to shareholders will continue in 2021 and beyond, reinforced by today's announcement regarding the Board's authorization of additional share buyback capacity. Turning to our targets and expectations for this year, We plan to leverage the deals we closed in 2020 to accelerate organic growth in 2021. Brian will do a deeper dive on this, But we plan to invest approximately $25,000,000 in organic growth initiatives in 2021, which we expect to contribute to our incremental Top line compounded average organic growth target of 4% to 6% over the midterm. As you've seen since our IPO, We have also allocated capital inorganically to help accelerate our strategy while returning capital to shareholders. Over the past 4 years, We have delivered 5% compound annual net revenue growth, while growing adjusted EPS by 19% on a pro form a basis, which reflects the strength of our strategy and our ability to perform in the most challenging cycles. The success of our ongoing diversification As we engage in trading our index options and volatility products, in January, month over month volume increased by 77% in VIX futures, 68% in VIX options and 15% in SPX options. As we've noted in previous calls, We expected to see re engagement in these products once there was more clarity around the political and pandemic uncertainty that clouded investors' views on where the market was headed. Although much uncertainty remains around the COVID-nineteen pandemic, the vaccine rollout has begun, the new U. S. Administration is in place And the Brexit deal has been executed. We believe we will continue to see increased trading on our index products as the uncertainty of these and other previous market unknowns come into focus. Additionally, in response to customer demand similar to VIX futures, We are planning to extend the 20 fourfive trading model to VIX and SPX options in the Q4 of this year, subject to regulatory review. Over 15% of trading in VIX futures, which already trade 20 fourfive, took place in non U. S. Trading hours last year, up from 13% in 2019. Naturally, we believe 20 fourfive trading in VIX and SPX options will result in increased trading outside of U. S. Hours as well. We began the year with a considerable amount of momentum from strategic progress made in 2020. We are excited about both near and long term opportunities to grow and expand our driven in part by increases in proprietary product trading, recurring revenue and retail engagement, while continuing to invest in long term growth. Our ongoing strategy, which has reinforced the value of our unique platform and fueled our strong year over year growth remains consistent, Further strengthen our core proprietary products, leverage our superior technology, increase recurring revenue, Broaden our geographic footprint and expand our product line by asset class. We have exciting initiatives underway within each of these strategic pillars. Today, I'd like to focus on 4 incremental growth drivers: the opportunity to grow non transactional revenue through Cboe Information Solutions our plans to launch Our prospects to further increase recurring revenue to expanding and enhancing Cboe Information Solutions, our comprehensive suite of data solutions, analytics and indices. These products generate recurring revenue by providing market participants with value added trading resources and support transactional growth in our proprietary products with tools that draw users to our markets and drive volume as they reestablish trading positions. As discussed in previous calls, Last year's expansion of our information solutions offering through key acquisitions accelerate our ability to grow our recurring non transactional revenue. In 2020, we reported 12% growth in recurring non transactional revenue and 9% organic growth, and we expect to see incremental Solutions now allows us to interact with and add value to market participants at every step of the trade process. We are looking to enhance these customer support opportunities in 2021 with additional portfolio and risk analytics offered through various delivery mechanisms, including Cboe Silex, our proprietary order execution management system and through our APIs. Additionally, We plan to expand our market intelligence analytics and alerts to many market segments, including retail traders. We also plan to expand our global indices platform, which provides index calculation development and services with real time distribution channels. Finally, we expect to further expand our offering of unique historical data And add high demand datasets like cryptocurrencies to the Information Solutions data suite. Turning now to the upcoming planned launch of Cboe Europe Derivatives. I'm pleased to say we are on track to launch in the Q2 of this year pending regulatory approval, Bringing to fruition our vision to unlock the potential we see for considerable growth in this market. Our highly successful European Equities business, Global derivatives expertise and ownership of EuroCCP uniquely position us to simplify and bring new efficiencies to pan European Derivatives Trading and clearing. We've worked closely with market participants in shaping our plans and have received very positive customer feedback and support. During the Q4, we made strong progress on the technical build out of the exchange and clearing platform and toward achieving the necessary regulatory approvals. Customer testing and optimization is ongoing and we have commitments from clearing firms, order flow providers and market makers to be there on day 1. As we've said before, we think this market is ripe for significant structural growth. We are not aiming simply to take market share from incumbent exchanges. We intend to shape and grow overall derivatives trading in Europe with a novel market structure designed to attract both new and existing participants. While our revenue expectations for European derivatives in 2021 are modest, we are investing for long term growth and looking for a gradual revenue build Our new Amsterdam exchange, which we launched in 2019 in advance of Brexit, will serve as home to our derivatives business in the region. I'll also note here that the flawless implementation of our Brexit strategy enabled us to seamlessly transition trading from our UK venue to Amsterdam at the start of the year. Also as a result of Brexit, we were excited to welcome back trading of Swiss shares on our UK venue yesterday. We are working with customers to reestablish our market share in Swiss equities trading, which was approximately 8% of Cboe's notional value traded in June of 2019 when Swiss trading was last available on our market. Turning now to our acquisition of BIDS Trading, which we completed at the end of the 4th quarter. We're pleased to welcome Tim Mahoney to the team and the Cboe family. We have a successful track record of working with BIDS, which powers Cboe LIS, one of the largest block trading platforms in Europe. While BIDS will continue to operate as an independently managed venue, The acquisition helps us to expand BIDS block trading capabilities and services to other products and geographies, including Canada, As we look to further expand our presence in North American Equities, we are well underway with our integration of MatchNow, The Canadian ATS we acquired last year and the BIDS acquisition provides additional features that we believe will help us disrupt the electronic block market in Canada and other markets In the future, BIDS has an extensive global network of more than 460 buy side investment managers and sell side constituents, which differentiates the platform and provides a strong foundation from which to expand into new markets. It also provides us with a foothold in the off exchange segment of the U. S. Equity market, which now accounts for over 45% of overall U. S. Equities trading. Moving on to retail trading. We believe The resurgence of the retail investor we saw in 2020 is here to stay. We are well equipped to deliver tailored products and services to meet the needs of these growing customer base and to evolve our education programs with retail centric content to empower these new investors. Product innovation remains a core focus of the Cboe franchise. We plan to continue to expand our proprietary product offering with smaller contract sizes that appeal to both sophisticated retail traders and institutional investors. This includes Mini Bix Futures Mini SPX options, our recently announced Mini Russell 2,000 index options, as well as additional retail focused products in our pipeline, which we will expand our value add to a broader universe of investors. Our strategy to nurture growth in these products, which is driven by a cross functional team focus and dedicated client services, targets marketing initiatives and robust Investor education is well underway. Additionally, we continue to see increased retail trading in U. S. Equities and record volume in our retail priority program, which helps improve execution quality and trading outcomes for individual investors and firms that facilitate their orders. Volume and retail priority orders Represented over 31% of total volume on Cboe Edgex with the exchange reaching record market share of 7.3% in the 4th quarter. In January, trading on edX set a new monthly average daily volume record as did retail priority orders, which were up 56% over December of 2020. We're excited to see growing retail engagement in the marketplace and are well positioned to invest in and leverage our core strengths, Product and market innovation, technology, strong customer relationships and investor education to support this growing user base. We believe our investments in this area will benefit retail investors and create another sustainable long term growth opportunity for Cboe. With that, I'll turn it over to Brian to walk through our 2020 performance and 2021 outlook in greater detail and then provide some closing remarks. Thanks, Ed, and good morning, everyone. I hope all of you and your families remain safe and healthy. I remind everyone that unless specifically noted, my comments relate to 4Q 'twenty as compared to 4Q 'nineteen and are based on our non GAAP adjusted results. We reported solid financial results for the quarter, again highlighting diversification of our revenue streams and the contributions from our investments and acquisitions, Reinforcing our strategic initiatives. Our net revenue increased 10% with net transaction fees up 8% and revenue from our recurring non transaction revenue up 16%, adjusted operating expenses increased 17%, adjusted EBITDA of $206,000,000 was up 4% And finally, our adjusted diluted earnings per share was $1.21 flat to last year. Turning to key drivers by segment, our press release and the appendix of our slide deck includes information detailing the key metrics for each of our business segments. So I'll just provide summary thoughts. The growth in our Options segment was driven by a continuation of strong trading in our multi listed options and higher revenue from proprietary market data, offset somewhat by lower volumes in our proprietary products. Revenue from North American equities Decreased as a result of lower data revenue from the SIP, including lower SIP audit recoveries. Off exchange or TRF volume New highs again in the Q4 impacting our market share. In futures, the revenue decline was caused by lower trading volume and fixed futures. The revenue increase in European equities primarily reflects the addition of EuroCCP. And FX increased ADMV, drove higher Transaction fees and growth in access to capacity fees contributed to higher non transactional revenue. We're also proud to announce our market share surge to a new record high of 16.7%. Turning to expenses. Total adjusted operating expenses were about $112,000,000 for the quarter, up 17% against last year's Q4. Excluding the impact of acquisitions, adjusted operating expenses, We're up 4% for the quarter and actually down 2% for the year. Majority of the expense variance related to acquisitions was compensation and benefits. Turning now to our 2021 guidance. As Ed noted, our plans for 2021 and beyond call for continued investments to drive long term sustainable growth in our business. For 2021, our organic revenue target is a growth rate of 6% to 7% from our recurring non transactional revenue, which we define as access to capacity fees plus proprietary market data fees. Similar to prior years, we anticipate the majority of this growth to be driven by additional units Versus pricing changes, after incorporating our ISG acquisitions, we expect the reported or total growth rate for this category to be 7% to 8%. In the aggregate, we expect the acquisitions closed in 2020 to contribute additional growth of 4% to 6% in 2021. Longer to mid term, we are targeting organic top line compounded Average annual growth of 4% to 6%. Given our growth plans and strategic opportunities, we are planning incremental investment of $24,000,000 to $26,000,000 in 2021, Talp increased that growth rate in the future, which I'll discuss further in a moment. Moving to our expense guidance. We expect adjusted operating expenses to be in a range of $531,000,000 to $539,000,000 versus $416,000,000 in 2020. The projected $115,000,000 to $123,000,000 year over year expense increase falls into 3 main categories: 2020 normalization, Core and incremental investment. 1st, 2020 normalization. Approximately $71,000,000 where nearly 60% of the increase is due to incremental expenses from 2020 acquisitions or about $55,000,000 which will contribute to our long term growth profile and non recurring savings in 2020 that we do not expect to repeat in 2021. The non recurring savings realized in 2020 include: A, COVID related savings B, favorable accrual adjustments related to incentive compensation and facilities expenses and see delays in hiring which were also caused by disruptions related to COVID-nineteen. If you normalize our 2020 expenses for these items, the projected expense Approximately 10%. Based on the current market outlook, we expect these costs will recur in 2022 and beyond. Although as we demonstrated in 2020, we are able to optimize our costs to preserve our differentiated track record of margin expansion. 2nd, core expenses. We expect these expenses to increase by approximately $14,000,000 to $18,000,000 or 3% to 4% growth. This category includes our annual compensation adjustments, incremental infrastructure costs and otherwise general price increases. However, should we remain in a more locked down state for an extended period of time in 2021, we expect that expense growth should be muted. We expect to also incur incremental facility overlap costs of approximately $7,000,000 to $8,000,000 as we transition our Chicago headquarters and other office space. We do not expect the majority of this cost to recur in 2022. And finally, incremental investment. As Ed highlighted earlier, in support of our strategy, we plan to invest approximately $24,000,000 to $26,000,000 in 2021 to drive incremental and sustainable Long term organic revenue growth and high conviction, high return opportunities. This includes $9,000,000 to $10,000,000 For our previously announced European derivatives build out as well as investments aimed at supporting growth index options and futures, including developing, listing and distributing unique products and enhancing marketing education and content, as well as our efforts to tap into the growing among other initiatives. As we have demonstrated in the past, we have the flexibility to adjust the magnitude of our overall expense Through the year, should market conditions for our transaction revenue weaken, there are multiple levers with which we may adjust Our investment levels to help realize the strong underlying margin profile of our business model. As the year develops, We will revisit how we are calibrating our investments to the current market reality to optimize both margins and long term growth potential. Turning to our summary of full year guidance on the next slide. We expect depreciation and amortization to be $38,000,000 to $42,000,000 for 2021 compared to $34,000,000 in 2020. This excludes amortization of intangibles of approximately $116,000,000 Moving to income taxes. Our effective tax rate on adjusted earnings for the quarter was 28.6%, above last year's 4th quarter rate of 24.7 percent. Absent the higher tax rate, earnings per share would have increased 6%, which reflects the impact of higher adjusted earnings, netted against the incremental benefit of reducing our share count by nearly 3% over the last 12 months. Our full year 2021 tax rate Adjusted earnings is expected to be in the range of 27.5% to 29.5% versus 28.1% in 2020. Finally, we expect 2021 capital spending to be in the range of $60,000,000 to $65,000,000 reflecting expenditures for the build out We expect 2021 to be an above trend line CapEx year due to the various investments noted. And over time, we expect CapEx to return to a more normalized level of $40,000,000 to $45,000,000 While we're not providing full year guidance on interest expense, we wanted to highlight that absent any additional borrowings and immediate changes to LIBOR, our quarterly Interest expense for the Q1 of 2021 is expected to be $12,000,000 to $13,000,000 which is slightly lower than the 4Q 2020 numbers, which include incremental fees related to refinancing costs. Moving to capital allocation. Our priorities have not changed as we remain committed to investing in our growth strategy, while returning excess cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. As you heard from Ed, recent acquisitions of EuroCCP and BIDS reflect conviction in our ability to deploy capital to enhance organic growth and strategic value over time, leveraging the robust technology at the core of our strong operating leverage profile. From a capital return perspective, our record financial results in 2020 and cash flow generation enable us to return the highest amount of cash to shareholders since becoming a We plan to continue being opportunistic for share repurchases, as highlighted by this morning's announcement of up to an additional $200,000,000 in buyback capacity, bringing our total availability to approximately $400,000,000 as of the end of January 2021. In December, we completed a $500,000,000 bond offering used to fund the BIDS acquisition, repay amounts outstanding under revolving line of credit and a portion of amounts under our term loan as well as other general corporate purposes. Our leverage ratio increased to 1.4x at December 31 from 1.1x at September 30 due to the higher debt outstanding. We ended the year with adjusted cash $210,000,000 reflect the in part higher balance associated with additional regulatory and operating cash needs for EuroCCP. Now I'd like to turn it back Over to Ed for some closing comments before we open it up to Q and A. Thanks, Brian. In closing, We are extremely proud of the results we delivered last year and are optimistic about opportunities to leverage Our operating results highlight the strength of our diversified business and our team's consistent execution of our strategy By further strengthening our core proprietary products, leveraging our superior technology, increasing recurring revenue, broadening our geographic footprint and expanding our The investments we plan to make this year are expected to contribute to our long term growth in 2022 and beyond. We also plan to continue to exercise disciplined expense management and efficient allocation of capital to create long term shareholder value and believe we have the people, Thanks, Ed. With that, we'd be happy to take Thank you. As mentioned, we will now begin the question and answer session. And the first question comes from Rich Repetto with Piper Sandler. Yes. Good morning, Ed. Good morning, Brian. I guess my question is on the expenses and this is on Slide 13 and thanks for the walk or the breakout. But I guess, Brian, the first two parts is just of the $55,000,000 from M and A, How much revenue offset direct revenue? Because I know bids is probably in the 40s in there. And then you're assuming that, I guess, the COVID situation, you don't have those savings. Is there a way that you could sort of walk us through if you assume that we're in this lockdown, semi lockdown to mid year, which It probably seems more like what's happening right now anyway. So anyway, those are the 2 questions on it. Sure thing, Rich. I would say that without getting specifically with each expense for each of the transactions from 2020, Each deal that we did, I think we announced that they were accretive or neutral. So you would have an expectation, and we gave a broad range The revenue expectations across the prior year, so that 4% to 6% on prior year. So I think that gives you a pretty good gauge of where we expect the revenue more than offset the expense Adjustment to that we've noted here on as you mentioned Slide 13 for the $55,000,000 So In the aggregate, it's going to be accretive, as we noted previously. On the $16,000,000 I think as a rough framework, And again, it's your guess is as good as mine. And obviously, we've got to put a number out there that we're kind of reflecting in our expense guide as far as 2021. Of the 3 categories I kind of mentioned, I would say high level, it's probably like a third, a third, a third relative to Continued savings for if there's continues to be some lockdown and we really don't do anything during 'twenty one as far as some of those incremental expenses that we have, Some of that savings delay from the delayed hiring was probably onethree of that. And then the onetime savings is about onethree That we won't get the benefit. So that kind of gives you a frame of reference of, like I said, with the COVID-nineteen related expenses and how that might Impact the expenses for 2021. Got it. Thank you. Go Bucks, go Brady. Go Chiefs. Wow. Thank you. And our next question comes from Ken Worthington with JPMorgan. Hi, good morning. How should we think about the level of additional investment spend embedded in the 2021 guidance? So you called out $25,000,000 As we get into 2022, what is truly one time And what part of that $25,000,000 would be expected to continue or even increase in 2022 and beyond? Thanks, Ken. That's, again, a really good question as we think about this. And it's of the first spend of the build out, I think I don't get too specific on some of this, but I would say that going forward versus 'twenty two, Certainly, a portion of that European derivatives build out will sustain for into 'twenty two. So I'd say about it could be up A quarter of that will not repeat as we go forward because there's an incremental investment in the upfront years. Some of that was in 'twenty, and obviously, you're seeing our projection for 'twenty one as far as that build out. As far as the strategic growth initiatives, And that will vary based on what we end up spending as far as how much of that is permanent and fixed versus on a go forward basis. So I think that it's going to be and again, we'll provide more guidance to this as we move forward, as we look at where the actual level of investment is. Again, it's looking at The total dollar amount, again, will be geared toward that longer term growth rate of the revenues of where we're seeing it projected. So again, it's a spend. I want to remind everyone that's a spend to really grow that top line revenue for the long term. And so the upfront investment spend, as we've said with derivatives, as we've said before, We'll have to occur before the actual revenue show up and certainly in 'twenty one, we're planning. So I would say stay tuned, but certainly a portion of that, and I'm hesitant to give you a fixed number right now, will be variable and not occur in 'twenty two. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. And the next question comes from Dan Fannon with Jefferies. Thanks. My question is on kind of retail and some of the initiatives you're talking about as some of the spend. So maybe what percentage of your business today do you think comes from retail? And I guess also what makes you confident that the retail pickup is sustainable To make these levels of investments today. Good. This is Tilly. Let me start and invite Chris to jump in. But Sustainable, I think we've just seen an incredible demand that began last year. It continues. It tends to be in single name options. So our education will be focused on the basics first. The educated investor is the one that's in day in, Day out, year in, year out. And that's really what we will be targeting. So the responsiveness, the suitability, what derivatives And how derivatives can change the risk profile for investors is really what we'll be concentrating on. And I think just even recently, We had 7.30 participants in our series of 21 for 2021, which is 21 Investment Strategies for 2021. It's an incredible amount of turnout early on. So We're gauging the continuation by the interest in education. We're committed to it. So the investment we make is for the long term And that conversion from straight Delta 1 trading into derivatives is really where Cboe's effort will be most concentrated. And then Chris, maybe a little bit on the mix And what we see coming in on various products and how that's different across the uniqueness of our product set? Sure. Thanks, Ed, and thanks for the question, Dan. So in addition to our education efforts, which Ed mentioned, we're also rolling out products. We rolled out retail priority on our EDGX equities market. As Ed mentioned in his script, we had a record Volume there above 700,000,000 shares. Retail priority is now almost 3% of the entire U. S. Equities market, because retail investors and those who are facilitating those orders are getting better quality execution. So that's in equities. And then as we mentioned also during the script, we're rolling out products of more retail size with MiniVix Futures, Mini SPX or XSP, we just announced many rut and we have some other things we're thinking about as well to appeal to this new Retail investor base, this new wave of new generation of retail investors. So our goal is to empower and educate them about our products across our asset classes to arm them with what they need to be very successful for the long term. That's why we believe This can be sustainable for years to come. Great. Thank you. Thank you. And the next question comes from Alex Graham with UBS. Hey, good morning, everyone. Hopefully, last Question on the expense side, and sorry if I missed this in the prepared remarks, but the facilities costs, when are those going to go away? So I guess how long is the overlap? And then secondarily, you didn't talk about cost synergies. So is the M and A number of $55,000,000 is that Ex synergy number or are these deals really not cost synergy opportunities anyways given that they're more bolt ons? Thanks. Thanks, Alex. No, you weren't sleeping, so we didn't cover those explicitly. So thanks for the question. As far as the overlap, we anticipate the majority of that to go away following into 'twenty two as we transition the sites. And on the expense side, as far as the ramp up goes, almost Well, really those transactions were not a cost play. Those were, I would say, more Gaining new capabilities and where we want to be and more on the revenue side. So we don't anticipate any expense synergies there. Makes sense. Thanks. Alex, I might just jump in on the expense side. So as Brian said, these weren't synergy places. As we highlighted as Ed highlighted, the Specialty Information Solutions is a great example of this where we really those are purchases that we made in order to grow, to build what we believe is a world class information solutions platform. And so this is about fueling growth, not cost synergies. Yes, understood. Thanks again. Thank you. And the next question comes from Ken Hill with Loop Capital. Hi, good morning everyone. Ed, you touched on this in your prepared remarks a little bit, but I was hoping you could talk about the long term aspirations Cboe has around crypto, given you guys have had a product on the future side in The ETF side has been pretty challenging for everyone involved. But overall, this is an asset class that continues to grow in standing. It's becoming more important Institutional to retail, so you touched a little bit on the agreement you have with CoinRoutes, I think, to provide indices and data That's an environment that's kind of murky. So I'd love your thoughts on, A, what that kind of will involve and then kind of how you see that environment ecosystem more broadly growing over time and what role Well, I love the way you frame that. The ecosystem is really what we were after when we launched, albeit probably a bit early, a few years ago. We too saw the potential and the interest and while not a huge asset class as measured by AUM, Certainly, by turnover in trade. So we know there's a great deal of interest from the trading community and growing interest, as you point out, institutionally for some exposure. So when I warm up like that, you can tell that we are planning how to reenter the space, very measured and cautiously, But I could not describe it any better that the importance of the ecosystem, what we see by vibrant derivatives markets, Cash settled markets, retail accessible markets, you mentioned ETPs and ETNs, all very important for a successful exposure to crypto. So, In the planning stages, but we plan on reentering that market over time, and it's just a matter of us right now on prioritization. So stay tuned in development and want to get back into the space. Thanks, Dan. Thanks very much. John, just to follow-up on that. It's the CoinRoutes, you touched on the CoinRoutes partnership. We'll start with Transparent pricing and a regulated framework. When we were in crypto earlier, that was our approach. We think that the Ecosystem and crypto is that much further developed. It's a rapidly developing space. And so there's a reason we kind of started On the pricing side is we believe that plays into ultimately any product that we would look to launch. It's critically important that we have a transparent pricing framework for folks to understand the value of those assets. Got it. Thanks, John. Thanks, Ed. Thank you. And the next question comes from Mike Carrier with Bank of America. Good morning and thanks for taking the question. Just on the mid term outlook for organic revenue growth of 4% to 6%, Is that total revenue growth? And then if so, can you just provide a bit of perspective on how that breaks down on the non transaction side versus the transaction side? And in areas where you're more confident on the transaction front? Thanks. Yes, I'll start with that. Thanks for the question there. As we think about that, it's We know that first, I'll start off with the that medium term target. And it's not obviously a next year guide Because we know that sometimes there's unpredictability in transaction revenue quarter over quarter or even a few quarters over time. So that's why we want to make sure people understood our view over a, call it, a medium term. And also it's incredibly consistent with what we've achieved over the last 4 years I kind of referenced you earlier. I would say that we it's going to be a combination. We already laid out the non transaction revenue growth expectation As far as our proprietary products, excuse me, the proprietary market and access capacity fees, How we laid that out? Obviously, you have for us, you have the SIP, the take plans, which is at best probably flat. And then you have the remainder being made up on the transaction revenue side. Again, that is over time versus any one period of time. So that's I think how if you look at the primary drivers of how that looks and what we've achieved. But again, it's We're looking to as you can just see the math and you do the numbers is that, look, there's going to be more recurring revenue as we continue to build that. You're seeing a more diversified revenue base. And frankly, it's just it's a higher conviction that over time that We're building that sustainable revenue, and that's how that's growing. And you're going to have the impact of the acquisitions that we talked about, which again is not in that organic number, But as that rolls into that number over time, again, we feel good about how that continues to grow as well. All right. Makes sense. Thanks. Thank you. And the next question comes from Ari Ghosh with Credit Suisse. Hey, good morning, everyone. So given that the outlook looks a little more favorable for your prop suite, could you talk about certain segments Within the institutional customer base that remain pressured and that has been slower to engage. And I guess related to that, Given the strength and expansion of your IHG footprint, are there opportunities to leverage this, maybe cross sell to some of the underpenetrated customers like either asset managers, pension funds, where you've had a lot of educational efforts and Specifically had mortgage exposure to your Board Management products. Thanks. Thanks, Harry. Great question. I'll start with the first and then invite John and Chris on the ISG in particular. So, the product segment, I think if you just take a half a step back And what we discussed primarily for the 3 quarters of last year after the huge Volumes and volatility spike in the Q1 was institutions told us that they're on the sidelines. There's too much uncertainty out there, right? If you think about this pandemic just being defined, U. S. Elections on the map, Uncertainty there led to a runoff election, Brexit coming, going, closing, not closing, And told us once some of those uncertainties were passed that there'd be reengagement that there needs to be and there's a demand for exposure more broadly in the U. S. Market And that's what we're seeing in January. So just basically feeding back directly from those users in their plans and moving forward and we're seeing that engagement. So that's really not surprising to us. Stressed, I think, maybe your word, probably a little bit too much of a reach. I think we're seeing more broadly Interest in short term moves and volatility, a lot of that led by the volatility in single names, raising volatility overall. And then And if we look at fixed options, we see interest in buying puts. When people realize or investors realize, gosh, that spike, Don't think that's sustainable. We saw that last week and we saw put buying and sure enough investors in this cycle tended to be right. So we see engagement across now a variety of macro trading cycles and I like it. The engagement is up and down. Our proprietary products led by institutions' reengagement. So, I don't think I'd call any segment out on not reengaging, maybe some slower than others, but it's engagement each and every day, and We like to see what we're seeing in January. Love to see that continue. Chris and John, maybe on the ISG question? Yeah. Yes. Just as we think about engaging with customers, not just institutions, but customers in general, ISG just fits so nicely with our prop products because Usually starts with data and we have unique data sets to give them. And then once they have data and they've proved out whatever model they might be looking at our investing strategy, then they need We've invested a lot in Silex and other tools and then they need to manage risk once they get positions on and we have What we think is a complete risk management suite for them to manage position. So you get data, then access Managing your portfolio with risks and we feel like we have a full suite for them to really engage and use our products in a very efficient and effective manner. And I'll end with offering unique products. An example would be Flex there for instance, which is getting a broad use for target outcome investing. I just think it's an example of us using our products and our tools to offer Product that appeals to certain customers where they're looking for specific outcomes and really leading and inventing that space. Ari, I'll jump in as well. This is John. I think, on the ISG question, really to Chris' point, when we think about it, it's not just the ISG acquisitions, but when we think about M and A, we think very deeply about how the asset fits into The machinery of our broader network and in this case really there's a tight fit with those acquisitions because what they do is They drive the decision making process for largely institutional investors on that side. This is a long term trend. It's not a 1 year trend, not a 2 year trend. We're in the middle phases, I'd say, of Institutions automating their decision making processes, especially from complex instruments like those that drive our proprietary product revenues. And So automating things like the pricing evaluation process, risk mitigation, margin processes, We're giving tools to institutions to allow them to automate their process He's going to engage more deeply in our product set. So we see a lot of long term potential. And remember, we're doing this All the while, while we extract revenues because there's value in the product itself. So not only are people trading more As a result of the ISG products, but the ISG products themselves have value and they're contributing to our growing base of recurring revenues. Appreciate all the color. Thanks, all. Thank you. And the next question comes from Alex Blostein with Goldman Sachs. Great. Hey, good morning, everybody. I was hoping we could spend a minute on your capital priorities as you think about 'twenty one. I know, Brian, you said kind of broader strokes, Nothing has really changed, but you guys obviously have been pretty active on the M and A front in the last couple of years. Leverage came up a little bit as well. So maybe help us kind of walk through the use of free cash flow over the next sort of 12 months between deleveraging, return to shareholders and anything else on the M and A front. Yes, thanks. Good question. Again, just reiterating and the strength of the cash flows that we generate, we'll continue To deploy those, which again, with the approach of achieving that long term shareholder value growth, I think what you have seen is that conviction to deploy the capital to enhance the growth from a global network standpoint, from a product, from an access, Organically, inorganically, again, trying to make sure we're leveraging our infrastructure to grow for the long term. And Part of the keeping that balance sheet, I'll call it, low leverage, is that if there's something That does become attractive. That makes sense. We want to make sure we could potentially deploy that capital. But absent that, again, the prioritization really hasn't changed. It's a continuing dialogue again we have with the Board, we have with the management team. You see it reflected in the share repurchase increase with the confidence and outlook for the stock as Growing the repurchase authorization, but again, the prioritization of look, it's we're are going to focus on organic initiatives, as we talked about, been the focus of the call today and our guidance going forward. We always continue to have a commitment to that, an annual dividend increase. We again and then with the share repurchase, as I mentioned, we'll continue to look for that to be opportunistic. And depending on where all those rank or excuse me, where that last one, the share repurchase and delevering, I personally don't see as much Value in delevering today versus, say, for example, absent anything else, continue to return cash to shareholders. So delevering from where we are today is not, I would say, a big focus of that capital deployment. Great. Thanks very much. Thank you. And the next question comes from Brian Bedell with Deutsche Bank. Great. Good morning, folks. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe one just to tie expenses and revenue together. So just quickly, it's on the outlook, is that are you considering the January trends in the expense forecast? Just I guess a flavor of kind of the volume outlook you have for 'twenty one. But then on the strategic growth initiatives, Brian, what's the thought on the payback on timing of revenue gaining revenue attributable to those Expenses and if you can also talk about the European derivative effort in terms of when do you think you'll have positive I am not sure I understood the First part of your question about Yes. Just on the the 5.31 to 5.39 Thanks guys. Are you baking in essentially a strong volume environment that we're seeing here in January given that you were calling for Yes, retail trading to be an institutional investors to come back in the market. And I guess the view was that this would be a sort of More sustainable revenue trading environment. Okay. So if I think I understand that, I will say that January, and I'm going to be flip with my response, doesn't make a year. So that has been strong volumes. And so it does certainly play into how we thought about the year and what can be achieved. So having that as a backdrop, We're not using January to inform our entire year and what we're doing, but there's obviously some trends there that we're seeing continue on. As Ed talked about, as The rest of the team has talked about from the institutional activity, from the retail activity on a go forward basis in the various products and the various Asset classes. As far as the investment spend outlook and where do we expect to see the return, how long, And that will vary by each product. As we've talked about it and Ed mentioned the where the investment priorities With respect to non transaction revenue growth, European derivatives build out, the bids expansion, the retail, the 20 4x5, the extended training hours, all of those things are coming more or less online as we've talked about In 2020 and more in the latter half of twenty twenty. And we said these are investments in 'twenty for a Excuse me, in 'twenty one for a 'twenty two kind of more significant growth contribution for revenue. So I can't go right now and say it's going to happen in this quarter other than there's a possibility that, yes, we're going to expect to see some revenues '21, but again, it's later in the year. But the real expectation that I think our investment community should have is that It's a 'twenty two revenue growth delivery. And again, what we're looking to make sure that we're delivering on is, at the end of the day, We're trying to have a secular growth of the business. And again, we see the increasing need for the data and analytics, a need for better access and addressing that demand with New product, new geography, which again is represented by, I think, the 4 kind of areas that we're prioritizing. So That's a long winded way of saying I'm not going to give you revenue guidance as far as 'twenty one and that we expect to start seeing that in 'twenty two and beyond. And obviously, and this is true probably with most firms, we see a really, really large ROI On organic activities that especially if we can leverage the existing infrastructure And you leverage the existing network that we have today and really meeting a demand and access capacity that we see a Really high ROI, and that's again, that's a 2 to 3 year look. And again, that helps contribute to that Medium to long term growth rate that we talked about upfront. So let me see if I can just summarize it a bit. What we see happening in January, As predicted, it's reengagement at the institutional level, that is eliminating last quarter's headwind when institutions were on the sideline waiting for uncertainty to Separate and apart from the investment we're making for the future, and Brian laid them out, think 20 fourfive, The extension of bids, our continued investment in ISG and obviously our mid year launch of European derivatives, all In queue and ready to make an impact for us in 2022 and beyond. That's the way we're looking at it. That's great color. Thank you so Brent, I just also want to hit European derivatives. We're super excited about this, and it just bears out the Statistics in 2020, we're up 50% in the U. S. Market in terms of European derivatives and the European market is flat to down On equity derivatives, it just highlights the opportunity to grow the pie there. It's going to be a build, but it's a super exciting thing for us. And that's starting in later from a revenue perspective later in 'twenty one, I think is what you intimated in the first part of the comments. Is that correct? That's right. So launch midyear, steady build up Into the back end of the year. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. And the next question comes from Chris Harris with Wells Fargo. Great, thanks. Can you guys Share your view on what a change in the SEC leadership might mean for the industry and Cboe specifically? Let me start with more broadly the SEC and the long term view and relationship we've had. I would sum it up as an incredibly healthy tension where both the SEC and Cboe Put the investor the retail investor first and foremost in our thinking. It's in our day to day, it's in our operations, it's in new product development, It's in order handling. It's in all our comment letters. We both have been aligned with trying to do what is best For market structure wise, the investing public, I think that will continue. Our expectation of the new chair as he's putting together his team We'll be a very healthy relationship with his frontline, the listed exchanges. We are where price discovery happens. I'm sure this Chairman and his team will understand that, And I'm looking forward to just some incredibly healthy dialogue. So very optimistic going into the change. Chris, operationally, I think What I hope continues is the engagement we've seen in the SEC primarily this year about the lit Exchanges and how what an incredible role they've played in maintaining stability in the most uncertain of times. I hope that continues. I think it will. But Chris, I think the amount of time the team at the SEC has spent with us in regular calls, updates Communication is a model for the future, but a couple of words from you, I think operationally is important. Yes, Chris. So we've had great dialogue, continued great dialogue with the commission We look forward to continuing to work with them. Obviously, in January, we saw record volumes across many asset classes, U. S. Equities, U. S. Options, just Incredible volume really and really the market structure worked as designed and I think we will see the SEC Focused on investor protection, on investor education, which very much aligns with what our goals are as well, which is Investor education, empowerment and making sure the market structure is serving the investing public well. And that's really lit markets at the center of it. And those lit markets and CCPs, etcetera, they showed very well in January despite some Kind of unprecedented events. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And the next question comes from Owen Lau with Oppenheimer. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. So a quick one from me on Slide 14. Your organic growth For recurring non transactional revenue was 9% in 2020. What are the factors that make you to guide only to 6% to 7% in 2021. So are you being conservative? Or there are like any reasons you want to call out that What's slowdown the growth? Thank you. No, I would say that we actually are still pretty Pleased with the kind of that mid- to high single digit growth rate. We as that base gets larger, as you know, There were some we continue to look at where our penetration is, where the opportunity is. Obviously, coming out of the gate, We look at our pipeline. We look at where we are. We are going to be conservative where we are, but we're still pretty pleased with that growth rate. We still think there's We still look at where we are from a geographic standpoint as far as where are we seeing growth coming across the asset classes, where they're coming across from the U. S, EMEA, APAC and where it's generating those growth targets, you've heard Ed and Chris and John talk About the ISG opportunities that are out there from the index services and the historical data sets to the new data and analytics services and expanding the customer base. So again, we actually like that growth rate, and Some of that is a normalization from the growth rate from where we were from the prior year with some of the acquisitions. But overall, I think it reflects a very good expectation for a go forward basis. Thank you. And the next question comes from Kyle Voigt with KBW. Hi, good morning. Can I just follow-up on the prior SEC question? Market Data Infrastructure Reform was passed in December. Obviously, there's a really long road to potential implementation, but how should investors be thinking about your SIP fees under a competing consolidator model Or maybe your Prop Data revenues if there's more depth of book eventually included in the SEC. Yes, Kyle, I'll jump in on that. So we've made our views on both the governance, The government's proposal or order as well as the infrastructure rule pretty clear in all of our comments there. So I'll refer you to those. We We have broadly been supportive of increasing the quality of the content of the SIPs and over the years have been very supportive of I'm improving the technology as well. So but we do differ on certain points with the SEC on both the governance and infrastructure So we think there's opportunity for the SIPs to continue as they are with some enhancements as well as Our proprietary market data continue to be valuable for those who decide to purchase it. We don't see them as mutually exclusive. We see them as complementary. Thank you. And the next question comes from Chris Allen with Compass Point. Hey, morning guys. I wanted to ask about the impact from acquisitions next year. The 4% to 6%, I think it equates to about $50,000,000 to $75,000,000 of incremental revenues. Just wondering what was the revenue generation so For this year and what are the different components? I think bids trailing 12 month revenues were running about $42,000,000 as of June. Then Euroclear second half of this year is about $14,000,000 to $20,000,000 annualized Canadian equities another $7,500,000 on annualized basis. Just wondering what are the different components of getting numbers a little bit higher than what your guidance implies? I'm sorry, Chris, was your number I'm sorry, your question was specifically around 20 or I'm not sure. Yes. What was the revenue What was revenue contribution from deals in 2020? And then what's baked into expectation for the 20 $21,000,000 impact, which is about $50,000,000 to $75,000,000 just because bids impact and then the run rates of the current Deals that we can see implies about $77,500,000 and that doesn't assume any impact from the derivatives rollout in Europe or any growth. Well, right, the derivatives roll you're correct. The derivatives roll out is purely was more of the expense as we rolled that off As far as the excuse me, as we roll that into the overall expense guidance, I think the 4% to 6% Rate for going forward, I mean, I think that's more of a math question. So I think I'm not sure what additional color I can provide there as far as What that looks like? And then as you look at the 2020 numbers, I don't know if I have the total dollar amount in front of me as far as The specific 2020 contribution, I can certainly get that to you. I just don't have that number All aggregated from each of those individual. I'll just say that the run rate on a go forward basis, again, We feel good about that 4% to 6% range, and with all the announcements that we've had around, including the bids numbers that we gave you, but we can certainly follow-up On the specific detail that's included in the 2020. Okay, thanks. Thank you. And the next question is a follow-up from Alex Kramm with UBS. Yes. Hey, thanks. Sorry, just a couple of quick Love to end the call here. These are housekeeping questions. Coming back to the EuroCCP, can you just Flush out what happened there sequentially in terms of the revenues. I think they were down quarter over quarter decent amounts, But cleared volume was up. You don't provide a lot of revenue capture metrics there. So anything you can help, so we model that stuff better. And then speaking of bids, Again, as this comes in now, can you just help us with the geography of the in your In your income statement or rather in your segments, I mean, there's a U. S. And a Europe business. Are you going to break this up? Or where should we be including this for the time being? Thanks. So, the 'twenty for The bid is going to roll up into North American equities is where we're going to see that. And we'll provide As much kind of color as we can around the metrics there. So look for that on a go forward basis With our volume release, on the overall EuroCCP revenue And the volumes and the revenue, we were up. We saw a little bit, as you'll see with the capture. And over time, we'll Provide more and more color as far as some of the what the capture and the metrics that go there. But anytime we see with some of the volume increases, you're going to see a little bit of mix shift within the fee schedule with respect to tiers, types of clearing, types of settlements. So overall, We're actually pleased with the 3Q to 4Q growth rate. The 3Q actually had a little bit of a lift because of a liquidity credit That we're able to take advantage of in 3Q, but from a pure, I'll call it from a transaction basis, we actually had a nice lift overall in revenues. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And the next question is a follow-up from Richard Petta with Piper Sandler. Yes. Good morning, again. First, I would just want to say I was a little unconscious. I didn't make the connection between Bats and Kansas But I didn't mean to offend any of my Kansas City friends with that. I'm trying to forgive you, Rich. Okay. But I do really have a follow-up. And the question is on there's been a number of questions, but on the retail frenzy that we've seen in trading And all the issues around it, but I guess I wanted to ask Ed or Chris, what do you see as potential solutions to it? No, that is yes, I don't know that you can do or the SEC or anybody else. Rich, I don't think it's Do you need a solution? Yes. Great. A good way to put it, I think, I don't know that I'd categorize as solution, Transparency, education, what is the hunger? Why what is the motivating factor on some of these investment decisions? What is the duration? What's the goal? I think my reference to investing in retail is understanding the exposure that retail is looking for, understanding the What the retail investor of today is looking for, which is different perhaps than the retail investor of yesterday. So for us, as I've said, we continue to say, Rich, and I love the question because it's a great way to wrap this up. We can solve everything with education and transparency. We truly can. And our Options Institute is armed and ready to engage with new retail. Our research and development team are engaged with and we Teased that we're looking at contracts to bring to the market that address the needs of the new retail investor. That's what we're going to be focused on. I don't think there's a fixing that needs to be done out there, but education certainly does provide for a day in, day out, Year in, year out investor who's engaged trading suitable contracts and ones that we will help them with the basics. And as I say, Thank you. And the next question is a follow-up from Collier Voigt with KBW. Hey, thanks for taking my follow-up. Just a modeling question on the on other revenues of $13,900,000 Was that increase related to Euro CCP trade reporting or something else? And then just wondering how sustainable that level is. So that's going to be a collection of any number of things. It does have a little bit of the EuroCCP Items in it, it's going to and that's one where you don't we don't always have as much visibility to, but it's What we do, and I'll be honest from a modeling standpoint, we kind of look at the aggregate and see where the ebbs and flows have been over prior periods on a roll forward basis. Just not a material item that we look at, but there is a slightly higher contribution from EuroCCP. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And that does conclude the question and answer session. So I would like to return the floor to Debbie Koopman for any closing comments. Thank you. That completes our call this morning. We appreciate your time and continued interest in our company. I'll be available for any follow ups. Thank you. Thank you. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.