Earnings Call: Q2 2021

Jul 30, 2021

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Seaboard Global Markets Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, for opening introductions, I'd like to turn the call over to Debbie Koopin, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thanks, Keith. Good morning and thank you for joining us for our Q2 earnings conference call. On the call today, Ed Tilly, our Chairman, President and CEO, will discuss our performance for the quarter and provide an update on our strategic initiatives and Brian Schell, our Executive Vice President, CFO and Treasurer, will provide an overview of our financial results for the quarter as well as an update on our 20 is 21 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 Deters. In addition, I want to welcome Ken Hill, who recently joined Cboe as the Vice President of Investor Relations. Ken will take the lead on IR effective August 1 as I support him and transition to retirement later this year. I would like to point out that this presentation will include the use of and 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 and 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 any forward looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise after this conference call. During the call this morning, we will be referring to non GAAP measures as defined and reconciled in our earnings materials. I'd like to turn the call over to Ed. Thank you, Debbie. Good morning and thank you for joining us today. I hope that you're doing well and remaining safe and healthy. Our purpose is to operate a trusted inclusive global marketplace supported by our guiding principles, which include active transparency. It is in this spirit that we issued a press release this morning regarding spot volatility indices and I want to comment on that before I dive into the results for the quarter. As outlined in the press release, we recently discovered instances where the spot VIX index calculation differs from the calculation described in the VIX white paper, which details the formulas used for driving values related to VIX. Specifically, in certain instances, an an index level was not produced at the applicable interval resulting in the dissemination of the prior index value. These and other market conditions, we believe that VIX tradable futures and options as well as the NAVA products that track the daily closing prices, such as volatility ETP products were not impacted. In addition, the calculation of the final settlement value for expiring VIX derivatives, which uses an independent process, was not impacted. We are investigating the degree of impact and the number of instances with respect to which the re dissemination occurred. Based on our initial assessment, we we believe that the vast majority of cases, the current VIX index calculation yielded the same result as provided in the VIX white paper. Now turning to Slide 5. I'm pleased to report on strong financial results for the Q2 of 2021 at Cboe Global Markets. We continue to deliver on our strategic growth plan, expanding on the foundation we laid over the last year as we build one of the world's largest global derivatives and securities trading networks. For the quarter, we reported year over year increases in both transaction and recurring non transaction revenues, with net revenue up 18% to over $350,000,000 and adjusted EPS up 5%. Our solid results were driven by continued growth in recurring non transaction revenues, increased trading volumes and engagement of institutional clients trading our index options and volatility products. We saw strong year over year growth in our proprietary products. ADV increased by 40% in VIX futures, 41% in VIX options and 8% in SPX options. During the 2nd quarter, we made excellent progress executing on the 4 key incremental growth drivers I outlined at the beginning of this year. The opportunity to grow recurring non transaction revenue, the upcoming planned launch of Cboe Europe Derivatives, our expansion plans for BIDS and extending access to our products and services across geographies and market participants. July 1, we also closed our acquisition of Chai X Asia Pacific. We are very excited to further expand in this new region, and I'll share more about our plans later in the call. First, I'll touch on the solid growth of our recurring non transaction revenue, powered by our Data and Access Solutions business. Similar to the Q1, we exceeded our growth targets, achieving 21% growth during the Q2. This increase included organic growth of 19% year over year, which was fueled by an equal contribution from both proprietary market data fees and access and capacity fees. As a result of this continued strong performance, we are increasing our 2021 organic growth target for recurring non transaction revenue to a range of 12% to we expect to be approximately 15% from a range of 10% to 11%. The growth in non transaction revenue was driven by new subscriber and market data as customers look to gain global market access. Our data and access solutions business provides a suite of data analytics, market intelligence and execution services, allowing us to interact with and add value for market participants at every step of the trade process. Later this year, we plan to launch Cboe Global Data Cloud, which will provide cloud distribution for certain data products, creating a simple, efficient way for customers to access our data. Our goal is to optimize the efficiency and delivery of our data and access solutions to market participants across the globe, we believe the acquisition of QIAX creates a tremendous opportunity for this business. Turning to Europe, I'm pleased to report that we received regulatory approvals this month to launch Cboe Europe Derivatives and we are on track to go live with this new market on September 6. We have key market participants ready to support the exchange from day 1, including banks, clearing firms, market makers and proprietary trading firms we'll help contribute to the provision of liquidity and client order flow. I'm incredibly proud of our team and their dedication over the last 18 months working remotely from their homes to develop this new market designed to address the diverse needs of our customers. We believe that market participants will find tremendous benefit in being able to access a truly pan European transparent, efficient and lit derivatives market. Our overall business in Europe was we expect the launch of Cboe Europe Derivatives to build on this momentum. As we said before, we see a significant we need to grow the overall derivatives market in Europe. We are not aiming simply to take market share from incumbent exchanges. We intend to reshape expand derivatives trading across Europe with a novel market structure designed to attract both new and and participating participants, we're excited to get started doing just that in September. Moving to BIDS trading. Last month, we announced plans to launch Cboe LIS powered by BIDS in Canada February 2022. Based on our highly successful offering in Europe, our Canadian LIS offering, which is subject to regulatory approval, will combine the industry leading block trading capabilities from MatchNow, the Canadian alternative trading system Cboe acquired last year and bids to create an enhanced market center for block sized liquidity. The launch of bids in Canada will be coupled with the planned migration of National Decevo Technology, further extending our world class trading platform. Baysk has established itself as the premier block trading destination in the U. S. And Europe, and we are excited about our plans to expand the BIDS network to Canada and Asia Pacific, first into Australia and then Japan to serve even a broader base of customers. As we broaden our global footprint by entering new markets and launching new products and services, we further our goal of expanding access to a broader base of customers, both institutional and retail. Last month, we announced a November 21 launch for our extended global training hours of VIX and SPX options is part of our 24x5 initiative subject to regulatory review. The length of global trading hours will complement our entry into Asia Pacific with the Chaix acquisition and are designed to help meet growing investor demand with the ability to manage risk more efficiently, and we expect to continue to ramp to global macroeconomic events as they happen and adjust SPX index options positions around the clock. We've seen steady growth this year in SPX options trading on retail broker platforms as retail engagement across the market continues. Monthly ADV and SVX options on retail platforms has increased more than 50% since the start of the year. We've also continued to see strong growth in multi listed options trading with ADV increasing 11% year over year in the second quarter. We see opportunity with the growing retail audience and remain committed to investing in education and product development to meet their unique needs. Product innovation remains a core focus of the Cboe franchise and we continue to evaluate opportunities to expand our proprietary product offering with smaller contract sizes that appeal to both retail traders and institutional investors. Enhancing and expanding our educational offering from the Options the Options Institute remains a top priority. Last quarter, the Options Institute hosted numerous webcasts and training sessions for market participants and also launched a new learning management system for retail and institutional investors looking to learn more about derivatives. We are currently demoing this system with clients and plan to make it available for on demand online education later this year. Additionally, we've cultivated an expert team of derivative specialists to serve as adjunct faculty instructors for the Options Institute and look forward to hosting classes beginning this fall. These distinguished practitioners specialize in derivatives products, operations and risk management, decision theory and research, and we look forward to engaging with and educating investors on the benefits derivatives can provide to their investment portfolios. And last, we closed our acquisition of Chai X at the beginning of July, enabling us to establish a significant presence in the Asia Pacific region. This acquisition marks a pivotal moment in our corporate evolution. We are now a truly global market infrastructure provider, operating markets and delivering products and services around the world every day of the week and around the clock. We plan to migrate Shaix to Cboe technology over time and the team is busy working through the integration plan and timeline. Offering one Unified Technology Platform will help provide market participants with greater access to Cboe's diverse product set and more efficiency, resiliency and functionality when trading across Cboe's markets. As we move forward, we see a significant opportunity to expand our ecosystem of market infrastructure and tradable products into one of the world's largest and most comprehensive global derivatives and securities networks. We have proven ourselves we are very pleased to announce that we are is the foundational element in creating products and services that expand the equities and derivatives landscape. Our transactional expertise allows us to create, package and distribute a host of market data, analytics and index products. Having recognized benchmark indices allows us in turn to develop additional tradable products and new markets for these products to trade, creating a virtuous cycle of and non transaction product growth at Cboe. You only have to look at the success of Cboe Europe, which started out as a small equity market it is now on the cusp of launching a pan European derivatives market to realize the power and potential of these relationships. I'm extremely pleased with our performance this quarter, and I want to thank all Cboe employees for their hard work and also welcome ChiX to the Cboe family. We look forward to delivering enhance value to our customers and our shareholders as we broaden our global network and access placebo's unique products and services. With that, I'll turn it over to Brian. Thanks, Ed, and good morning, everyone. Let me remind everyone that unless specifically noted, my comments relate to 2Q 'twenty one as compared to 2Q 'twenty and are based on our non GAAP adjusted results. As I just indicated, we reported strong financial results for the quarter, seeing solid contributions from our proprietary trading products as well as our data and access solutions. Earnings in the 2nd quarter increased on a year over year basis as we built a more balanced and diversified company. We remain steadfast in our efforts to become one of the world's largest global derivatives and securities networks, enhancing value to our customers as well as our shareholders. Now a quick review of the quarter. Our net revenue increased 18%, net transaction fees were up 19% and recurring non transaction revenue was up 21%. Adjusted operating expenses increased 34%, adjusted EBITDA of $234,000,000 was up 11% and finally, our adjusted diluted earnings per share was $1.38 up 5% compared to last year's quarterly results. Turning to the 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. I'll just provide summary thoughts. The revenue increase in our Options segment, which accounted for a majority of our total net revenue growth, was driven by higher and trading volumes in both our proprietary and multi listed options. Total options ADV was up 12% as we saw double digit increases in both index and multi listed options. Revenue per contract also moved higher by 5% given positive mix shift to index products and a strong increase in our multi listed options RPC, up 31%. And we continue to benefit from solid growth in recurring non transaction revenue, particularly accessing capacity fees in this segment. North American Equities revenue decreased 2% year over year as industry equity volumes in the U. S. Declined by 15% Incevo's market share trended lower, primarily reflecting incremental share going off exchange. While our overall market share has trended lower, our continuous trading market share has held up relatively well and we are optimistic about the many innovations we have introduced and plan to introduce to the market, including retail priority, quote depletion protection, earlier trading hours and periodic auctions. The volume declines in 2Q we're partially offset by a $10,000,000 contribution from BIDS and MatchNow for the quarter. Lastly, recurring non transaction revenue increased by more than $4,000,000 or 15% with organic growth of 14%. 2nd quarter revenue increased in futures by 31% on the back of a 49% increase in ATB. The revenue increased in Europe primarily reflects the addition of Euro CCP, which contributed $11,700,000 during the quarter and the impact of favorable foreign currency translation. Underlying the trends are strong in the business' average daily notional value traded on Cboe European Equities was up 16%, outpacing the broader market's 5% increase. Net Capture also rose 7% during the quarter. And finally, the 1% net revenue growth in FX was a result of slightly higher trading activity. Turning to expenses. Total adjusted operating expenses were approximately $128,000,000 for the quarter, up 34% compared to last year. Excluding the impact of acquisitions owed less than a year, adjusted operating expenses were up 16% or $16,000,000 for Pivo's recurring non transaction revenue momentum accelerated in the 2nd quarter with year over year organic growth reaching 19%. Again, the strong growth was largely a product of additional subscriptions and units as opposed to price increases. More specifically, we are seeing both physical and logical port usage has accelerated in our Equities and Options businesses, driven by increased demand for trading capacity. On on the market data side, we have seen equities also perform well as the strength of Cboe 1 and top of book products have driven market and data growth both domestically and internationally. We are excited to build on our strong organic growth trends with the addition of Chai X and its revenue base is approximately 2 thirds recurring in nature. We are increasing our organic growth outlook by 2 percentage points to 12% to 13% as we factor in the Chagix contribution. Our total non transaction revenue growth is now expected to reach 15% to 16% for 2021, up 4 percentage points versus our prior expectation. Overall, our recurring and revenue businesses remain a critical component of the Cboe growth story and one that we expect to continue to accelerate and diversify our revenue stream over time. Moving to our expense guidance. We are reaffirming our full year range of $531,000,000 to $539,000,000 importantly, our unchanged guidance range now includes the full impact of Chai X, an incremental $13,000,000 which is expected to be are completely offset by expense reductions related to COVID-nineteen in 2020 that have continued into 2021 longer than we initially expected, a reduction in facilities overlap given our ability to expand space in one of our existing locations and lower compensation expense due to hiring at a slower pace than we initially expected within both our core operating expenses as well as some of our strategic growth initiatives. Note that we expect the incremental Chaius expenses to be more than offset by for revenues, we expect our expense spend to increase sequentially in 3Q and 4Q and we expect to see positive returns for the investments we're making. Specifically, our investments reflect our plan to increase access to our existing products and services, especially growth in our index options and by developing, listing and distributing unique products, enhancing our marketing, education and content and increasing our efforts to tap into the growing base of retail investors. Turning now to a summary of full year guidance on the next slide. We are lowering our guidance for depreciation and amortization to $34,000,000 to $38,000,000 are from $38,000,000 to $42,000,000 Our CapEx guidance range moves $5,000,000 lower to $55,000,000 to $60,000,000 And while our effective tax rate for and the Q2 was 30.1 percent, above last year's rate of 26.7 percent and above our guided range of 27.5 to 29.5%, we are reaffirming the guidance for the full year under the current tax laws. However, we now expect the adjusted effective tax rate for full year to be at the higher end of the guidance range given where we are in 2021 through June. While we are not providing full year and guidance on interest expense, we note that we drew an additional $110,000,000 on our term loan credit agreement at the end of the second we are in order to fund a portion of the JYX deal. Going forward, absent any additional borrowing and significant changes to LIBOR, our interest expense for the Q3 of 2021 is expected to be $11,500,000 to $12,000,000 slightly below our 2nd quarter expense of $12,300,000 reflecting more favorable rates associated with amendments to our term loan facility and Euro CCP credit facility that were effective late June early July, respectively. In addition to the investment priorities we outlined earlier in the call, we we remain committed to returning excess cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. From a capital return perspective, our strong cash flow generation enabled us to return $79,000,000 to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases in the Q2. We plan to continue to use our share repurchase we will be conducting a few key factors to our leverage ratio increased slightly versus the quarter to 1.5 times at June 30th as a result of the additional term loan financing used to partially fund the Chides acquisition. Overall, our balance sheet remains unencumbered as we look to put incremental capital to use in the we are very pleased to report solid 2Q results. We we are even more excited about the momentum we carry into the remainder of this year with an increase in guidance for our non transaction revenue growth rate, overall and importantly, organic and our unchanged expense guidance range despite the addition of Chai X expenses. We believe we have made I expect to continue to make investments that are set to deliver an increased value to our shareholders. Now I'd like to turn the call back over to Ed for some closing comments before we open it up to Q and A. Thanks, Brian. Before we turn to Q and A, I wanted to quickly highlight a couple of important corporate developments. As we accelerate our growth and operations on a global scale, we remain focused on our environmental footprint, social responsibilities and opportunities to make a difference in the communities in which we live and work. To that end, last month we announced a new community engagement program, Cboe and Powers. This program provides mentorship, scholarships and guidance to under resourced students through their educational journey from elementary school to career. Cboe Empowers is our most ambitious film topic endeavor to date. We couldn't be more excited to help equip the next generation with opportunity to realize and career choices available to them as they embark on building their future. Additional information about this exciting program as well as some of the other and initiatives we are focused on regarding environmental, social and corporate governance is included in our recently published and the SEC's Q1, we are committed to doing our part to help ensure we are tackling the important challenges of our global community is facing today and in the future. I'd also like to I will take a minute to express my immense gratitude to Debbie Kootman for her service to Cboe as she will be retiring in November. During her 13 years with us, she has built Cboe's Investor Relations program from the ground up, played a major role in our transition to a public company through our successful IPO in and has been pivotal in the execution of our acquisition strategy. She has helped shape and communicate Cboe's vision and mission to and development community, developing strong relationships with our shareholders, potential investors and research analysts. I have always appreciated her sharp wit, tough questions, friendship and indelible laugh and will miss working with her. We are thrilled to have Ken Hill succeeding Debbie as Vice President of Investor Relations. Ken joined us last month and is working closely with Debbie to ensure a smooth transition. His experience and expertise in Capital Markets makes him a perfect fit for this role. We wish Debbie all the best and her retirement. I'll now pass it back to Debbie for instructions on the Q and A portion of the call. Thanks, Ed. At and if time permits, we'll take a second question. Operator? Thank you. Yes, we will now begin the question and answer session. Please withdraw your question. And this morning's first question comes from Rich Repetto with Piper Sandler. Good morning, Ed and Brian. And I guess, first, I got to extend my appreciation and thanks to Debbie. You've had a heck of a run, let me tell you. And it goes all the way back beyond the CBOE to the CBOT as well. But thank you for all the help you've given and the investment community. So she made me, Ed, she said, this is the last call she goes, you better ask about growth. So I will ask about growth. Well, Rich, that is a good question. What would you like to know? Yes. Well, on the organic growth going up by 200 basis points and then the non transactional recurring going up by about 400 basis points. So is it roughly the explanation here, 2% organic lift and then 2% from Kiox on the recurring side and then just a little bit more deeper color on it. Is it what's how's Kathy it seems like Kathy Clay and your reorganization is benefiting you. And then on the Kayak side, can you go through once again why that is so a high percentage of non transactional recurring revenue. Excellent setup and thanks for the call out to Debbie. You're right. She's been an anchor for us long before the IPO. So thank you for calling that out. As for growth, couldn't be more excited to share with you a little bit more color there. And yes, Kathy's business is really set up nicely for us. The timing is perfect. We definitely have the right leader there. But Brian, why don't you Take it over. Yes. So, we do love this question, Rich. And so I'll just kind of reiterate a couple of things. 1, on the access capacity, we've kind of seen that strength all year long, again reflecting, like I said, accelerated demand for basically overall and the capacity to access our markets, again, showing the quality and depth in what we're doing there. And again, that is across the board. That is options, equities, Europe, actually the strongest on a pure growth rate is European Equities. From an overall contribution, it's it's still coming from the options business as well as North American Equities. On the market data side, I would say a couple of things I want to hit there as well is that I hinted that that growth is actually coming also internationally and domestically. If we look at just the market data growth, we're seeing that most of that, not most of it, the majority of it, I'll say, more than 50% is actually coming internationally. So we're still seeing really, really good strength there as far as what's that happening. And then I would say from the incremental guidance that we're seeing is, we look at our pipeline. We have assumptions around attrition, that may or may not happen. I will tell you what we're seeing is that the things that we've been doing, the continued enhancements that the team is making, we've seen a decline in the attrition rate. So we're actually seeing, I'll say better results than we had actually originally forecasted, so the attrition rate is actually down from what we've experienced in the past. So we're seeing it be even stickier than it was in the past. So that's driving a lot of the, I'll call it, the incremental guide on the growth rate in the non transaction revenue. On the JAKKS, so yes, that is a bit of a kind of a little bit more uniqueness to the market structure, say, of Australia and Japan, particularly Australia, if you look at the overall mix, it's roughly a fifty-fifty between market data and access capacity fees, a little bit more leaning towards market data and it's more weighted at the higher percentage of the OVR mix within Australia. Got it. Thanks guys and thanks, Debbie. Thanks, Rich. Appreciate it. Thank you. And the next question comes from Alex Kramm with UBS. Yes. Hey. Not to ask the same question again on ChiX, but I know you've given some revenue numbers specifically in the past that you said it's a fast growing business. So, can you just update us on current run rates? And then also maybe a little bit more specifically in terms of where this is all going to fall from a modeling perspective. Is this going to be a new segment or where it's going to go? Sorry, if you've provided that before. And then just sorry for the long winded question here, but like, can you maybe expand on the immediate plans here for the business in terms of regional expansion or where you think you can make the most impact quickly in terms of enhancing technology or order types, what's really the plan of attack in the next 6, 12, 18 months? Thanks. Let's go in reverse. Chris, you want to start off with the plan, I think, what you and Dave have outlined, let's give a little bit more clarity there and then Brian, you can fill in then on the first part of the question. So let's start in reverse, if that's okay, Alex, and I Appreciate it. Sure. Yes, thanks for the question, Alex. Good morning. In the integration plan, we as we do with normally with integrations, we do plan to migrate to our we plan to first bring bids to the region, first in Australia, then in Japan. And that we haven't put out specific dates, but we're moving swiftly now that we have the transaction closed and working with our new colleagues there. And then we would migrate, likely first Australia and then Japan to Cboe Technologies, the same platform we use to run all of our equity options in the futures market. So we're moving very quickly. We'll have more firm dates in the coming months, but really pleased with the initial we'll work with our colleagues there. Very excited about the growth opportunities in Asia, both for those existing equity markets, but also the access and distribution it gives us for other products around the world. Chris, why don't you pick up then also on the effort at the Q4 here end of the year on 20 fourfive as you say with existing products and our bigger presence in the region. Yes, sure. So as Ed mentioned in his opening remarks, so November 21, we plan to extend trading hours to nearly 24x5 for SPX and VIX options on our Cboe options market. That will better align with our CFE futures or VIX futures that are already trading 24.5. This is in Direct response to customer demand. They want to trade these options products around the clock, and so we want to provide them that access. We're adding a curb session here in September. It will be right after the market closes U. S. Time and then full or nearly 24x5 coming in November. So really excited about that and being able to distribute those to our APAC customers as well as those in other regions that may want to trade during those hours. Yes. And Alex, on the growth rate, I think we've historically said that we've seen some of the growth rates in the kind of the 20% range and where we are, we see that momentum continuing, whether that's kind of the low 20s, mid teens as far as we kind of looking forward and how we see that business Continuing to grow, we haven't seen any slowdown from, call it, when we started talking with them to to where we are today. And John, I don't know if you have any incremental color as well. Yes, Alex, this is John. It's just a little bit to Rich's prior question as well, a question of why non transaction revenues are substantial in this business. When we diligence the business, it was one of the really interesting things we found about the platforms in the 2 countries. They're highly connected. They're indispensable platforms in both countries. And as a result, you see reflected people really needing to take that access, take the data from both platforms. Where you can grow from there. To your question, Alex, we were relative to the size of the Chai X businesses, we see a market opportunity just looking at the incumbents of 20 times the size of the revenues of these businesses. And our aspiration is always to grow the pie, just like we talk about for European derivatives. It's not just to take share from the incumbents. So we think it's pretty clear case where we can take the business from its position today. Right. That's helpful. I'll jump back in the queue. Thanks. Thank you. And the next question comes from Alex Blostein with Goldman Sachs. Hey, guys. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. I was hoping you could expand a little bit more on this increased and incremental units dynamic for non transaction revenues you described earlier. So Brian, it sounds like increased demand for access fees, really kind of across the board, across all your markets, how much of that is coming from sort of existing customers versus new customers? If it is more of a bit of a new dynamic, it would be helpful if you can sort of characterize who they are? And then I guess just secondly, given tremendous amount of volume growth in both equities and options over the last 12 months, how much of that do you guys think could be cyclical versus secular? I will say that, and then we won't I don't have the I also call it the exact numbers you're looking for. I want to kind of talk high level trends of what we're seeing. And it's going to be primarily I mean you're going to have some new, but the bulk of that you're going to see the existing and you're going to see a reflection of 2 things. One is, and some of this has to do with some of the offerings we're also providing, but you're going to see I think it's a little bit of macro. Obviously, we're seeing higher volumes. So they're going to be pulling in. They want more access. They want more capacity. So you're definitely seeing some influence from macro and we won't be able to say, hey, it's coming from X percent from macro and increased volumes versus as they continue to figure out with their incremental analytics and what they're doing internally and adding the incremental ports. So we're seeing both and I think we're helping facilitate that with some of our in the pre trade, at trade, post trade analytics and services and what we're doing with them. So we're seeing a combination of both. So to go back to that then is that I would say the primary growth driver is the We're still seeing some new, but again, so it's I would say it's all of the 3. I wish I had one particular thing I could point at that certainly would make it easier, but I think it makes a really nice mix of diversity as we roll forward as we try and touch several levers to keep it moving forward and the momentum. Got it. Thank you. Thank you. And the next question comes from Owen Lau with Oppenheimer. Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Could you please give us an update of the product roadmap of Cboe Europe Derivatives after it goes live, which products you feel very strong about given your initial conversation with clients? And how should investors expect the pace of your product launch? Thank you. Sure. Let me start with, we are on time. As I've stated in the prepared remarks, regulatory review review and approvals are coming along nicely. We're operational ready. So starting with the 6 indices that we laid out over the last couple of quarters is how we're starting. And from there, we'll be looking to expand with more country specific exposure, but I think the model is what I'd like to draw your attention to. If you remember, being able to express interest across Europe in 1 CCP, it's really the capital efficiencies that we've been chasing. It's the efficiency of a lit accessible market, the U. S. Model if you will for posting liquidity, rewarding liquidity providers who are posting that liquidity with the ability to trade, the ability to cross bid ask. So it really is the benefit from customers looking on a screen and seeing an accessible market, market makers rewarded for the liquidity that they post we open to the close and then the efficiency of having 1 CCP where cross European exposure can be most optimally clear. So again, not a market share play. This is really expanding what we think is the opportunity for pure growth and being able to express an opinion in individual country and European risk. Chris, anything Ed? I think you nailed it Ed. We are just super excited about this, Owen. We realize this is a long term investment. We've said for many quarters now. So we recognize that the build will be somewhat slow in 'twenty one. That's why we haven't projected massive revenues in 2021, but this is the start of what we think is a long term growth play for us under the leadership of Dave Howson and team in Europe, we've had good demand across the ecosystem, good readiness, right on schedule and starting with those indices first, the 6 indices first and then eventually and more country specific, more single stock options as well and futures, so we have a long term growth path here that our customers are wanting again, just like 20 fourfive. These are this is a customer driven effort. We have customers saying we want this exposure in a better market structure than we have today. Got it. That's very helpful. Thank you very much. Sure. Thank you. And the next question comes from Brian Bedell with Deutsche Bank. Great. Thanks. Good morning, folks. Maybe back on to recurring revenue, just the updated guidance for the second half of 21, I guess, either Brian or Chris. Is that based on the current subscription value that you have in the ground right now and what QIAX Asia has right now or are there increasing more penetration of data, especially with the Chai X business factored into that guidance. And then as we look into 2022, it's probably early, but given that opportunity, you mentioned the incumbents are 20 times the size of Chiay X, Japan and Australia and other opportunities, can you just talk about maybe the confidence of potentially also being able to generate double digit recurring revenue growth on an organic basis, not including acquisitions in 2022. Brian, you want to start? Yes. I'll try to unpack that. Hopefully, I'll get them all, Brian. So please remind me or let us know if we can get them on. So, as far as the non transaction revenue growth, we will in that growth expectation is, we tend to be conservative, as you know. And while there is a pipeline, we have some visibility. We do have some assumptions around it, it's primarily going to reflect a, I'll call it a growth rate of kind of where we are today and what we see, and relative to our growth last year as well, right? So you've seen consecutive quarters of this category continue to grow. We're continuously running against higher and higher comps prior year. But I would say the short answer is it primarily reflects what we see today, trying to factor in, as I mentioned earlier, to Rich's original question about kind of what are we seeing some of the growth and changing that is the lower attrition rates and like I said, some slightly stronger pipeline with some percentage of success rates over time. And again, sometimes it's hard to predict when those sign, but that's somewhat factored in. I think on the Chaiac side, I'm going to let John talk a little bit about that, as far as the growth and how we're seeing that relative to Yes. Brian, the growth rate in historically for KRYSTEXX has been double digit both on the transaction side and the data and access side. But you'll recall when we framed the strategic benefits of the deal on announcement, we talked about Really three levels intrinsic to the opportunity. There's the transaction growth opportunity and that's about market share. We've done that before in other markets. We look to do that in these 2. It's about 2, it's about data distribution and this opportunity really is a two way opportunity. So as Chris mentioned and Brian touched on, being able to distribute our existing data properties into the Asia Pacific theater where we really probably had single digit representatives in the past and now we've got all teams and platforms. That's a game changer and going the other direction, are being able to distribute data from those markets into our existing markets where we've got significant presence. And then finally, the third level is on bids and connectivity with bids. And that bids will drive both of those. It'll drive transaction volume and it'll drive the data opportunity in Australia and Japan. And Brian, I just had one more thing on data real quick. It's just think about we're adding to the different datasets we're able to offer with the transactions from last year and also more raw data sets from our markets. So the what is increasing, the way we're increasing, where we're distributing that existing data around the globe, as Brian mentioned, getting a lot of growth outside the U. S. For instance. And then how Ed mentioned in his remarks around Cboe Global Cloud, the way in which we're distributing that data is also increasing. So that's why we think this is a secular growth path for us and we're quite excited about it. Yes. That's super helpful. Thank you. Thank you. And the next question comes from Kyle Voigt with KBW. Hi, good morning. So you've done several bolt on type acquisitions over the past 18 months. Just curious, are you seeking out deals specifically in that smaller size range? And I'm just trying to get a better sense if looking ahead, if there's a strong preference for bolt on size transactions or whether you'd be open to larger type acquisitions whether scale or more transformational as well? The answer has to be yes. We're not afraid Look at a lot of larger deal. We don't have the need. That's not something that we wake up and say we have to go do. But I think more importantly is the type of transaction that we would look at and if you can put size to the side for a moment is really in our core. We we believe we've done a pretty good job in M and A with filling out the suite of products and services that help our customers pre, at and post trade, we like that and we're in a full integration mode. But we look at the asset classes and geographies that we think we have an advantage to compete. If a country or region is open for competition, we want to look how to Get in and compete in a way that we operate, so that our customers when they see Cboe, they see an asset class that Cboe is involved in, that there is trust, there is knowledge, there is reliability, there is consistency. So we'll look across the globe. And if a region is competitive and open for competition, we want to take a good hard look. We're also interested in scale. So in the regions that we operate today, we'll continue to look for opportunities to expand our presence. So I hope that gives you a sense of how we view M and A. John, feel free to jump in. Yes. Thanks, Ed. Kyle, I think, to Ed's point, the smaller scale acquisitions really are something we think of as an extension of our organic capabilities. With all humility, we think we're quite good at it. From an integration standpoint, Chris mentioned the team's focus and planning around every opportunity, it really drives the organic growth opportunity for us. And consider the just Chai X alone relative to the scale of capital that had to be deployed to acquire that business, the returns that you we'll garner on an aggregate basis with these types of transactions are really, really meaningful. So again, it's not to We favor 1 versus the other, small versus scale, but small can have a really useful role to play in our organic growth plans. Helpful. Thank you. Thank you. And the next question comes from Michael Cyprys with Morgan Stanley. Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to ask about market data. You guys have made a number of acquisitions here. Maybe you could just update us on your sales strategy on the market data front, how your sales teams are organized? How you're bringing them together? Or to what extent do you operate them separately? And if you could just talk a bit about how you're using the sales teams to accelerate growth. Let me tee it up and Brian will give you a little bit more detail about how you should be viewing it and where you can find it. I think importantly, last quarter, we did announce that Cathy Clay will be leading up a new division here with Data and Access Services and Solutions, which is very, very important to us. But Brian, I think how to track that model that, just A little guidance there would be helpful. Yes. I think that there's 2 things that I would say that I think we'd say incremental momentum here with what Ed mentioned as far as with Kathy and pulling this together is, one is what we're doing, I'll call it, on the more analytic side and the computational versus the real time and that's bringing a renewed focus, bringing it all together and making it more digestible and easier, and meeting outside customer demand for that. And so that's really helping to accelerate that and enabling, I'll call it the sales force and I'll say that word very broadly to be able to package that offering In a more integrated way. Again, more work to be done there, but we're working towards that. I would say that more broadly though, what is missed and sometimes oversold, but we're not going to oversell it here is that there is a cross sell effort across the asset classes, that's really, really important. We are seeing continue to see incremental growth coming out of our equities business. And it's not just the market data sales team, it's the team that's actually focused on growing the transaction business continuing to talk to the clients about the quality of the market data, the different offerings, the depth of book, top of book, whatever might meet those needs So that cross sell effort across all the asset classes, Europe, Asia, we look at it with respect to options. The team has been able to do that. So it's not just a market data sales team, it's actually the broader sales team across all the businesses, even like I said, those focused on the transaction business. So that rallying, we're seeing a lot more momentum, Really starting to take hold. And frankly, we want to incent that behavior and we do, so that again, we all grow, on the top line basis. I think importantly, what Brian is hinting to along the combined sales effort of real time and enhanced market data with Feet, Trade Alert and the analytics that Hamwick provides, it really is an incredibly powerful, expandable and portable platform and relationships, so just the beginning stages. As I said, we just started calling this out a quarter ago. So keep watching this one. We're excited about it. Great. Thank you. Thank you. And the next question is a follow-up from Alex Kramm with UBS. Hey, thanks again. Actually 2 quick follow ups. 1, and sorry if you mentioned this, but on Slide 12, when you talk about the non transaction revenues, I noticed that the proprietary market data subscription that chart on the bottom right that only 6 the percentage of subscriptions and incremental units has declined over the last few quarters. So am I reading this right as saying you've been able to take a little bit more pricing? And if so, can you just discuss where you think you've had incremental pricing power or if there's still a lot of Aside from pricing, the environment and pushback has changed, so just an update on pricing, sorry if I missed it earlier. And then just one very quick one. On one of your summary chart slides, you had a bullet on positive tractions in Corporate Bond Index Futures on the futures business. You didn't speak to it. So just curious if you just if there's there's anything real going on quite frankly we haven't heard about that opportunity in a while. Thanks. Yes. So I'll take Alex, on the pricing, I'm happy to talk a little bit about that. It was I'll call it it was introduction of some pricing. And so it wasn't really a strategy shift as an explicit of, hey, we're going to try and get some more Got you. So it was a little bit more normalization. So it was a it was in the equity side of the business, and it was kind of a little bit of new pricing. So it wasn't any significant pushback. Honestly, it was pretty minor, given the overall mix. It showed up because so much had been there really hadn't been much pricing action that had been going on, which is why it's kind of had a little bit of that blip. So it really isn't a change in strategy as far as the what we expect to see in the near term. On the futures, thanks for highlighting that. I mean, that's been a really strong growth story as we look at the actual overall units. We haven't made a large headline out of those as yet, although we're incredibly proud of the success and where we are though. As you look at the overall numbers relative to the rest The scale of the business, it's not a huge revenue producer yet, but as we know, you have to start from somewhere. So we've seen a just if we look at the whole Ibox complex, we've seen a 90% growth rate or more from where we were before. And we've seen growth not only from last year, but also from the Q1 of, call it, 20% range across that complex. So it's really nice momentum and we continue to see that that continues to build. Alex, great question. You're not the only one. So this is how things start, right? Volume, this kind of growth starts to get the attention. What we're really looking for and where the demand is, is the large blocks and we need to satisfy that. The inbound and the interest, especially in this market, and you can see the growth in high yield in particular, really looking for block trade size and solving that is what we'll be talking about in the quarters to come. So thank you for calling that out. You're welcome. Thank you for taking the question. Thank you. And the next question also is a follow-up from Ryan Bedell with Deutsche Bank. Great. Thanks for taking my follow-up. Just wanted to ask about market structure U. S. Equity cash equities market structure. Just maybe your viewpoint and exchanges that have been mentioned, whether you think allowing the exchanges to sub penny price it's something that would be realistic and helpful for that issue to reduce the tariff. I mean, any update on the V1 market data in terms of regulatory structure on that. Great. Chris and I will probably take this in tandem. Let me kick it off. Yes, we do believe any effort and we think the the Chair has called out his desire to look at a review, what role do lit markets play in price formation? Of course, from our perspective, any discussion that allows for more competition, more price discovery, equal playing field as far as regulatory review oversight, we're all for it. So just in general, these are really, really healthy discussions and we're primed and ready to participate in the debate. I think, Chris, from your perspective, another couple of comments on what we think are the low hanging fruit as far as trading increments, transparency would be great. Yes. Brian, good question. I mean, we think now is a good time for the commission to be looking at this under Chair Gensler, who's, we think, focused on the right things, which is better outcomes for investors. We think the market is operating quite well today, but there could be some changes that would even improve the environment and changes of tick sizes or finer tick sizes on Exchange that would match what is allowed to be done off exchange could help level the playing field. Everyone has been watching the growth of off exchange volume that's Brian mentioned in his remarks that's hard to ignore. And so we are for displayed Quotes and Markets and Transparent Markets, and we think tick size reform could help in that effort. And then greater disclosure and transparency, as always around best execution. So no dramatic reforms we're pushing for, but we think it's time to review tick sizes for sure. That's helpful. And any update on the market data issues as well? Nothing material to update on market data. We continue to track it closely, but we frankly welcome the focus on what we think are important issues for the retail investors. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. And that concludes the question and answer session. I would like I'd like to return the floor to Debbie Koopin for any closing comments. Thanks, Keith. Appreciate it. That concludes the call. But before we end, I just wanted to take a minute to thank everybody for your kind words. It's been extremely gratifying working with all of you over the years. I was going to say more, but I don't know I'm going to be able to. But anyway, it's been great. I appreciate your friendship and working with all of you and the great opportunity to be part of the Cboe team. And I look forward I'll miss everybody, but I do look forward to my new role I'm going to get in retirement and that in December, I'm going to be a grandma. So that will be my new title going forward. Thank you all. Thank you, Debbie. Thank you. Thank you. And that does conclude today's teleconference. Thank you so much for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.