Good day,
and welcome to the CME Group First Quarter 2018 Earnings Call. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. John Feaster. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning, and thank you all for joining us today. I'm going to start with the Safe Harbor language, and then I'll turn it over to Terry for brief remarks, we'll open it up for your questions. Other members of our management team will also participate in the Q and A. Statements made on this call and in the slides on our website that are not historical facts are forward looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance.
They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied in any statements. More detailed information about factors that may affect our performance can be found in our filings with the SEC, which are on our website. Also on the last page of the earnings release, you will find a reconciliation between GAAP and non GAAP measures.
With that, I would like to turn the call over to Terry. Thanks, John. As John said, we want to thank you all for joining us this morning. We appreciate your interest in CME Group. I hope you've had a chance to read through the Q1 earnings commentary document we provided earlier this morning.
As you can see, the strength of the quarter was broad based across products and geographies as a significant number of customers actually turn to CMEs markets to manage their risk. Many of the themes that we have spoken about the past few years were clearly on display this quarter. Those include our focus on driving trading volume 24 hours a day, delivering additional innovative futures and options products to meet client needs and drive additional revenue and remaining efficient on the expense side. The combination of those efforts led to over 50% adjusted net income and diluted earnings per share growth in Q1. At the end of the Q1, we were pleased to announce the transaction with the NEX Group.
We are working diligently on the timeline we outlined on the analyst call. The next shareholder vote has now been set for May 18. We have begun the process of seeking regulatory approvals We continue to expect the transaction to close in the second half of this year. With that short introduction, we'd like to open the call for your questions and we'll start now.
Thank And we will take our first question from Dan Fannon of Jefferies.
Thanks. Good morning. I guess the first question is on market data. We saw the sequential decline and you highlighted the decline in audit fees. I guess
a little more color on
the outlook there. You had the April 1 price increase, maybe if there's any early signs in terms of attrition and kind of how we should be just thinking about the progression for 2018 for that line item?
John?
Thank you, Dan. Good morning. Market data came in at $95,000,000 this quarter. We had a $1,000,000 reclass from market data to other revenue. So including that reclass, we're running at similar levels as the 1st 3 quarters of last year.
In Q4, we saw some benefits of bringing the audit function in house with approximately $6,000,000 of settlements. And as we mentioned previously, expect there to be fluctuations up and down in this line quarter to quarter depending on the realization of those settlements. We have been building a pipeline that is being worked, So we do expect those fluctuations to continue. Before I turn it over to Brian to talk a little bit about what he's seeing in the Market Data business, As you indicated, the big change coming is the real time market data price increase, which is going from $85 to $105 per screen, which went into effect in April. Our real time market data accounts for the majority of the market data revenue.
And since the announcement of the price increases, we've seen a stable level of subscribers. So Brian?
I would just point out that with respect to the audits, the resolution and settlements can be quite protracted. There's a number that are in the hopper right now that we look forward to and hope to resolve in the next quarter. You saw what happened last quarter with the amount of settlements that took place. What's even more imperative to us is the correction of behavior. So what we are seeing is a stabilization in the context of what you may have seen in past decline of screen counts.
What we are seeing is an improvement in terms of the reporting of real time screens That in combination with the $20 adjustment in terms of going from $85 to $105 which took effect April 1 is something that we'll be watching closely. Also with respect to the derived data, you need to keep in mind that some of those contractual arrangements can be quite chunky themselves and can take some time to be able to negotiate those agreements. So I would just kind of temper that a little bit in the context of quarter by quarter and how those two areas hit.
Great. Thank you.
Thanks, Dan.
And next we will go to Chris Allen with Rosenblatt.
Good morning, guys. Good morning, Chris. I was wondering if you could give us I was wondering if you could give us some color on the equity and gains in unconsolidated subs, assuming that's related to the S and P joint venture. Wonder if you can maybe help us think about what's been driven by the record activity we saw in the quarter and what's been driven by increased AUM to give us a sense for how should we think about the run rate moving forward?
Sure. Thanks, Chris. Yes, we've been very pleased with the performance of the S and P Dow Jones joint venture. As you know, the S and P JV revenue consists of assets under management, which is the majority of the also based on derivatives trading specifically here and in at CBOE. So you've seen our performance in equities this quarter up 47%.
So that is that gets paid through a license fee from us to them and then we then get back 27% of it through the earnings in the JV. Beboe also has had very good activity as well. So again, it's a lot of the dynamics that are positively impacting our business is positively impacting their business. And it's just been a tremendous business model that they have and one that we're very happy to participate in.
Is it roughly about eightytwenty AUM to activity? Is that kind of a good ballpark to think about or?
I think it's they're reporting their earnings right now. So they'll have the most recent breakdown for you there. But again, like I said, it's been a positive with regard to our equity activity, really positive in terms of both the S and P and also NASDAQ futures has performed also very well.
Great. Thanks, guys.
Thanks. We will now move to Rich Repetto with Sandler O'Neill.
Yes. Good morning, Carrie. Good morning, John. I guess I'll use a question on this. I don't know whether they're going to answer.
But any updated views on the Next Group acquisition and the timeline? I know you said the timeline, Terry, but the whether the mix how are you going to keep the dividend and how long you would extend the leverage out, I guess, or how quickly you would pay down the debt?
Yes, Rich, I'll take part of that. So there's really no new update to the time line other than what Terry mentioned, we do expect the shareholder vote on May 18. It's been scheduled. We still plan on closing in the second half of this year. Also as Terry mentioned, we're working through the regulatory approval process now.
So no real update on the timeline. In terms of leverage and paying down the debt, really nothing more to update you on than what we put in the 2.7 announcement. And really what we did is we approached our structure to the transaction and our approach over the next couple of years to be balanced in terms of investing in the business, returning capital to shareholders and paying down the debt. And as you saw, we in the 2.7 agreement, our announcement I should say, we expect to delever over the next couple of years down to levels that are similar to where we stand today. So that's our objective.
Okay. Thank you.
All right. Thanks, Rich. Thanks, Rich.
And our next question comes from Brian Bedell with Deutsche Bank.
Hi, good morning folks. Good morning, Brian. Maybe if I could just ask a little bit more detail on how the FX link is going. I think you guys launched that on March 26, and I know you're very you're upbeat on FX futures volumes increasing pretty significantly over time with the unclear margin rule. But if you could just go into a little detail about what how you see usage on that platform and also while we're at it maybe also on the new products of the meat pick and taco?
Sure. This is Sean, Tommy. And thank you for those great questions. So on March 26, as folks know, we launched the FX Link. We are very excited about that.
We're doing several 100 contracts a day. More important thing I'd say in there is that, we've got a very good participation from the right set of clients. So this is not a couple of prop firms passing it around, but as in clients, we're using the product for the defined purpose. With such a large innovation, I'd say, right, where you're bringing together the OTC market and the futures market. I mean, it is going to take time for volumes to build and for additional participants to fully build automated trading.
We're currently seeing primarily I'd say point and click trading, but we do expect over the coming weeks months to see a greater number of automated traders. We know several firms that are building out in particular end users that are building out their automated trading. If we look at the BTIC, BTIC very exciting results this year. Last year we averaged less than tripled the volume in the BTEC, great innovation last year. It's got nearly a $3 RPC.
So very, very positive for the RPC to the entire equity complex, but obviously great innovation. Thanks for asking about Taco. We've got a number of new launches that are coming up over the coming month. On May 7, we're going to launch SoProf Futures. On May 14, we're going to launch the TACO on the equity indices.
And then on May 21, we are launching Colombian peso, Chilean peso and CNY or the renminbi, interest rate swap clearing. So we're very excited about the new product launches. In terms of Taco, Taco trade at cash open. So it is the opening market equivalent to BTEC, which is basis trade index close. It is not as large a market as the close.
So the opening market is a bit smaller. But we do expect similar set of participants with a similar set of efficiencies delivered to them and we are hearing a lot of excitement around it.
That's good color. And just back on FX, just is that an open architecture platform? I think that's with Citi. I guess can you do that through any bank or do those folks need to go to the Citi platform?
So Citi is the central prime broker, but we have now signed up several different prime brokers who are all available. So, yes, most participants now because of the number of prime brokers that we have will be able to access the trading. But again, it takes time for people to set up their own systems, in particular on the automated trading side to take advantage of it. Again, the good news is it takes a long time, right, to build up an ecosystem. But the really good news is we've got again a very solid and I'd say the right set of end customer participants who are in there doing point and click, who have said that they're in the process of building their automated trading.
So it's a very good start.
Great. Thanks for the color.
And we will now move to Christian Beaulieu with Bernstein.
Good morning, Terry. Good morning, John.
Good morning, Christian.
Hey. Curious on the software contracts you spoke about just a minute ago. I guess it sounds like there's significant customer appetite for the contract you'll be launching in May. I guess longer term, curious how that informs your view about the kind of the long term viability of LIBOR and LIBOR based contracts?
Sure. This is Sean jumping in. We are excited about the Sulfur launch. In terms of designing the contracts, we met face to face with more than 100 clients, working with our sales team and our research team in order to design the contracts. And the marketplace is very excited about the launch.
So in recent weeks, 80% of the calls actually in regards to so far are incoming from customers asking about it. So it also gives us a big opportunity to engage with clients very closely on our interest rate products. Actually in terms of that, CME Group is the natural home for the product. We are always looking at delivering efficiencies to the marketplace, efficiencies to our customers, because we're offering inter commodity spreads between our pet funds futures and our Eurodollar futures and the new silver futures. We will be the single most efficient place to execute those future contracts.
In addition to that on the clearing side, because we have huge open interest in eurodollar futures and Fed funds futures as well as treasury futures, you're going to see the greatest possible benefits in terms of margin and capital efficiencies. In terms of the uptake, I think that's highly uncertain. I think there's, as we know, 100 of 1,000,000,000,000 of dollars worth of derivatives and securities, in open interest in LIBOR. And several trillion, I think the last estimate from the alternative reference rate committee was on the order of $9,000,000,000,000 worth of securities in particular. And a very large portion of those go out in terms of maturity for many years.
So I don't personally see LIBOR going away anytime soon. I think it will remain extremely healthy. And that's what we're seeing in the marketplace. But I think SOPR will be create new complementary opportunities for trading the basis or the risk between the 2. I see sulfur is really a new opportunity for us in addition to the existing products.
Another thing I'd like to mention is our Eurodollar complex continues to see recently record open interest, record volumes. So we see greater excitement in our eurodollar futures and options than ever before. So I don't see a lot going away anytime soon.
Awesome. Great outfit as always. Thank you.
Thanks, Christian.
We will now go to Patrick O'Shaughnessy with Raymond James.
Hey, good morning guys.
Good morning, Patrick. I'm curious
to hear your observations on the launch and the early trading of that new Shanghai crude oil contract And to what extent you would view that to be a competitive alternative to WTI?
Hey, Patrick, it's Derek Salmon. Yes, we've been watching the both the development of that market over the last 4 or 5 years. They had some long states they pushed over the last 3 years. We look at regional benchmarks as highly complementary to global benchmarks. The story you've been hearing us tell over the last couple of years is the rise of WTI as a global waterborne benchmark.
And I think if you look at the results of our WTI franchise over the last 3 years, whether it's in terms of the outpatient performance of WTI versus Brent or the now surpassed levels of WTI versus Brent, you can see that the world is demanding and international participation has proven that has to be the case. When we look at regional benchmarks like the Chinese product launch, we're actually very encouraged by the opportunity for more a broader set of domestic Chinese participants to be trading a regional benchmark. What we are seeing and expecting is the bulk of that business that trades on that Chinese physical benchmark gets hedged out back into either Brent, WTI or more likely DME's Omani sour crude contract, which is a product launch of the Dubai Mercantile Exchange, which we are majority owner of. So we think the positive correlation between the regional benchmarks in the energy oil market likely provides a series of tradable regional benchmarks against the global WTI benchmark. Results year to date so far in our Asian Energy business is proving to be at record levels.
Our Asian energy volume was up 43% in Q1. So that's really pacing the developments and growth of our energy business complex globally. So we see it as a positive. We've seen that between DME and WTI, and we will see that contract evolve and likely connecting this to the global market over time.
All right. Thanks.
And with no further questions, I'd like to turn the call back over to management for any additional or closing remarks.
Well, we want to thank you all very much for joining us this morning and we look forward to talking to you at the next quarter. Thank you very much.
And that does conclude our call for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.