your journey at Marex, the decision to go public, and your kinda long-term vision for the company.
Sure, that's great. Well, thanks for inviting us and giving us an opportunity to meet so many sort of great people today. I mean, so Marex, as you may know, was you know, sort of initiated by you know, a set of private equity guys who acquired the company in 2011. That's you know, that's a long time for private equity to be involved. You know, given the success we've had growing the firm and executing on our growth strategy, you know, it felt like you know, the public markets would be receptive. And I think that there were both sort of push and pull factors with regard to that, in the sense that the investors had been in you know, for a long while.
The firm had had, you know, terrific success. But also, you know, as a management team, we just see, you know, really significant advantages being a public company. And in the sense of, your credibility goes up, your name recognition goes up, clients are much more comfortable with you, regulators prefer it, rating agencies prefer it. You're also, you know, in a world where you can compensate staff with with stock, which aligns everybody's interests. And we're already seeing, you know, even though, as you say, it's only been a little bit more than a month, you start to feel those kinds of effects coming through in the comfort that people have dealing with you, just given the fact that there's so much disclosure and there's so many eyes on you, I think is just a real positive.
So, you know, I mean, obviously being, you know, public is, you know, carries its costs and its, its challenges, but, you know, on balance, we're very excited about the, the positives that come with that.
Sure. So, you know, you're the largest non-bank clearing firm-
Mm.
in the world. You're sort of, I, I think, very uniquely positioned. Can you talk about the competitive landscape in the-
Yeah
... industries that you operate in? And you know, how you're, you know, what the overall strategy is to kind of continue to take share in the areas-
Yeah
you're in over the next few years?
Yeah, I mean, basically the way that we sort of see the ecosystem is that there's fewer exchanges and clearing houses at the center, and there are a large number of clients that want access to, and need access to, you know, to those exchanges and those clearing houses. And you know, what Marex is doing is essentially providing that layer of connectivity, either through clearing or through market making, or through agency and execution, that enables those clients to have access to, you know, to those exchanges. And, you know, that's a critical role. It's something that's sort of hugely important, you know, to our clients. And, you know, we see just enormous scope to grow in that particular space.
The TAM itself, the Total Addressable Market, is very large as we sort of look at it for our particular products, probably, you know, north of $70 billion. So we're at 2%, you know, of our TAM, and as we expand our products and our geographies, that TAM gets bigger too. So we see plenty of scope to grow there. But probably the most, you know, sort of significant factor, and I think sort of the investment thesis that was appealing to the people that sort of came in and invested in the IPO, was that, you know, it's a world where the main provider of these services at the moment are the large banks, and the large banks, for a whole slew of different reasons, you know, are retreating from the provision of those specific set of services.
And so, you know, as you point out, we're the largest non-bank FCM providing these services. And we see just sort of terrific opportunity to grow. And again, although it's sort of, you know, reasonably recent, you know, that we IPO'd, we certainly see increasing evidence that the banks themselves continue to pull away from the provision of these services. So you have a growing market, you have a large market, and you have one with declining competitive intensity, and an organization that's set up to sort of capture that opportunity. It's a great place to be.
Yeah, and with the clearing business, can you speak to just kinda like how important that is? 'Cause I think that might be overlooked by some people.
Yeah.
What a sort of a crown jewel asset that is-
Yeah
... and what sort of advantage that gives you?
Yeah, I mean, clearing is really the heart of our firm. So you know, when clients or you know, trading companies, you know, want access to exchange, you know, particularly on futures and option exchanges, they can't just get that access themselves. They have to go through a clearing member. And so that whole infrastructure, the sort of requirement to get access to the exchange, to be able to sort of make all the right reporting, to you know, embeds you in you know, the clients downstream. It is extremely sticky. It's an incredibly important service, you know, to those particular clients. So it's typically CEOs and CFOs that are involved in making the decision.
What you have is, you know, an important relationship, one which, you know, to your point, people might overlook as they sort of look at the whole infrastructure ecosystem and say, "Okay, well, that's just sort of like an easy thing to do." It's not an easy thing to do, it's hugely important. It's the access that trading companies and commodity producers, and consumers who look to hedge, you know, require. If you're providing them with that service and doing it in a good way, you know, you can expand out the set of products and services that you, you know, provide to those clients.
So you know, it is evolved in a way that, you know, creates not just a very high margin, and very successful business for us, but one which creates scope for us to sort of expand into other areas with our clients. And the thing that's driving the firm is just, you know, adding clients and broadening the amount of business we actually do with them.
Sure. Switching gears, M&A has been-
Yeah
... an important part of the strategy. I think over the last five years you've acquired 14 companies, large and small.
Yeah.
How important has M&A been to the overall growth strategy up to this point? And, you know, what should investors expect going-
Yeah
...expect going forward? And then maybe adding on to that, you know, are there any specific criteria that-
Yeah
... you look for when you're evaluating targets?
Yeah, M&A is, has been an important part of our growth strategy, and, you know, I'm certain it will continue to be really important. As we look back over the, you know, the last series of years, about 60% of our growth has been, you know, organic, and about 40% is a function of M&A. You know, our, you know, sort of CAGR over, sort of almost a decade is around 35%. So, you know, we're generating 20% or so from organic and 15% or so from M&A.
You know, the way that we sort of think about M&A, though, is that it's all about acquiring clients and about acquiring capabilities, that when you put them onto our platform, you know, we're able to generate a lot more profitability from it. So it's not about sort of acquiring earnings. And it's really about being able to accelerate your growth, because you could probably build it yourself, but it would take, you know, many, many years, five, 10 years, and probably, you know, the probability of success is lower. So the reason we go out and look to acquire sort of companies is because we see it as accelerating our growth relative to, you know, being able to build it out organically.
And it's, you know, in our particular industry, which is sort of characterized by, you know, large players like the banks, but also a lot of sort of smaller providers that sort of lack scale, it has created, you know, really very attractive opportunities for us.
Yeah, I think there's also attractive opportunities on the, you know, to grow organically as well. If we look out across the businesses, whether it's new geographies or new products-
Yeah.
Where do you see the most opportunity for Marex at this point?
I mean, we, you know, our whole goal in terms of what we're trying to accomplish as a firm is to sort of broaden the number of clients, the number of products that we can provide them with. We are trying to build a firm that's, you know, extremely resilient, and is able to sort of generate profitability across all points in the cycle. So diversification is sort of hugely important to us, and we do see sort of the growth coming, not by getting bigger per se in the things that we're in, but by adding to geographies or adding to products. I mean, obviously, we're going to look to grow our existing businesses, but from a geographic perspective, we're excited about the opportunities in the Middle East. We're excited about opportunities in Southeast Asia, and particularly Australia.
We're excited about, you know, sort of opportunities in Brazil, and we think we can bring, you know, the same set of sort of products that we provide in, you know, other geographies to clients in those particular locations. So there's definitely a geographic element of that. And then, within each of the main services that we provide, you know, we see opportunities to expand out, you know, some of our products as well. So it's very much a strategy of adding clients, doing more business with them. We have this sort of, this ability to sort of start out with clearing and then add market making or agency and execution to those clients. And, we have an opportunity to add clients, sort of globally, and, you know, that, that's working, you know, very successfully for us.
I think, if I'm not mistaken, around 55% of your customer base is producers and consumers of commodities.
Right.
As you sort of expand, you know, geographically, how do you expect that customer mix to kind of evolve? Do you think there's more opportunity with the producers and consumers out there, or, you know, how do you think about that mix evolving it?
You know, I suspect that it will, it'll stay. My expectation is it'll stay, about that. Mostly because, you know, we're actually very comfortable with the way the firm is sort of structured at the moment, in the sense that clearing is a little bit more than half of what we do, but we have some market making, agency and execution in our solutions business, all of which are, you know, they're broadly, you know, a sixth each. Agency and execution is somewhat bigger. Maintaining that balance as we grow, I think is important.
And as we sort of see the opportunity set across all of the products, across the sort of client types, I think that we want to remain, you know, very relevant to commodity producers and consumers who, you know, as I've indicated earlier, you know, need the set of services that we're actually providing. And so, you know, as we grow, and as you sort of think about Australia, you think about Brazil, you think about Middle East, there's sort of, you know, very substantial commodity companies in those locales, you know, would expect, you know, that to to persist. I mean, if you look over, you know, five years ago, our franchise was much, much more commodity focused. We have grown out to service financial players, and that's been very successful for us.
But I don't think we're going to lose that, that focus that we have on commodity companies.
Last year, I think you closed the acquisition of Cowen's legacy-
Yeah
... prime brokerage business. Can you talk about the kind of the synergies, the vision for that business, the things you've been able to do?
Yeah.
I know last week you announced a partnership.
Yeah.
How many more of those are out there? Anything you can share on that?
Yeah, look, I mean, well, that's a sort of just a great example of the kinds of opportunities that come our way. So, you know, Cowen acquired by TD, you know, that particular prime brokerage sort of component didn't really fit with the vision of what TD were looking to build. You know, we engaged with them around sort of acquiring, you know, that particular capability, and, you know, we went through a process, and we were sort of successful in acquiring it. You know, what that has done is it's brought us an ability to sort of connect with a set of clients and allow them to connect to, essentially the exchanges in a somewhat different way.
So to sort of think about this, exchanges and clearing houses at the middle, and there's clients, and Marex is this layer sort of sitting between it. This was a new way in which we could actually accomplish that and provide that service to those clients. It also meant that, you know, we could expand out in a more meaningful and sensible way into equity clearing, whereas previously, the focus that we had was much more, you know, around sort of commodity clearing. And, you know, the one thing that was felt like a genuine loss to the clients of that particular franchise was access to research, you know, which they had as part of Cowen, and they obviously had as part of TD.
So, you know, what we announced last week was a way to, you know, sort of offer those clients, you know, access to high quality research, you know, as well, you know, through that arrangement that we have with Stifel. Which again, then works, you know, really well with Stifel. So, you know, within the world that we're operating, there are, you know, so many opportunities to acquire capabilities and clients, which you can then bring onto your platform. And then there are sort of these partnership arrangements that you can make, you know, which benefit all parties. So, you know, we're excited about, you know, what that all means for us.
Okay, moving on, you've seen margins expand, I think-
Yeah
... from the mid-teens a couple years ago to the higher teens this year. Can you talk about some of the drivers of that?
Yeah.
You know, how should investors be thinking about margin expansion moving forward?
Yeah. I think that, we have been growing our margins, and we see that trend continuing. You know, we see that coming about, you know, in a couple of ways. As we grow, obviously, we can, you know, sort of leverage our platform and the fixed cost structure that we have. That's, that's undermined a little by the way in which we've chosen to grow, which is to sort of diversify the firm and to get broader. Because that means that, you know, you're, you're not leveraging the existing infrastructure, you're having to expand it some amount. Although there are, you know, sort of returns to scale that you, you do have as you do that. But we think that the resilience that you build by diversifying in that way , is what's really important.
But as we grow, we will clearly, you know, see our margins expand. You know, we've done a couple of acquisitions in the agency and execution space. And we do see, you know, opportunities to integrate those in ways that sort of, you know, get some costs out. And we see the margin in that segment, which was, I think, like 13% last year, sort of rising. So we see ourselves on a journey to get, you know, our margins into, you know, in, into the twenties. Not quite sure how long it takes, you know, for us to get there, but certainly, we are very attentive to margins, and we see, you know, the business is naturally supporting, you know, sort of margins in the twenties.
You know, having just gone public, I'm sure there's things you're working on in terms of disclosures-
Yeah
... and what you wanna break out, but, you provided an update on performance for the first quarter, a couple weeks back. How should we think about just the overall reporting cadence and framework?
Yeah
... of that going forward?
Well, I mean, certainly we've you know, we've committed to quarterly reporting, and yeah, we'll obviously continue with that. We you know, what we showed the market you know, at the end of the first quarter you know, because we're sort of in this transition from private to public, I think it felt a little bit more like a trading update than it felt like you know, sort of a full sort of quarterly report. And certainly, when we report you know, our half year you know, I think that there'll be you know, additional materials that will be sort of made available. I mean, as a general matter, I think what we're looking to ensure is that, to the extent that we're able to you know, our firm feels sort of intuitive and readily understandable to investors.
And by sort of being aware of certain, you know, what's going on in market volumes, what's going on with market volatility, people can have an intuitive sense of where the quarters are likely to sort of turn out. And, you know, I think we've made a start at that in the first quarter, and we'll obviously sort of continue, and we'll probably, you know, extend and expand the amount, you know, of information that we share. But, you know, from my perspective, you know, we wanna be, you know, transparent, you know, with the marketplace. We want people to feel, you know, we're more like an exchange than we're like a black box.
We're very committed to ensuring that, you know, analysts understand our business, our, you know, shareholders understand our business, and that, you know, potential new investors can readily get a sense of, you know, what is it that we do and how do we do it.
Sure. Maybe switching gears to capital allocation.
Yep.
Could you just talk about, you know, your broad kind of-
Yeah
... thoughts on capital allocation, how, what investors should, you know, think about-
Yeah
... going forward there?
Yeah, you know, I mean, at the moment, we're sort of in a world where we're. Again, it's, they're not sort of forecasts. They're sort of, you know, levels of earnings that we, you know, we think we're going to sort of generate, you know, around $200 million or so of profit after tax. You know, we think of, you know, the use of capital as sort of falling into three buckets. One is to support the organic growth of the business. The second is, you know, we've decided we want to return some amount of capital in the form of dividends. You know, and the third is, you want to retain capital, or you want to have capital that's available either for acquisitions or for buybacks.
You know, in terms of the dividends, I think that, you know, we will be, you know, as we indicated in our F-1, you know, paying a dividend on a quarterly basis, probably starting from the third quarter. And as sort of a general matter, we think that, you know, sort of 25% of earnings, at least at the initial level, is, is sort of a sensible place to sort of set our dividend, and then we would expect that to grow over time, you know, as we continue to grow the firm. You know, we think that supporting, you know, our organic, growth is obviously depends a little bit on, you know, how that sort of plays out, but it's somewhere between a third and a half.
Which leaves you with around, you know, 25%-50% or so that's available, you know, for either M&A or for buybacks. You know, we also have, you know, sort of equity that's created through the deferred comp plans, which is also available to sort of support buybacks. And so, you know, we see it as sort of, you know, a balance. We want to obviously support our organic growth. We want to pay a dividend. We want to, you know, make acquisitions, and we want to be able to support buybacks. And in particular, you know, we're, you know, we'd like to be able to, you know, sort of anchor the sort of in the sell- downs that, you know, our private equity owner, prior owners, current owners, you know, have.
So it's a balance of all those things. But we think that, you know, given our, you know, very robust earnings and the, you know, the earnings trajectory that we're on, we're able to accomplish, you know, all of those things.
All right. I think we might have time for one more. Risk management-
Mm-hmm.
You know, you operate a market making business.
Yeah.
I think you take some principal risk there and in the hedging investment solution business.
Yeah.
How important is risk management to you? You know, how do you guys kinda handle that internally? And I know-
Well-
having an investment-grade credit rating is something that's very important to you. So maybe you could just speak to that and-
Yeah!
and how important it is.
Look, I mean, you know, you almost can't emphasize how important risk management is, you know, in any firm. And, you know, inevitably there are sort of risks that you run. I mean, as you point out there, you know, you know, we have a very successful, you know, sort of market making franchise. And as you know, we think about, you know, you know, the past couple of months, you know, there's certainly been, you know, within the metals world, a great deal of volatility, and, you know, that's created a lot of opportunity. But, you know, as you say, if you're a market maker, you know, you do have to take some limited amount of principal risk.
I mean, our basic philosophy around that business, though, is, you know, we wanna be in the moving business, not in the storage business. And so we're moving that risk, you know, through the market as quickly, you know, as we possibly can. And we've always done that, and we do that very successfully. So, you know, we focus on, you know, how many positive days do we have or, you know, the obverse of that, you know, how many lost days do you actually have, you know, in trading? And you know, that, that's sort of the clearest indication I have that, you know, we're not holding positions, we're just sort of, you know, servicing the flow of our clients.
But we recognize that, you know, you are taking some amount of risk, and you have to manage it extremely successfully, you know, if you're gonna be able to continue to grow. And we have a, you know, great track record. And, you know, we remain, you know, extraordinarily, you know, sort of focused on that. You know, as you point out, our investment-grade rating is, you know, it's really important to, you know, our clients to just sort of have the confidence that, you know, they're facing an investment-grade credit. And, you know, we take that, you know, that combination of things extraordinarily seriously. You know, we want to ensure that, you know, you're growing in a very, very safe way.
And that, you know, you're supporting your clients, and you're just focused on growing the business you're doing with your clients, not taking, sort of market views or market risk.
Great. All right, well, I think that's time. Thanks, Ian, so much-
That's great.
for joining us.
Thank you very much.
Thanks, everybody.