Singapore Exchange (SGX) has reported earnings of $240 million for the 1HFY2021 ended December, up 12% y-o-y.
Adjusted earnings for the 1HFY2021 stood at $228 million, representing a 7% y-o-y growth.
Operating revenue for the half-year period grew 8.8% y-o-y to $520.8 million, due to revenue growth in all segments, in particular fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC), which grew 17.1% y-o-y.
EBITDA for the 1HFY2021 was up 8% y-o-y to $322 million, and up 7% y-o-y to $321 million on an adjusted basis.
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The higher earnings translate to earnings per share (EPS) for 1HFY2021 to 22.4 cents and 21.3 cents on an adjusted basis.
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In comparison, the exchange reported EPS of 19.8 cents for 1HFY2020 on a fully diluted basis.
Moving forward, SGX says it will disclose additional financial measures to better reflect its underlying operating performance. This means excluding items that have less bearing on its operating performance.
FICC revenue – comprising fixed income as well as currencies and commodities – derivatives – was up 17% y-o-y to $99.2 million and accounted for 19% of the total revenue.
Excluding BidFX, which was acquired in July 2020, FICC revenue would have dropped by 3% y-o-y to $82.5 million.
Fixed income revenue grew by 3% y-o-y to $6.7 million mainly due to higher listing revenue, which was up 4% y-o-y to $5.1 million.
In 1HFY2021, there were 358 bond listings raising $169.9 billion compared to 585 bond listings in 1HFY2020 raising $257.8 billion.
Currencies and commodities – derivatives revenue grew by 18% y-o-y to $92.5 million.
Equities revenue – comprising revenues from equities (cash) as well as equities (derivatives) rose 3% y-o-y to $350.8 million, accounting for 67% of the total revenue.
Revenue for equities – cash grew by 14% y-o-y to $201.1 million. The growth was mainly attributable to the higher trading and clearing revenue, as well as revenue from securities settlement and depository management and treasury and other revenue.
In 1HFY2021, there were five new equity listings, which raised $0.7 billion compared to three new equity listings the year before, which raised $1.6 billion.
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Secondary equity funds raised were S$6.5 billion.
Daily average traded value (DAV) increased 19% y-o-y to S$1.3 billion over 128 trading days in 1HFY2021. Total traded value increased by 19% to S$161.8 billion.
Equities – derivatives revenue declined 9% y-o-y to $149.7 million.
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Data, connectivity and indices (DCI) revenue increased 35% y-o-y to $70.7 million, accounting for 14% of total revenue. Excluding Scientific Beta, DCI revenue would have increased 3% y-o-y to $53.7 million.
The board of directors has declared an interim quarterly dividend of 8 cents per share for the 2QFY2021. This brings the total dividends in 1HFY2021 to 16 cents per share.
Shareholders will get to receive their dividends by Feb 8.
“We had a solid first-half performance with growth across all three business segments, amid an uncertain global environment. The heightened demand for China access and risk-management solutions, coupled with the early success of our expanded pan-Asia derivative product suite and higher trading activity in our stock market, led to stronger performance in our Equities business. We have also grown our FICC and DCI pillars which now contribute a third of our revenues, bolstered by newly acquired BidFX and Scientific Beta,” says SGX CEO Loh Boon Chye.
“Having established ourselves as a multi-asset exchange, we will continue to drive growth through strategic partnerships, client acquisitions and new product offerings such as exchange traded funds (ETFs) covering equities and fixed income. Strengthening our sustainability capabilities and solutions is a key priority, together with the building up of our digital assets expertise… In the coming months, we will expand our fixed income trading capabilities and make further investments to enhance our FX platform,” he adds.
Shares in SGX closed 15 cents lower or 1.5% down at $10.09 on Jan 22.
