Singapore Exchange Stock

Very good evening to everyone joining us here today, both in person and via the webcast. I'm Liana from Investor Relations. Welcome to SGS Group's FY 2026 Full Year Results Briefing. In a while, I will invite our CFO, Mr. Daniel Koh, to present the financial highlights followed by our CEO, Mr. Loh Boon Chye, who will present the business update.

Following the presentation, we will have a Q&A session with SGX senior management. [Operator Instructions] It's now my pleasure to invite Dan to present the financial results. Dan, please.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us here today. It is a real pleasure to share with you SGX Group's standout performance for financial year 2026. We achieved another milestone year, delivering our highest ever full year revenue and earnings. Net revenue grew by 14% and adjusted earnings grew by 25%, continuing the strong momentum from a high base in FY '25. Net revenue for our equities cash business, or SGX Stock Exchange grew significantly by 28% as the securities daily average value rose 35% to its highest level in 18 years. This strong performance was built on structural market changes and focused execution.

FX delivered another record year with net revenue increasing 12% on average daily volume of USD 190 billion, driven by client expansion and platform innovation. Currencies and commodities continued its strong growth trajectory, led by record volumes of several products, including CNH and INR currency futures, iron ore, freight petrochemicals and AV contracts. Equity derivatives net revenue was comparable, maintaining momentum from a record high base last year as our flagship China and India index franchises continue to capture risk management needs. Expenses increased by approximately 6% at the higher end of our guidance as we stepped up our investments.

I will elaborate on the key cost drivers shortly. More importantly, we remain focused on operating leverage as the business scales. We are confident in delivering medium-term growth. We expect broad-based growth across all operating segments in FY '27 as our diversified multi-asset strategy positions us well to deliver strong performance amid ongoing global uncertainties. We remain disciplined in capital management, balancing strategic investment and shareholder return.

In FY '27, we expect expenses to increase by 6% to 8% alongside CapEx spend of approximately $100 million. This is important to support our long-term growth and competitiveness. At the same time, I am pleased to announce that due to this year's capital recycling gains, the Board has proposed a one-off additional dividend of $0.125 per share in addition to the previously guided fourth quarter dividend. This brings FY '26 total dividend to $0.57 per share, representing a 52% increase from the last financial year. Our strong balance sheet supports our plan to redeem our outstanding bonds in FY '27 while positioning us well to pursue business opportunities.

Now let us walk through the headline financials. Group net revenue increased by 13.9%. Group expenses on an adjusted basis increased by 5.5%. Group NPAT on a reported basis increased by 7.8%, while on an adjusted basis, it increased by 24.6%. Our margins continued to improve. Adjusted operating profit margin and adjusted NPAT margin increased by 3.1 percentage points and 4.4 percentage points, respectively.

Let me now elaborate on the group's net revenue performance across our 4 operating segments. Our FICC revenue grew $55 million or 17%, accounting for 25% of total revenue. I had touched on the record volumes of SGX FX, commodity and currency derivatives earlier. The breadth and depth of our multi-asset product suite and global client network position us well to capture increased risk management needs during heightened uncertainties. The equities cash revenue grew by $100 million or 28% and contributed 34% to total revenue. The strong growth in SDAV reflected positive structural trends including stronger fundraising activity and higher levels of participation across investor segments.

Equity derivatives revenue was comparable year-on-year, maintaining last year's high base and accounted for 23% of total revenue. Equity derivatives volumes increased by 6%, driven by sustained demand in China A50, Gift Nifty and Taiwan contracts. The higher trading and clearing revenues were offset by lower treasury income. Platform and others revenue increased by 7%, driven by higher data and colocation sales and higher fees since second half of FY 2025. This segment has grown at a steady average rate of 5% over the past 3 years.

Moving on to expenses. Adjusted expenses increased by 5.5% as we increased resources to support growth initiatives. Total staff costs increased by $27 million in both fixed and variable portions due to merit increments, higher head count and higher profitability. Technology expenses increased on various upgrades and system enhancements. Adjusted expenses were $19 million lower than reported expenses because it excludes amortization of intangible assets, transformation-related costs and other one-off items. The transformation is focused on enhancing our technology capabilities as part of our strategy for future growth. This will be an area of focus for the next 2 years as we continue to invest here.

Adjusted earnings reflect our underlying core performance by excluding noncash and other adjustments. First, we removed a noncash net fair value gain of $10 million, in line with our announcement in the first half of FY '26 relating to the sale of trading technologies in July '25. Second, we added back Scientific Beta's FY '26 impairment charge of $53 million given divestment on the 8th of July 2026. This transaction underscored our disciplined approach to capital management as we sharpen our focus on growth priorities. Lastly, we added back $18 million, consistent with items elaborated in the previous slide on expenses.

Turning to capital management. We remain disciplined and proactive in deploying capital to create long-term value. Our strong execution has delivered a consistent growth track record while we undertake strategic capital recycling initiatives. We maintained a balanced approach, continued investment in growth opportunities while delivering sustainable returns to shareholders.

Turning to how we invest to growth organically. We will continue to deploy capital into opportunities that strengthen our competitive positioning. FY '27 CapEx will increase to $100 million, reflecting targeted investments in product innovation including the expansion of our SX FX franchise and goal initiatives, platform modernization and enhancing enterprise capabilities. In line with these, FY '27 expenses are expected to increase by 6% to 8% as we continue to invest in technology and talent to drive growth.

Now moving on to shareholder return. We remain fully committed to a sustainable and growing dividend and are confident to deliver the dividend growth trajectory of $0.025 increase every quarter to FY '28 as previously guided. As highlighted earlier, the Board proposes a $0.125 one-off additional dividend from capital recycling gains this year, an amount higher than the fourth quarter planned dividend. This rewards our shareholders for your continued trust in SGX. FY '26 total dividend will be $0.57 per share, a 52% increase from FY '25.

With that, let me now hand over to Boon Chye, our CEO, who will deliver the business updates. Thank you.

Good evening, and thank you for joining us. As Daniel has shared, FY 2026 was a strong year for SGX Group, our performance demonstrates the strength of our multi-asset strategy that we've been executing over the past decade. We are deliberately built a broader, more resilient and more global business. As a result, we are able to capture new opportunities across changing market environments. As we look ahead, global capital markets are being shaped by major structural shifts. Geopolitical uncertainty remains elevated as capital allocation to Asia continues to grow. Global investors are seeking cross-asset solutions and more efficient ways to manage their risk. Concurrently, rapid innovation is reshaping market infrastructure and client expectations.

These strengths underscore the relevance of SGX long-term strategy. We are uniquely positioned to help clients mitigate uncertainty across investment opportunities and connect capital across markets. To maintain this leadership and drive sustainable growth, we are investing with discipline across products, platform and enterprise capabilities. Our established derivatives franchise is where the benefits of our global multi-asset business are most evident today. In FY '26, we delivered another milestone year as we broaden and deepen our market leadership. The deep and diverse liquidity across our franchise, ankle's global participants with activity increasingly extending beyond Asian trading hours. T+1 volumes have risen from 18% in FY 23% to 22% today, reflecting broader international participation.

It listed FX, we see robust momentum. Volumes in our listed FX franchise has grown at 38% CAGR over the past 3 years as clients navigate heightened geopatical and macroeconomic cross wins. Our RMB and rupee contracts are the second and eighth most traded FX futures contracts in the world. Adding to these flagship products, our fast-growing Korean won futures with derivatives daily average volume growing at a 3-year CAGR of 77%. In a world where Asia is gradually shaping global capital flows and currency markets, SGX has become the exchange where global participants come to manage Asian FX risk.

For commodities, geopolitical risks are redefining the role of this asset class in global portfolios was seeing a critical inflection. Financial participants now represent over half of our trading volumes with more than 70% of all futures volumes traded on screen enabling robust price discovery and furthering liquidity. Our commodity derivative volumes have expanded at a 24% 3-year CAGR anchored by iron ore. In equity derivatives, our strength lies in the scale and liquidity we have built across key Asian equity benchmarks. Liquidity attracts liquidity, creating powerful network effects that are difficult to replicate.

In Greater China, our China ACT contract remains the most liquid international futures contract for Chinese equities, anchoring substantial pools of liquidity as DAV grew 9% year-on-year in FY '26. Our Taiwan Fishers contract is the most likely traded international futures, tracking one of the world's most important technology ecosystem with almost 90% market share by volume and open interest. This has allowed investors to express their market views on the global chip industry, AI and digitalization. We introduced micro talent futures to provide more precise and cost-efficient access for a broader range of participants and has since applied this approach for our Japan and Singapore benchmarks.

To maintain this growth, we are accelerating product innovation and deepening our partnerships with global index providers. This allow us to expand our product shelf in areas where we're seeing evolving customer demand and long-term opportunities. In FY '26, we further expanded our partnership with FTSE by launching Asian government bond futures, tracking, FTSE's Asia Pacific liquid government bond index series, extending our derivatives offering into fixed income and providing clients with another way to manage Asian market exposure. By the end of this calendar year, through an enhanced licensing agreement with MSCI, we will introduce new contracts that span a wide range of global markets, sectors and teams.

Our long-standing relationship with S&P Global Platts has been instrumental in establishing global recognized benchmark contracts across iron ore coking coal, petrochemicals and other energy products. Alongside these partnerships will leverage capabilities within our own index business, IH, to launch crypto perpetual futures in FY '26. Our crypto perpetual futures are an example of how we are extending our relevance into new structures and asset classes by building adjacent ecosystem around franchises where we already have strong market positions.

Looking ahead into FY '27. Goal is another natural adjacency for our commodities franchise. We are building a more comprehensive ecosystem with the industry and MAS, the bill the OTC go market and it deliver futures contract, providing clients with more ways to access and manage goal exposure, while developing Singapore as a leading go hub. In parallel, we're seeing opportunities to expand cross-asset participation. Our multi-asset platform enable clients to manage their risk and investment needs more holistically. By leveraging our insights and connectivity across our platforms and markets, we can anticipate client needs and deliver more tailored solutions as client engagement deepens so to our relationships and ability to capture a greater wallet share.

Let me now move on to SGX FX where our client-centric approach is delivering strong results. SGX FX was the fastest-growing exchange backed OTC FX platform in FY '26 with average daily volume at USD 190 billion, a 36% CAGR growth from FY '23. What is notable is the quality of this growth. We saw strong broad-based expansion in both bank and nonbank segments with EMEA and the America driving faster revenue growth. Going forward, we will elevate our client proposition by strengthening our competitive modes. First, we are enhancing the synergies between our OTC and listed FX franchises. This includes making it easier for clients to move between bilateral OTC execution and listed FX features through our exchange for related positions are known as FRPs and enabling participants to transfer risk efficiently while reducing friction, lowering costs and improving capital efficiency.

In addition, we will further expand our client coverage building on the strong traction in newer markets we have entered, such as the Middle East, Korea and Brazil. Finally, we are enriching our offerings in emerging market currencies, options, capability, data and API-based services. Together, these initiatives position SGX FX for continued growth as we meet clients' needs for greater connectivity, integrated workflows and deeper liquidity. While our derivatives and FX businesses scale globally, we are equally focused on sustaining the momentum in our stock market. FY '26 was an exceptional year for our stock market, marked by improving participation, liquidity and trading activity.

Securities daily average value, or SDAV grew substantially across all investor and stock segments. Retail participation reached a 5-year high while institutional interest has broadened beyond the STI index constituents. Small and mid-cap activity has strengthened with institutional inflows into this segment growing 3x. This reflects the combined impact or better research coverage, stronger issuer engagement and growing investor attention. On the issuer side, the IPO pipeline is strong. We welcome 21 new listings in FY '26. In our pipeline, we see interest from diverse sectors, including digital infrastructure, health care and consumer, real estate services and REITs. What is encouraging is the stronger institutional participation in IPOs, including support from EQT fund managers and long-only investors.

Together, we will value unlock movement and other initiatives to grow demand and supply. We continue to work with the ecosystem to drive sustainable liquidity while also expanding the ways investors can access opportunities through SGX. Initiatives such as the global listing Board across the single ETFs and SDR expansion to include U.S. listed stocks, further enhance SGX connectivity with global and regional markets. These efforts are mutually reinforcing. Greater participation improves liquidity, which attracts higher quality listings, reinforces, investors' confidence and, in turn, drive deeper market engagement and creates virtuous cycle. We're committed to creating a more vibrant and connected stock market that reinforces Singapore's position as the leading capital markets hub.

The progress in our stock market, together with the momentum across derivatives, FX and commodities reflect the broader SGX story. We have significantly transformed the composition of our business. Our overlapping -- our overall operating revenue base has nearly doubled, growing from just over $800 million in FY '16 to more than $1.5 billion in FY '26. Importantly, this growth is driven by multiple businesses across the group. Our strong performance provides a solid foundation to capture the next phase of growth. First, we will continue to innovate around franchises where we already have liquidity and leadership, creating new ways for clients to access markets, manage risk and deploy capital. Second, the scale of our franchises give us a strategic view of how capital risk and liquidity move across market as clients increasingly invest across asset classes, we will harness the data we have to secure a larger share of our clients' trading portfolios.

Alongside this, we are focused on executing the stock market initiatives that are underway. In close collaboration with market participants, we will work on translating the momentum in our stock market into enduring and sustainable liquidity. Finally, we will enhance our enterprise capabilities by investing in technology, data and automation, including AI. This will enable operational efficiency strengthen decision-making and build a more agile, future-ready SGX. At the same time, we're also investing in product innovation and platform modernization, as mentioned by Daniel earlier. FY 2026 was another year of growth for SGX Group. Notwithstanding market conditions, we are confident that we focus and consistent execution, we will capture the opportunities ahead of us.

Thank you for your attention, and I invite my colleagues and I to take questions now. Yes. Nick, you can have the first question.

Congratulations on a very strong set of numbers. Can I go on to or talk a little bit about costs? Because you've obviously signaled in this presentation, huge opportunities ahead of the revenue side and obviously, therefore, there's a need to invest. So I wonder if we could do 2 things. First of all, can you talk a little bit about the process that you and Daniel will go through when you're giving this money to people, you obviously want to return. So could you talk about how that works and what sort of return you're looking for on the additional spend and how you're going to measure people and make sure that return comes through?

And then I guess the second thing is that a lot of this is about technology and investing in technology I get is also investing in people and products and things like that. And you've got a new CTO. So I wonder if you could talk a little bit about some of the technological changes that are happening in the exchanges world and what you need to do and what you're doing to sort of meet those challenges?

Thank you for the question, Nick. First, I think in the last 2 years, as we have mentioned in briefings, the cost base was lower, I think, on 2 considerations, one in the timing of hiring of additional staff. And then two, in terms of the full year impact, and that's clearly not sustainable. But I think more importantly is our increased focus will be Asia or nimble to react to increasingly client needs and thereby will continue not just to invest in capabilities in people but also in technology upgrade, which then relates to your second question.

In the world where AI is evolving and changing client needs and the environment of Phase 3, the ability and agility to bring an idea from conception to Eventure product probably has to shrink quite a bit. And in that, the debt development clearly has to shift the words more of a product-led enabled by engineering capabilities, and that's what we are looking and will do in the next 2 to 3 years. And we're starting not just right now, but in the last few months. And given the structural shifts that we're seeing in various markets, we are confident that this investment is well made. But importantly, I hope we have also demonstrated as a group, as a team, a continued disciplined focus on cost, very consistent execution and then very targeted focus to capture the opportunities that we see. I hope that answered your question. Okay, Jayden and then one in front later on.

Just a couple of questions on the equity derivatives piece. First of all, I think there was 6% growth in the volume, the clearing fee declined so the revenue was comparable. Do you want to sort of talk if there was anything that was one-off and if we should expect that to recover? Maybe some more color on that. And my second question, sort of in the same business line. I think you mentioned during the presentation, Boon Chye that there'll be a new suite of products with MSCI. I remember years ago, there was a partnership and then there were some changes. So it would be really good to understand how that partnership might take place and what we should expect?

Yes. So part of it is just dollars versus reported currency in sync and part of it is just the customer mix. So in the environment with equity derivatives, we had a larger mix of customers who were on polymetric and that accounted for -- and typically, when you look through cycle, this doesn't sustain like that because markets tend to settle good air pockets. So apart from the FX, we're pretty relaxed about the mix.

Jayden to your second question. First, we're very focused on global partnerships with the index provider. So it's not just MSCI, it's FTSE Russell and S&P Global Platts. But to answer your question, as I also mentioned, increasingly, with the environment of Phase 3 clients no longer just manage risk in siloed or concentrated regional portfolio. Requirements has broadened. And to Nick's earlier question, we also need to think about from a product ideation to true execution and launching that clearly has to shorten. And part of the MSCI suite of indices or contracts that were launched by the end of this calendar year is to stretch in cases beyond Asia, so be across market, across countries. And then within Asia, be across thematics, across sectors because increasingly, that's what investors expect. We want to clearly be the leader for all access into Asian economies and markets, but I think we're going to build adjacency from our strength.

I'm Felicia from The Edge Singapore. Congrats on the results. I have a few questions, sorry. So the first one is, do you guys have any update on the third tranche of EQT fund management because the third tranche would be coming up? Do you want me to take that one by one? Or you want me to ask all at once?

I think one by one that we don't lose track.

I think [indiscernible] indicated, I believe Q3 so we are eagerly awaiting the announcement.

Okay. And the second question is do you have any updates on the pipeline for the Global Listing Board?

So Global Listing Board, of course, is live now fully operationally ready. A number of companies have started preparations towards a listing on the we would hope that, that translates into actual listings in the next while, let's say, in the remainder of this year. But of course, timing around these things is always tricky. There's a lot of factors that play into that market circumstances and other factors. So that's what I would say. We are generally very encouraged by the type of discussions that we're having with candidate issuers for the GLB.

Sorry, just a follow up. Do you have a sense of the sectors are you able to share?

Yes. Naturally, because this is, of course, a link together with NASDAQ, the goal is for this board to attract more higher growth companies, and that is also reflected in the types of discussions that we are having with companies that are interested in this.

Sorry, 2 more, I promise. The third one is, so Singapore, we have welcomed IPOs this year, obviously, so far. But do you have any thoughts on the post-IPO performances so far because there's a mixed bag?

Yes. So we are in the phase of rebuilding our market, growing market confidence. And so data points do tend to be amplified, good and bad data points. I think that's the first point I want to make. Second, I think the feedback from the market disputes, including issuers, clearly, indicates that the day 1 performance is not the only thing that they look at. It's about the post-market structural liquidity, the level of investor participation, research coverage. And this is where the GEMS research program value unlocked and so on, programs are designed to deliver.

The third thing is I think some things do get conflated when these things happen. So the quality of the companies that come online or list versus the price discovery process, which is the IPO. So I think when we look at the 21 companies that have listed, I think, by and large, we can say that this company is that we welcome to SGX. So then it comes down to the price risk process, which is the IPO and then you have it on day 1. There's always been feedback on things, whether we can tweak and improve things. I think there are things around information that can be made available, whether it's sooner. So I think [indiscernible] has made changes to allow preliminary prospectus to be made available to retail much earlier.

Can we think about providing research earlier on in the process or immediately post IPO? So these are the things we think about. These are tweaks. If we can make more information available and can engage a wider public, a wider investing group of participants. And I think that's helpful that the price is going to be processed.

Maybe one last one and I think next to you this one. We'll take some online.

And do you have more color on the sale of scientific data, sorry, because there was a very short release on July 8 announcing the sale. But do you all have any color on it? Was there a particular moment of realization that led to the sale?

Yes. So when we invested first in Scientific Beta or for any investment is to really to grow our adjacency or deepened mode. Scientific retail is a very research-focused index provider. And over the months that we have, we have realized that the very research focused, high-quality factor indices reaches only a certain segment of customers where SGX has a broader set of customers. And given our very focus on growing our performance across different asset classes and a focus on capital allocation, we decided that Scientific Beta with the new owner, which is also essentially an index company would allow Scientific Beta to continue in their journey on research-based indices and grow.

[indiscernible] Just to follow up questions. Do you think that this post-IPO mixed back performance were that affects like better sentiments or the companies like listing listings sentiments. And then also, like can you share a bit more about the pipeline of companies or IPOs for the second half of the year?

Maybe share the sectors. Maybe I'll take the second question, and it's somewhat linked to your first question. Certainly, from an issuer perspective, we see that companies are still very much engaged when it comes to their listing plans. So we haven't really seen an impact. In fact, the pipeline keeps growing. We've got about 50 companies now that are various stages of engagement and preparation. So that has grown from where we were at this point last year. That's very encouraging.

5-0?

5-0. Yes. Not 15, 5-0. The other encouraging thing around this is the greater diversity that we are seeing. So Boon Chye mentioned a couple of the sectors there. To give you a bit more context, we're now within the pipeline by a number of companies, we see about 1/3 of them in the consumer and health care sectors. About another 1/3 are in tech advanced manufacturing and digital infrastructure. So that's certainly a part of the market that is growing for us. And then 1/4 is in real estate, of course, a market in which we've built a very strong track record and still continue to see deals happen there. And then the rest is fairly balanced across other sectors.

So I'll come back to the point that issuers take into account the range of data points they get. So it's not just about day 1 performance. I think it's about the entire ecosystem support and liquidity that they can get. So I don't think that in other respects, we do rank quite well in the other things that we are able to provide. So it's not just one data point, but a more comprehensive set of data points that people tend to look at.

Maybe take 1 or 2 questions from online. .

Yes. From [indiscernible]. First, 2 questions. First question. Thank you, and it's encouraging to see the one-off additional dividend. Any views on the dividend per share going forward?

Any views on the [indiscernible]

As we have guided for up to FY '28. We are confident of delivering the quarter stands share increase the quarter to FY '28. We are focused not only just on capital recycling, which is why we have a one-off additional dividend in FY '26. We're also focused on growing and investing and we will take that into consideration as we grow our business, nothing that obviously the group overall is very cash flow generated.

Second question for Wheeler. Are there any new products or pipeline products in derivatives?

I think Boon Chye has previewed quite a number of them. Clearly, one big expansion area is into interest rates. I think we all know and believe that not only risk-free interest rates, but sovereign and risky interest rates are going to be very important heading forward. So we've launched 5 Asian government bond contracts. These are fairly unique. We hope to grow them. We also getting quite significantly stuck into the Japanese interest rate market. We launched 20-year JGBs. We had a while ago launch, short-term Japanese interest rates because Japan is back in a very large and [indiscernible] way.

Even more than that, we're heading into a category of physical collateral and physically linked derivatives. So it's not just a futures contract in gold. We are helping MES and the gold, the bullion ecosystem in Singapore try to create a complete local Singapore ecosystem, which includes physical gold, clearing vaulting as well as gold warrants and futures and derivatives. It's a big lift. I think what we're trying to lean into isn't just saying hear something interesting that we should list. It's actually thinking ahead to what are the monetary conditions or capital conditions for the customer base that we serve and it is very clear to us that even for very globalized things, there are going to be locational prices where once upon a time, only one price was needed.

So we feel that we have a very strong right to play when someone says for certain locational things, maybe the Singapore price is valuable to us. and that could be the Singapore price in any number of things, and we're starting with gold. And the final one was something we launched earlier, which is the Perpetual futures contract. We put a lot of thought into that format. That's a brand-new format in listed derivatives. And I think we've seen in the recent news that even in the U.S., the regulators there are getting up to speed to whether -- how they regularize this. We already have them listed and we absolutely hope to expand that format with other things that benefit from being perpetual in nature.

From Aakash of UBS. One of the structural challenges that's widely known is that dual listings is hardly -- there's hardly any liquidity on that. So any transmission mechanism that gets us from a NASDAQ anchored listening to the liquidity in Singapore. Could you elaborate on that?

Thank you for the question. I think the usual format for a dual listing is diver jurisdiction deal documentation by and large. If you look at the global listing Board partnership that we have with NASDAQ is 2 markets, 2 pools of capital that effectively are fungible across the world. But this one document. Yes, the question we asked how's the pipeline when do you get listed? I think that is a significant structural change versus all other deal world or separate listing that exist in global markets today. We are substantially reducing the friction for companies who want to access global capital and in particular, for us in the GLB with our partners at NASDAQ is high-growth companies with the nexus to Asia.

Maybe to add one important point to that, and that is the requirement for companies that come to the GLB to also raise capital in the Singapore market. So that from day 1, there is a natural demand and a natural supply of shares available. That is not always the case in other dual listings that we have seen where there is just a technical listing without a fundraise and that's a very important difference. .

Any questions from this, I think, 2 or 3 over there maybe from the back first.

Thomas Wang, Goldman Sachs. Just a quick question on capital allocation. You've decided kind of in the way you return, what you got from scientific beta cells. So it is with a lot of investment you need to do internally. Can -- is it fair to say that you're more looking at organic growth, investing in our capability rather than inorganic opportunities when you think about the next 2 or 3 years?

Just a small correction. The capital recycling is not from the scientific beta sale. It's from [indiscernible] technologies, the [indiscernible] that we had disclosed earlier. With regards to how we think about growth. Organic, yes, comes first, and there's no shortage of request to the next earlier question about how we look at organic investments, and we look at the ROI and we [indiscernible] I kind of really look at it with a lot of rigor to answer your earlier question, Nik. But we are still actively open to evaluating opportunities from an inorganic perspective. We need to continue to focus on the discipline that we have.

We want to stay patient anything we look at has got to have a strategic fit and add shareholder value. So we are actively open.

On cash equities, of course, a great year this year, how much of this was market driven? And how much of this do you think is sustainable going to grow into FY '27. And a quick follow-up there. Also, we benefited this year from EQT, a good pipeline of IPOs. What do you think were the biggest factors which led to some of the growth this year within these? And how -- what would be going into next year, some of the biggest growth drivers from among EQT, IPO pipeline and other factors?

I would say there's no one single factor. But I think what is important is the various factors to the overall ecosystem coming together. I think that's one important notable starting point when this review [indiscernible] form. And then secondly, it is very focus amongst the ecosystem with SGX in that too, that this has to be sustainable. It should not be a one-off. And then that leads to the various things that are happening, whether that is the DP managers, the program around that value unlocked movement, the gem, which is research enabling and making access to the market easier education, the mix of participants. So it's important for us to keep the fire going. So no particular ones. They all come together in the ecosystem with the mind that we need a vibrant active stock exchange.

I just wanted to ask a follow-up question about the dividend. I think it's great that you've made this move. But just to understand would you only consider this kind of, I guess, outcome if you were to recycle capital? Or is there a point where you say, "Hey, we didn't do any M&A like we were budgeting for. And now we actually have some extra capital to return to shareholders." How do you sort of think about whether it's possible to do more?

Well, you can also look at it that way, we're 1 year into a 3-year guidance. We could also increase or propose to try to deliver a higher quarterly shift, but 1 year into a 3-year plan. And given it's a very strong year, we kept the recycling, we thought let's have a reward for our shareholders more upfront. [indiscernible] then we go online.

Can I just build on that, that question and the answer Daniel gave. I mean I guess the issue you've got is that you if everything goes to plan, you're going to be generating a lot more cash going forward than you have done historically. And so yes, I accept that things are changing. There's lots of opportunities you absolutely should invest to take advantage of those opportunities. But in your mind, is this like a 2-year or 3-year sort of hump we are best and then we get the returns coming out, and we give those back by higher dividends? Or is this you're just going to be investing forever? I mean how are you thinking about how you get the benefits of this investment coming back to shareholders? And how should we be thinking about it in sort of timing terms? .

I'll say the following. Yes, there's going to be organic investments. We're also focused on building adjacency or deeper mode in our asset classes and that could entail not just organic, but inorganic but also we want to be patient. I think it's important that we look at any M&A that could really be strategic as Daniel said, value accretive and build more further. But there's probably a limit to the patients by shareholders. So it is after a period, we still think that we are more than sufficient and a very cash and restaurant balance sheet, we clearly would then want to return the capital to shareholders.

So we're keeping a very close eye on what are the opportunities and if this does not prevail over a period of time, then we probably don't need that much cash on our balance sheet.

Right. But sorry, just to add on specifically with regard to the question on technology spend and the platform modernization that we see capability building in terms of engineering and product, that's going to take about 2 years to be clear.

So a follow-up question from Aakash, UBS. Will the GRB listed companies be eligible for the STI, CST and MSCI in Singapore?

Yes. If they meet the criteria. .

Maybe we can take one from a retail investor. Are we looking to expand our Singapore depository receipts, for example, to Australia or other borders?

Yes. So we have recently launched 3 that is our fourth market doing quite well in terms of retail investor receptivity. I think we're looking to build increased accessibility. So certainly, we are looking at more markets around the region and possibly a bit further ahead and some more thematic NIMs. So the idea is to build a cluster or of instruments in which our market participants in any retail investors can invest. So I also want to point out that this will not just be in the STR format, but ETFs and so on. You would have seen that MAS is now consulting on allowing a broader range of instruments or ETFs that can be listed on the exchange. I'm hopeful that, that will go through and that will allow issuers to respond to market demand and be able to be more agile to meet customer needs.

Maybe one last question from this of you present here? Okay, not. Thank you for joining this. I know for those of you in Asia, it's a bit late in the evening, but thank you.

I had one last question. Just now Boon Chye, you mentioned about the [indiscernible]. Do you have any updates to that? Because we are eagerly waiting for an update?

I think the value unlock program is a long term -- it's my -- okay, it's a long-term program. So we had a good initial response in terms of finding out what that was. And so we have got more than 50 that has gone through the IR training and then a handful of companies clearly have signed up for the Elevate, which is more of the corporate restructuring and iron narrative. But this has only been 6 months. I think the more important thing as for many things is about the mindset shift and that clearly doesn't happen overnight.

So if I could sum it up, the results of what we see is encouraging, but I would like the movement to be a lot broader, and that will take a bit more time. Maybe I can supplement. I think as you have seen, the value unlock movement is something that is really stepping across Asia and all regulators, including ourselves, we are very encouraged, and we are also encouraging this movement because we think that it is good for the market. It's good for shareholders. And in particular, what we're trying to do is that we're trying to encourage greater transparency. We think this will drive market discipline, and this will, in turn, drive this value along.

Thank you.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and a warm welcome to those joining us here in the auditorium as well as via the webcast. It's my pleasure to welcome you to SGX First Half FY 2026 Results Briefing. We will begin in a while with a presentation of the financial results by our CFO, Mr. Daniel Koh. And following that, our CEO, Mr. Loh Boon Chye, will present the business updates. We will conclude with a Q&A session with SGX senior management. [Operator Instructions]

It's now my pleasure to invite our CFO up on stage to present the financial results. Dan, please?

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. It is a pleasure to share with you SGX Group's strong set of results for first half FY '26. We delivered robust business growth and achieved our highest half year revenue and earnings. Net revenue, excluding treasury income, grew by 10% and adjusted earnings grew by 12%, continuing the strong momentum from the high base in FY '25. Total net revenue grew by 8%, while adjusted expenses were up 4%. We will go through the detail in later slides.

Our equities-cash or SGX stock exchange revenue achieved a solid 16% growth powered by market optimism and elevated investor interest from the EMRG tailwinds. Our Currency and Commodity Derivatives segment demonstrated a strong growth trajectory led by iron ore's record half year volume. SGX FX net revenue increased by 8% with a record average daily value of USD 180 billion, driven by sustained client acquisition and increased platform adoption. Treasury income declined mainly due to the global rate environment and collateral currency mix.

We remain confident in delivering the medium-term targets that we set out at the start of FY '25. SGX's multi-asset strategy with diversified revenue streams positions us well to deliver the 6% to 8% CAGR in top line organic growth, excluding treasury income. To sustain this momentum, we continue to reinvest for growth while maintaining cost discipline. There is no change to our guidance for expenses and CapEx. We are confident to maintain the sustainable and growing dividend commitment with the incremental $0.025 every quarter to the end of FY '28. The group's strong balance sheet also enables us to capitalize on business opportunities that will drive long-term growth.

Now let me walk you through the headline financials. Group net revenue increased by 7.6% to $695 million. Group expenses on an adjusted basis increased by 3.8%, while adjusted group NPAT increased by 11.6% to $357 million. Our margins also grew with adjusted operating profit margin and adjusted NPAT margin improving by 1.4 and 1.8 percentage points, respectively.

As mentioned, SGX Group's robust performance this half year continued the momentum from an already strong FY '25. Other than a 10% year-on-year growth for net revenue ex TI, there was also an 8% growth half-on-half. This revenue was backed by sustained volume growth across each of our diversified multi-asset businesses, namely derivatives, including commodities, SGX Stock Exchange, and SGX FX.

Our overall derivatives DAV grew 8% from a high base last year when the China's stimulus announcements drove record high volume on China A50 contracts. This growth built on the strong momentum in the second half of FY '25 when global volatility surged due to uncertain trade policies like from Liberation Day. This was underpinned by strong client demand for SGX derivative products and the increase in our global client reach.

The SGX Stock Exchange SDAV saw a remarkable growth of 20% to $1.51 billion, the highest in 5 years. This was driven by the holistic measures by EMRG and SGX, alongside growing investor interest. The STI posted a 23% 1-year return, outperforming most ASEAN peers. The SDAV for small and mid-cap surged by over 2x outpacing the STI 30 and contributing nearly half of the overall SDAV growth. Additionally, ETFs and Singapore Depository Receipts or SDRs, contributed more than 10% to the overall SDAV growth.

The SGX FX business continued to grow consistently since inception. Average daily value increased by 32% year-on-year, outpacing other peer exchanges benefiting from an enhanced platform and a broader client base.

Let me now elaborate on the group's net revenue performance across our 4 operating segments. Our FICC revenue grew $20 million or 12% accounting for 26% of total revenue. The commodities franchise achieved record volumes across iron ore, [ dairy ] products and petrochemical contracts. Total volume grew 24% with iron ore leading the revenue growth, benefiting from a broader customer base and improved market sentiment from the China stimulus.

I had touched on the strong volume growth of SGX FX earlier. We saw faster growth in lower-yielding swaps, which increased in demand in our clients' portfolios. The Equities-Cash segment revenue grew by $31 million or 16% and contributed 32% to our total revenue. This was mainly driven by the higher SDAV, as mentioned earlier, which increased trading and clearing revenue by the same magnitude. With the higher trading activities, we also saw more income from securities settlement.

Equity derivatives revenue decreased by $10 million or 6% and accounts for 24% of total revenue. This was mainly due to lower treasury income. Notably, though, total equity derivatives volume remained comparable at 91 million contracts, even with a high base last year. Platform and other revenue increased by $8 million or 7%, primarily due to higher colocation sales and repricing of data and connectivity services. This segment has grown at a steady average rate of 2% over the past -- over the past 5 halfs and now accounts for 18% of total revenue.

Moving on to expenses. We continue exercising cost discipline. The adjusted expenses increased by 3.8%. The impact of our planned investments in sales and product capabilities and platform modernization will skew towards the second half. Full year expense and CapEx guidance for FY '26 remain the same as previously communicated. Staff costs for the first half increased by $4 million or 2.6%, primarily due to higher headcount. Technology expenses, depreciation and amortization were largely comparable.

Other expenses increased by $5 million, mainly due to more professional fees and prior FSDF grants received for the SGX FX business. Adjusted earnings reflect our underlying core performance by excluding noncash adjustments. First is a net fair value gain of $6 million, mainly related to the transaction where 7RIDGE fund entered into a binding agreement to sell trading technologies in July 2025. Second, we took a $15 million impairment due to the lower-than-expected performance from Scientific Beta. Lastly, we have an adjustment of $5 million mainly for the amortization of purchased intangible assets.

Our balance sheet remains robust, and continues to provide us with a solid foundation to pursue future growth opportunities while continuing to deliver shareholder returns. Moody's reaffirmed our AA2 rating on September '25, the highest among exchanges rated by Moody's. Our leverage ratio is at a healthy level of 0.8x due to improved margins. The Board of Directors has declared an interim dividend of $0.11 per quarter -- $0.11 per share, consistent with the dividend growth trajectory previously announced. This brings the total dividend in the first half FY '26 to $0.2175 per share, marking a growth of more than 20% compared to the same period last year. We are confident in our ability to deliver sustainable and growing dividends with a steady increase of $0.025 every quarter to FY '28 as previously guided.

With that, let me now hand over to Boon Chye, our CEO, who will deliver the business updates. Thank you.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. As Dan highlighted, we delivered strong results in first half FY '26 with broad-based growth across most business segments. This performance reflects disciplined execution of our multi-asset strategy anchored by a strong client-centric approach and driven by 3 strategic focus areas. First, scaling our FX business; second, expanding and strengthening our derivatives and commodities franchise; and third, accelerating growth in our stock market. With this multi-asset strategy firmly in place, we are confident in achieving our medium-term revenue growth of 6% to 8%, excluding treasury income.

Let me now take you through each of our focus areas. Our SGX FX franchise, our OTC FX business has been expanding at pace, average daily volume has risen at a CAGR of 39% since we started 3 years ago, reaching a new high of USD 180 billion in first half FY '26. As market volatility persists, more participants are turning to our platforms to manage FX risks effectively. We expect this growth momentum to continue with increasing uplift to our bottom line. This supports our medium-term ambition for SGX FX to deliver a mid to high single-digit EBITDA contribution.

To sustain this trajectory, we are sharpening our focus on product and platform innovation. We continue to strengthen our FX data and analytics offerings to meet evolving client needs, helping clients to improve transparency, execution quality, and risk management across the entire trading workflow. In parallel, we are enlarging our capabilities to support broader multi-asset trading, including new EM or emerging market products such as Latin America Non-Deliverable Forwards or NDFs. We are also enhancing workflows to better serve increasingly diverse client strategies.

This growth is underpinned by the depth and diversity of our global client network with rising by site participation from global hedge funds and asset managers. Our client engagement has also received industry recognition with SGX FX name World's Best FX Exchange and World's Best Solution for FX NDFs by Euromoney. With these foundations in place, SGX FX is well positioned to remain a key growth driver for SGX Group.

Turning to derivatives and commodities. Our overall franchise is gaining solid momentum even after an exceptional FY '25 driven by macro volatility, we achieved our highest half-yearly DDAV of 1.35 million contracts. International participation remained strong with T+1 volumes holding above 20% in first half FY '26. Our FX and rates derivatives delivered 18% DDAV growth year-on-year as more global participants rely on SGX for FX hedging.

Beyond our flagship Indian rupee and renminbi contracts, our Korean won futures saw stronger trading activity amid heightened global volatility and a resilient Korean equity market, underscoring the value of our listed FX future shelves, which provides deep and liquid access across Asia's major currencies.

Our commodity franchise recorded diversified growth across our key contracts led by iron ore. Alongside strong performance in our flagship iron ore and our freight contracts, volumes in dairy and petrochemical derivatives continue to grow as open interest reach new highs. Over the years, our rubber contracts have attracted rising participation from financial players who now account for over 60% of daily volumes supported by increasing interest from non-Asian investors. Reinforcing its role as the global pricing benchmark for natural rubber, our launch of T+1 night trading on 26th January this year has drawn promising early interest, particularly from participants seeking greater flexibility in round-the-clock risk management.

In equity derivatives, our volumes remain resilient. Our China A50 futures registered a 2% year-on-year increase in volumes despite a high base from last year's record activity following China's similar announcement. This resilience affirms the A50's enduring leadership as the most liquid international futures for Chinese equities and continued investor demand for SGX Asia access platform. Building on this momentum we are advancing innovation across our derivative suite.

As volumes in equities, FX and commodity derivatives grow, we are expanding our offering to meet changing investor needs and diversify our client base. In first half FY '26, we extended our multi-asset platform with more institutional grade tools such as the launch of the world's first regulated exchange crypto perpetual futures, bringing SGX trusted market infrastructure transparency, and robust modeling into one of the most actively traded digital assets instruments. In this evolving rich landscape, we expanded our offering with the launch of the new 20-year many Japanese government bond futures introduced at a pivotal moment as Japanese rate environment shifts. Together with our 10-year JGB and 3 month TONA Futures, this addition enables investors to express views and manage risk across the Japan rates curve with greater precision. Taken together, this development highlights the resilience of our multi-asset franchise and position us well to capture the opportunities ahead.

Lastly, on the stock exchange business. Momentum has been robust and sustained with interest -- with increased vibrancy in the ecosystem. This reflects the longer-term strategy our equities team has been executing, one that is not just dependent on market cycles, but on building a structurally stronger market over time. Through the first half of FY '26, market participation deepened meaningfully. Average daily turnover rose 20% year-on-year to SGD 1.51 billion, the highest level since early 2021.

Retail participation in cash equities rose to a 4-year high as investors increasingly pursue differentiated opportunities across STI constituents and small and mid-cap companies. Liquidity has increased in tandem with this heightened investor interest. The STI continues to serve as a key anchor supported by steady domestic and international flows. At the same time, trading activity has broadened across sectors driving higher turnover beyond the STI and contributing to a more balanced liquidity profile across the market.

Notably, interest in mid-cap and growth-oriented companies rose significantly with institutional investors recording net purchases of SGD 450 million in small and mid-cap stocks over the year. This was partly boosted by last September's launch of the iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index, which tracks the next 50 largest companies beyond the STI constituents. Liquidity also benefited from higher IPO activity in first half FY '26, SGX Stock Exchange led Southeast Asia in terms of IPO funds raised with nearly SGD 3 billion raised.

Looking ahead, our IPO pipeline continues to strengthen with a healthier outlook compared to 6 months ago. Beyond liquidity, we are enhancing market connectivity and building partnerships globally. Two major initiatives were announced in late 2025. First, with the U.S. Together with NASDAQ, we announced the Global Listing Board, GLB, designed to allow eligible high-growth companies to tap both Asian and U.S. investor bases through a streamlined dual listing framework. As we prepare to launch the GLB later this year, we're seeing more new economy companies engaged with us earlier, encouraged by the possibilities that GLB can unlock. This is widening the funnel and gradually reshaping the profile of companies looking to list here.

Second, with China. The Monetary Authority of Singapore and the China Securities Regulatory Commission has expressed support for Chinese corporates or Asian companies to secondary list in Singapore. There is now a clear fundraising pathway for eligible Shanghai and Shenzhen listed companies to raise capital on SGX while maintaining their A share obligations. We look forward to welcoming new listings under these 2 initiatives in 2026, and are progressing on the supporting frameworks.

Beyond cash equities, while widening the avenues for investors to express their views on Asia's team through a wider range of products such as ETFs and SDRs. ETF activity remained robust, supported by new launches and steady inflows with assets under management reaching SGD 18 billion at the end of 2025, drawn by rising investor interest and steady performance in the Singapore stock market, STI ETFs saw AUM rising to SGD 3.7 billion. We also extended regional and thematic exposures through SDRs, covering Hong Kong, Thailand and most recently, Indonesia, giving investors convenient and cost-efficient access to these markets.

Alongside product expansion, we're also strengthening our market structure. SGX RegCo is consulting on proposals to reduce [ port lot ] sizes for higher-priced stocks and to modernize our post-trade framework through broader adoption of broker custody accounts, both aimed at enhancing accessibility, participation and market efficiency. Collectively, these developments point to a clear trajectory, a broader and more active investor base, deeper liquidity across market segments and stronger cross-border linkages enhancing Singapore's position as a leading marketplace in the international arena.

First half FY '26 demonstrated the strength and resilience of our multi-asset strategy in FX, derivatives and our stock market. They underpin our confidence in delivering our medium-term revenue CAGR growth target of 6% to 8%, excluding treasury income, through disciplined execution and a clear focus on what matters. First, by deepening engagement with new and existing clients, across all our businesses; second, by delivering product innovation and next-generation market infrastructure; and third, driving a vibrant stock market ecosystem with our continued initiatives and momentum.

Thank you. My colleagues and I will now take questions.

Can we have the first question? Yes. I think I saw your hand up first Nick, and then we can have Harsh, and then we'll take a question online after that.

A couple of questions for me. The first is just on your comments on the GLB. And you spoke about new companies looking at the GLB. I presume there's also companies that are already listed on NASDAQ but may look at the GLB. So I just wonder if you could comment a little bit more about what type of companies you expect to list and sort of the source of those companies? And how big this GLB could be in terms of sort of number of listings on a sort of 12- to 18-month view?

And then I have a secondary question, which is a little bit detailed on the numbers. But in your cash flow, there's about a $420 million gain on the sale of a FVPL or something like that. Could you just tell us what that is? I think it's a distribution. Could you just tell us what that is because it's quite a big cash inflow for you.

Yes. Dan, you can take the second question. On your first question, the partnership with NASDAQ and GLB has clearly drawn companies to have earlier conversations with both SGX and NASDAQ. We hope to get the GLB up and running by the middle of this year. The companies that we're seeing now and on the pipeline are the high-growth new economy companies. And that's what the GLB is created to serve companies with the Asian high-growth being able to tap the Asian and global investor base.

You asked for the 12- to 18-month outlook. This is being set up by the middle of this year. We hope to have some company's IPO on the GLB by calendar year 2026. Discussions, as I said, are earlier, companies are talking to us. Can't quite give you that 12- to 18-month forecast, but we're seeing the pipeline being built up.

Thank you, Nick. The second part of your question, we had invested into a closed-end fund a few years ago and the fund is called 7RIDGE. The asset in that was trading technologies, that was sold. The transaction closed in November 2025. So that -- those numbers you see were the proceeds from that divestment of 7RIDGE.

And so your net cash is now quite high. Have you any plans as to what to do with that?

Yes. So we will -- we are looking at reducing some of the debt, the bonds that we have as they come due for maturity -- that we have 2 bonds that are coming in the next 12 months that we are looking at reducing some of that. Yes.

A couple of questions. One very big picture, Boon Chye. A lot of initiatives on equity market in Singapore. If I look at the equity allocation of Singapore households, it's quite limited. Is there any numerical target or any number, let's say, in a 5- or 10-year period, that as you work with different parts of Singapore to get that number higher directionally and to reach a particular level? And how do we think about that possibility?

First, I think the broader participation across the number of companies beyond just the STI constituents is very encouraging. Secondly, the retail participation, as I mentioned, has reached a 4-year high. All segments of investors, including retail households are clearly important. And there are a couple initiatives going forward. You asked about target, but I think it's important to build the foundation.

The value unlock program, working with the companies is one expect of that, being able to articulate growth, capital allocation, business strategy. And then in the investment part of the equation, there's going to be, first, a move towards or encouraging retail, or CDP direct account holders to move towards the broker custody model that can create multi-market efficiency. And along with that, CDP direct accounts remain available.

And then third, we are doing a lot more in terms of investor education. Then the EQDP program, some of which has been launched has also been able to crowd in the money. So we're hopeful that everybody in the ecosystem playing a part and the momentum that the EMRG has created through the various initiatives and through a more resilient economy, stronger Sing dollar, we hope for a sustained momentum. But all segments of investors are important, including retail. And that's clearly something that we've been working on, but I think this momentum creates the possibility.

Right. But it's not expressly a target or number they're trying to solve for in terms of participation. It is increasing and all of these suggest there's a lot of effort. Probably, we'll talk about in a year or two.

We obviously have our working plan. We don't know where the pools of capital are.

Yes. No, thanks for that. Other one is, on some of the initiatives, we talked about GLB, the other one is, which has talked about a lot in exchanges world, and I'm sure you guys have looked at it, it's a prediction market. There's a lot of different kind of contracts on prediction market, some are frivolous, some are serious. As you would have looked through it over last few quarters and years, what kind of role do you think prediction market can play at SGX, if any? And how do we think about that?

Thank you for the question. This space is evolving. And I think the adoption of events markets in each jurisdiction will be different, has to have clear regulation, obviously, demand ecosystem led. As a market and looking at what SGX offers, particularly in the commodity space, freight, having some risk management tools around outcomes such as C-level, number of possible disruptions is clearly something that I think participants may not want to buy insurance for but are keen to look for some risk management tools. And also given the momentum in our stock market, if we're able to create greater visibility interest around financial metrics of a listed company, I think those are clear possible opportunities to evaluate. Like I said, this has to be with clear regulation demand led and with proper guardrails.

Maybe a question from online participant.

Yes, Boon Chye. A couple of questions, but I'll take Jayden from Macquarie's question first. And on treasury income, the same question from Glenn from Phillip. I'll just combine it. Any more compression expected in the treasury income? And then is there a lag on compression? And are you shifting the duration of your collateral portfolio to lock-in use? So that's question number one. Question number two is on Scientific Beta. Why the decision was taken to impair the amount of $15 million on Scientific Beta? And lastly, is there more dividends to come?

So I may forget the second and third. So I'll ask you. Okay. On the first question, the -- first, I would say, collateral balances increased. And there's a function of more open interest with SGX on our platform. Yes, the treasury income did decline, but that's, as you said, a combination of interest rates, but also a combination of the currency mix. And being an exchange that provide access across Asia, we can expect different currency mix. There's obviously, right now, a lot of focus on where the U.S. interest rates will go, but we also saw Australia hiking interest rates. We could also be in a different rate regime in Japan. So what is important is we continue to have very prudent risk management, looking at various instruments and look at duration to enhance the treasury income. And as said, I forgot the second question.

Second question is on Scientific Beta, the impairment charge?

Given the ongoing dynamic and investors focus between or more on market cap weighted indices versus various specialized indices has led to underperformance of Scientific Beta, thereby, we have taken the decision to impair goodwill. However, Scientific Beta provides acquisition and continues to be, provides and enhance our index capability, allows SGX as a group, including Scientific Beta to engage the asset owners who are clients of Scientific Beta deeper. And that has also allowed us to enhance our data platform collectively. Dividend.

Yes.

That was certainly Jayden.

Yes, correct.

We guided the 12 quarters, 3 years out with a [ $0.25 ] increase for our dividend. We're just 2 quarters into it. As Daniel and I have said, we are committed and confident of delivering what we've guided in terms of the dividend. And obviously, as we continue to grow our business, committed to a 6% to 8% CAGR revenue growth and its cash generation increase, we'll continue to invest organically. We may put on bolt-on acquisition that provides incremental value business proposition. And if there's excess capital, the board and management is very conscious of returning value to shareholders and also creating and making a sustainable and growing dividend over time.

Thilan from Maybank. Just 2 questions. On the value unlock program, can you give us any update on how many companies that have signed up? And when can we start to see some announcements in terms of what some of those value unlock will be? That's my first question.

Second question is on your clearing margin for cash equities this half. We did see an improvement of about 2% or so. Can you give us some indication of what's driving that? Is there a little bit more retail? Or has the mix changed?

So I'll take both questions. So I think the clearing fee, yes, so that 2% increase has been led by an improved participation rate of our full fee paying clients, which is largely institutional and retail, and they come from both segments. The value up -- so the program was officially launched middle of this month. And I would say the response has been quite encouraging. People who have stepped forth to say what are these programs and how can we be involved. So I would say there should be about roughly around 100 companies as of today. That's about 1/6 of the number of listed companies that we have. So I think that's fairly encouraging for 2 weeks.

And Thilan, you would have written quite a few notes on this program. Many of the things that we will work with the ecosystem to assist the companies will be quite different. Some of them clearly would be around capital management issues. Some of them will be around the narrative. It could be great in generating returns, but perhaps the story wasn't that well communicated. So those are the things we have to work through. It will not just be done by SGX alone. We are a platform, but we are able to convene the ecosystem, whether it's the IR experts or whether it's the consultants or whether it's the corporate finance advisory firms, right?

So as the ecosystem we come together, and of course, MES has provided that grants to help encourage the companies to say, look, this is the time to do it. And I think best of all, we have seen examples of companies in Singapore that have done value unlock of value up, and have seen the results in share price appreciation. So I think these are the best examples. And it's not just in the STI companies, but in the next year as well. So that sets an encouraging tone, the template for the next year of companies to say, look, there is something for us to do. There is some assistance. And we do know that the EQDP managers, for example, are looking at some of these companies. And if the right strategies, the right metrics and the thinking can be communicated, then they should be able to expect that some of these managers will have institutional capital or retail capital allocated to them can look at these companies.

This is Yong Hong from Citi. And maybe just one question on the DCI segment. So given the recent development and the Anthropic releases and based on your interaction with your clients, any recent opportunities you see for your DCI segment, maybe especially the Indices business. And relating to that, on your Scientific Beta, would that be further eased to your scientific business? And also, is the impairment done? These are my 2 questions.

On the DCI segment, we saw revenue increase in the connectivity space with higher colocation sales and repricing in October '24 and in the data part of it, as part of our securities trading market platform modernization, we're also undergoing a data lake modernization, which will create capability and functionalities for us to create data and indices that participants will find it useful.

On your question on Scientific Beta. As I mentioned earlier, there are other values that SB bring to the group. The revenue contribution of SB to the group is limited. Even if we were to take further impairment, which is not the case at this point, as the management and the team continues to execute on the plan, even if we do that, it will not be -- it'll be modest given the very strong cash and balance sheet of the SGX Group.

I'm Felicia from The Edge Singapore. Earlier on you mentioned that the IPO pipeline continues to strengthen with a healthier outlook. So at the last results briefing, I think Pol gave a number. It says that you guys have 30 companies in the pipeline. So I was just wondering whether you'd be able to give a figure. And I think the last time you guys mentioned medium term. So do you all have any like more concrete timelines this time?

Yes. So when we mentioned the IPO pipeline at our full year results briefing, roughly now also in August, 6 months ago, say, we mentioned more than 30. Very pleased to say 18 out of 30 has now come to the market. As of now, for our full year calendar outlook, the number of companies on the pipeline is more than what we said before. And we have number of IPOs at this month. I think key is obviously companies, as we've mentioned in our pipeline, companies have engaged advisers working on IPO on SGX. And we hope market continue to be conducive, and we hope to outperform last year.

So the number now is greater than 30, if you want the number. But what Boon Chye mentioned is important, right? We said that 6 months ago, 18 listings have happened since. By the way, it's greater than 30 and growing, right? So as all these deals are happening, we see new additions coming in at a greater pace, and that's encouraging. I think the other aspect to this is not just about numbers for us. The quality and the breadth of it is equally if not more important. We see that across main boards and catalysts nicely spread. And with the global listing board now, we have another very, very exciting tool in the toolbox to cast the net even wider.

And to Nick's earlier question, I think what we are seeing based on the conversation that we're having around the GLB is that it's attracting companies that probably otherwise we might not have seen, consider Singapore as a listing destination. So that's exactly what we were hoping to achieve with it. And then equally in terms of -- Boon Chye mentioned is already around industries, right? So it's been pretty diverse. Technology is part of it. Health care is part of it. Consumer segment, digital infrastructure and of course, also real estate, which is 1 of our strengths. And I think all of this, by the way, we already saw reflected in the type of transactions that have started to come through in the last 6 to 8 months.

That's why Pol is the Head of Global Sales and Origination. You're hearing the word greater from him.

Sorry, I do have 1 follow-up question, and that will be the last one for me. I also was wondering whether you guys have any updates on the bolt-on acquisition front. I think, again, it's something that you mentioned 6 months ago and something that you mentioned just earlier. So I was just wondering whether you've identified any potential targets.

Well, we continue to execute on our organic plans. We'll invest organically. We're also obviously continuing to evaluate areas that can extend our breadth and our debt. And as previously mentioned, the freight industry is undergoing in our view, a digitalization journey. And coupled with our existing strength in freight and commodities, that's an area that we're continuing to try and find bolt-on targets that could complement our business strategy. There is no timeline to that because I think it's important to look at the value, to look at the fit and obviously, market timing.

Just wanted to ask on the GLB. As of now in terms of the conversations that you've had with the companies who are interested, do you see more coming from U.S. trying to come into Singapore? Or is it the other way around where you're trying to bring companies onto the U.S. side?

It will be both ways from what we see right now on our pipeline. Our companies are broadly in this part of the world. But with businesses that could extend into Europe or U.S. So meaning, companies in this part of the world having a global footprint or having more of a regional footprint and clearly looking to tap the Asian and global investors.

So just to follow on. I guess, it's more trying to understand. So do you see this more as issuers that are coming new to the market, there will be -- or are there already listed players who are looking to go over to U.S.?

So this will be for new IPOs, and new IPOs could include companies. They have not been listed. It could also include companies that are already in the U.S. looking to tap this GLB.

Questions online?

Yes. Boon Chye, this is from Shekhar of RHB. I'll broadly put into 2 buckets. One on equity derivatives, broadly stable volumes. What is the action plan to accelerate growth over the next 12 to 24 months? And on securities market, any pricing levels without impacting competitiveness?

Very bullish on the need for risk management across the Asian capital structure. Very bullish on our portfolio mix because it doesn't even yet reflect the market weight of what exists. So if you look at our A50, the number looks very large. But when you normalize the notional, so the A50 notional is 15,000, the Taiwan notional is 100,000. When you normalize this, the upside is a lot. And there are 2 metrics you can look for if you wanted to say what the bogey is. One, today, our market share of A shares on our exchange versus onshore China is about 5%. Secondly, the inclusion rate of China in MSCI equity is about 2.5%, meaning there is no asymptote here. It's all about increased activity in Asian markets, higher volatility, very idiosyncratic moves between markets. There is no Asian lump, China is China, India is India, Taiwan is Taiwan. How quickly can this grow? When I look back at Taiwan, 5 years ago when we did the migration, the notional contract of our Taiwan contract was 40,000. Today, this month, it's 100,000. That's just AI and TSMC. So it's not a static portfolio. And in fact, in this current world order in capital markets, I think we are so well placed because we have currency, we have equity, we have commodities, and we're making a start on a new -- entirely new derivatives category, which is the perpetual payout. It's not about crypto. It's about that payout.

I will reinforce Mike's view. Given the unpredictable and very uncertain environment, this is really an environment where I think investors are more actively managing macro risk, which then translate into asset class risk management. If you look at the IMF 2026 outlook, 4 of the top 10 countries that will contribute to global growth in 2026 comes from Asia. Obviously, the top 2 being China and India, and there's collectively, the 4 countries is going to contribute about 50% of GDP growth.

The second question is any pricing levers for securities market without reflecting competitiveness? Our focus is really to broaden market participation, increase the number of stocks number -- increase the liquidity or number of stocks beyond the STI, more products, better post trade with the broker custody arrangement for the investors who choose to do so. And if that continues to create the flywheel, I think that's better for the overall market in terms of our activity.

Any questions here in the audience? If not, we take 1. Yes, Harsh, and then we have 1 from online.

A couple of follow-ups. You touched on, Mike, on the [indiscernible] futures as a contract, and it's more a proof of concept. Where are we in that journey? And how -- by when do you think you can get enough of data or comfort to then broaden out into, let's say, gold or some other contracts?

The design choice of what we delivered was to go through existing rails because that's how you address your current customer network. But there are 2 specific things that need further adoption. One is clearly setting up the fact that it's not -- it's an indefinite future. It keeps rolling. And it has a daily funding, right? So these are the 2 important things. And we needed to wait for the right asset class to come along where there was an ecosystem that said, I can do this. So the evidence that we have since launch for Bitcoin and [ Ethe ] has been very promising. It's mostly luck because of the environment. So what we've seen is that the most important thing to track is the micro structure. How liquid is it? And actually, the results are very encouraging. Most of the volume is in Asian hours, hypothesis, number one. 70% of the stuff trades in Asia, the trading happens out of Asia, that's what we've seen.

Number two, the funding rate is actually tracking the nontraditional crypto exchanges. It is not tracking the U.S. ETFs. It is not tracking the U.S. Bitcoin futures, meaning it is the regulated mirror of what you're seeing on the unregulated exchanges. So that is very promising. Thirdly, this funding rate is very responsive. It went up a lot when Bitcoin went to 85,000, 87,000, and guess what, in the past week or so, it is now negative. So it works. It does what it says on the tin. Our task here going forward is to get more institutions, clearing members and primes to onboard this onto their shelf, right? We already have a number of pioneer technology vendors and clearing members, and they are very crypto-native in nature, but we need to hit the mass customer network where our strength lies.

We'll take 2 more questions. One here and then 1 online.

I am [indiscernible] The Business Times. I wanted to circle back on the IPO pipeline that you mentioned. So would you say it's better than the first half of your financial year?

I would say the pipeline has improved, yes. That's what we said. Notwithstanding the good momentum that we are carrying across from the first half of the financial year. But you need to understand, right, these things never happen in a straight line. There's a bit of seasonality in IPO activity as well. So it's normal for the first quarter to be a little bit more quiet as companies prepare our full year financials. But overall, as we look -- continue to look at that sort of medium-term window, we're very, very confident.

All right. I also wanted to clarify whether do you see like more mean bought applicants or more catalyst applicants?

Quite equally split.

And actually, last year, you said that 2025 was a transitional year for the [ board ], right? So do you think -- how do you describe 2026 then?

Transitional year?

It's transitional year. That's what Pol said last year.

Yes. So I mean it was very clear. If you look at the calendar year 2025, the first half and the second half were 2 different worlds. We're now in the new world, and we'll keep building up on that momentum. I think if you just generally look at market conditions that are out there, pretty favorable and not just for us, that is globally, but I think there are certainly elements that play to the strength of us here in Singapore and of Asia as a region.

We see the supply coming through, right? There is many, many companies out there in this region that fit right in our sweet spot that need to create liquidity for their shareholders that need capital for growth. So -- from a supply perspective. And then we've, of course, worked tremendously hard with many people here in the ecosystem in identifying some of the pain points and coming up with these initiatives that have been rolled out following the review group that I think are going to be very meaningful in creating an even better environment for us. And I think the deployment of EQDP funds is a very good example of that. The regulatory changes that we've started to make and indeed also the global listing board, for example.

I have another question for Boon Chye. It would be very quick. For the Equity Market Implementation Committee, do you have any more details you can disclose at this point?

Not at this point, we hope in the weeks ahead to announce the formation of the -- to announce the committee members and then lay out our plans forward.

One last quick question, I think, maybe for Boon Gin. Could you kindly elaborate on the reduction of port lot size from 100 shares to 10 shares? Will it extend beyond the initial companies that have been identified so far? And that's from a private banking sector.

Yes. So I think we have put out that console and taking into balance the various factors, we think that we start off with $10. And I think that is going to be a good start because it represents companies or blue chip companies that can be more accessible to a wider population. I would say that the unitization way of breaking down the ballot size, it's not new to us. We did that in the ETF market in 2022. And we have seen quite good activities in ETF market clearly, and we have seen how investors are able to access the higher-priced ETFs and being able to do that. I mean, GOL is an example. It is trading about SGD 600. So we have seen activities in that. And I think that has helped. Of course, I won't be able to definitely extrapolate, but I think making our stock market accessible with -- for higher price shares to a much broader population is part of our goal for higher retail participation in this market.

Okay. With that thank you very much, everyone, for your presence and participation. Thank you.