Marex Group plc

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to Marex's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to Adam Strachan, head of investor relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today for Americs' first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Speaking today are Ian Lowentz, Group CEO, and Rob Irwin, Group CFO. After Ian and Rob have made their formal remarks, we will open the call to questions. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that certain matters discussed in today's conference call are forward-looking statements relating to future events, management plans, and objectives for the business and the future financial performance of the company that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. The risk factors that may affect results are referred to in Marek's press release issued today. The forward-looking statements made today are as of the date of this call, and Marek does not undertake any obligation to update them. Finally, the speakers may refer to certain adjusted or non-IFRS financial measures on this call. A reconciliation schedule of the non-IFRS financial measures to the most directly comparable IFRS measures is also available in Marek's earnings release issued today. A copy of today's release and investor presentation may be obtained by visiting the IR page of the website at Mareks.com. I'll now turn the call over to Ian.

Good morning and welcome to our first quarter 2026 earnings call. Thank you all for joining us today. Q1 2026 was a record quarter for Marex, materially above our prior record in Q4 2025 and somewhat above the top end of the profit range we provided at our investor day on March 26. This was a quarter of high exchange volumes and extremely elevated volatility, an environment in which we performed very strongly. Our performance is the result of both a supportive market environment, albeit one with significant potential pitfalls, and the ongoing structural growth of our franchise, evidenced by new client acquisitions, customer balance increases, and share gains. As you see on slide four, first quarter revenues grew 48% from $467 million to $692 million, and adjusted profit before tax increased 59% to $153 million. This record performance includes the impact of a client default in January that we described at our investor day and which Rob will cover in his comments. We grew EPS by 55% to $1.52 with trailing 12-month EPS of $4.66. Return on equity was very strong at 34.4% up 570 basis points. Adjusted PBT margin was 22% up on last year's 21%. Importantly, and consistent with prior quarters, this performance was broad-based, with all our businesses contributing strongly. Clearing had an outstanding quarter, with high levels of client activity and new client onboardings. Market-making benefited from the elevated volatility and performed strongly, particularly in metals and energy. Agency and execution also delivered a strong quarter driven by volatility across energy and financial markets. Prime saw some modest negative impact on client balances from lower equity markets in February, but it was still a strong quarter up materially over last year's. Underlying client demand remains robust and Q2 balances are at record levels. Solutions had a record quarter driven by high levels of client activity and the investments we made in technology and platform capabilities last year are now clearly bearing fruit. As we described on our last call and discussed at our investor day, Q1 was a challenging environment for managing credit exposure. The small number of clients we mentioned who were illiquid but not insolvent as a result of the elevated volatility in price movements have now resolved their situations. And aside from the loss in January, we have seen no further material credit issues. Our record performance in Q1 was a result of both the support of market as well as structural franchise growth. First quarter exchange volumes are up a lot, up 32% on Q4 and 24% year on year. Cleared volumes in March were around 25% above the record levels in April 2025, evidencing the operational resilience of the firm and the scalability of our platform. Volatility, as measured by the VIX, increased by 15% to an average of 20 for the quarter and 26 on average in March. Commodities pricing was up on average 13% on the fourth quarter and was over 20% higher in March, remaining at these elevated levels through April. This was a period of extremely elevated volatility within certain asset classes. In natural gas at the end of January, we saw multiple days of two or three standard deviation price moves, which together represented a one in 35 year event with prices experiencing one of the largest five day rallies on record. We also saw significant volatility in oil markets through March, with crude prices increasing by around 70% to well above $100 per barrel, which we navigated without any material client events. This backdrop is supportive for the business overall, driving higher activity in clearing, agency and execution brokerage and match principle, as well as market making and solutions. Equity markets were softer in February, which impacted prime client balances, although overall markets remained strong over the quarter. Interest rates also remained supportive. Against that backdrop, we grew adjusted PBT 59% year-on-year and 33% on Q4, demonstrating that we are growing faster than our underlying markets. One of the clearest indications of structural franchise growth is in our clearing client balances, which I'll cover on the next slide. Clearing client balances grew to an average of $16 billion in the first quarter, up from $14 billion in Q4, and our run rate at the end of the quarter was above the average. This growth is a result of three effects. First, exchange margin requirements have risen to reflect the higher volatility, and that increases balances. Second, we continue to win new larger clients. We are already ahead of our annual target for net new balances, and our pipeline of large client opportunities for the rest of the year remains strong. And third, some of our larger trading clients are taking advantage of the current environment and increasing their margin balances with us. We expect balances to continue to increase, although the pace will likely moderate. Turning to Winterflood, which is included in our numbers for a full quarter for the first time within market making this Q1. The business has started strongly ahead of our prior expectations, and we see opportunity for margin expansion as we scale the business. Regulatory approval for the sale of Winterflood's custody business has been received, and we expect closing in the second quarter. Under the terms of the transaction, this will generate around $40 million of capital benefit. This will increase reported earnings for Q2 and creates equity, which will be deployed for growth. This is another example of our disciplined approach to M&A, as we will have acquired Winterflood's market-making capability, which is performing strongly on the Marek's platform at a material discount to tangible book value. We also completed a successful $500 million senior unsecured debt issuance, priced 50 basis points tighter than our previous deal, and the deal was highly oversubscribed. We are becoming a regular established issuer in the U.S., and this further diversifies our funding while reinforcing the strength of our balance sheet. We continue to make progress with our proposed redomiciling to Bermuda, which we expect to implement in the second half of 2026. The proposal is subject to shareholder approval at our AGM on May 21st and subject also to regulatory approvals. To recap what I said at Invest Today, we believe this is the right structure for the next phase of our growth, aligning the group more closely with how the business is managed and enabling us to scale more effectively across regions. This also helps simplify the unintended complexity that comes from being a UK incorporated company, which is US listed. We're very mindful of preserving shareholder rights and protections in the new structure, and critically, there will be no change to the underlying business model or operations. I'm pleased to share that April has continued the momentum we experienced in Q1. It is tracking above last year's April, which was a very strong month given the Liberation Day volatility and volume spikes. We are running above February's level of $38 million, but below March's exceptional 78 million. Turning to the outlook for the full year, while individual quarters are hard to forecast, our underlying trajectory, balanced growth, client wins, platform scaling, is very positive, and we've had a very strong start to the year. As a signal of the board's ongoing confidence in our growth outlook, we have announced an increased first quarter dividend of $0.16 per share, Now I'll pass over to Rob to go through the financials.

Thanks, Ian, and good morning, everyone. First quarter revenue grew by 48% to $692 million, with growth across all of our business segments, driven by higher client activity and a supportive market environment. Total expenses increased by 44%, reflecting the higher revenues. Total expenses increased by 44%, reflecting the higher revenues, as well as ongoing investment to support growth, including the impact of acquisitions completed since the first quarter of 2025. As we've said before, our cost base remains highly flexible, with around 55% of expenses variable and linked to performance. Adjusted PBT margin expanded to 22.1%, delivering a 59% growth in adjusted PBT to $153 million. Our adjusted return on equity remained very strong at 37.4%, and we grew basic EPS to $1.52 per share, up 55% on last year's Q1. This is an excellent start to the year. Looking at each business segment in turn, starting with clearing on slide 9. Clearing revenues increased by 15% to $137 million. driven by record client balances and an increase in contracts cleared, with heightened client activity throughout the quarter. Net commission income increased 30% to $88 million, reflecting higher client activity in a volatile market as well as our broadened product offering across the regions. Average clearing client balances increased to $16 billion from $12 billion in the first quarter of last year and up from $14 billion in the fourth quarter. This reflects higher margin requirements, new client wins, and an increased activity from some of our larger trading clients, as Ian has already discussed. The material growth imbalances drove an increase in net interest income to $68 million, more than offsetting the 70 basis points reduction in average Fed funds rates year-on-year. These revenue increases were partially offset by the natural gas client default Ian mentioned, which resulted in a total loss of $34 million in clearing. This included trading losses of approximately $28 million, driving trading revenue to negative $18 million, and a credit loss provision of approximately $6 million. These were partially offset by lower variable compensation, around 20% within clearing, and another 20% in control and support. Despite this loss, our strong underlying performance meant that adjusted profit before tax still grew 2% to $58 million, reflecting continued franchise growth, including new plant onboarding and strong balance growth. Turning now to agency and execution, revenue increased 35% to $322 million, driven by broad-based revenue growth across both securities and energy. Securities revenues increased by 42% to $214 million, driven by market share gains in equities, increased client activities in rates, and continued momentum in FX following the integration of Hamilton Court, which is performing very well and adding new clients. Prime revenue grew 41% year-on-year, reflecting the continued strong client demand for our services. Although prime revenue was down on the back of a very strong fourth quarter, this reflected more mixed equity markets in February, as Ian mentioned. However, our pipeline remains strong. Energy revenue increased 20% to $106 million, reflecting strong growth across the business. Performance benefited from weather-related disruption in the U.S. in January and heightened volatility following the conflict in the Middle East in March, both of which contributed to record energy revenues for the quarter. Overall, adjusted profit before tax increased 61% to $91 million, with margins expanding to 28%, reflecting growth in higher margin activities, particularly prime energy. Market-making revenue grew 164% to $140 million, driven by an exceptional performance across the business, particularly in metals and energy. Metals had a record quarter, with revenue more than doubling to $65 million, driven by increased volatility and strong client activity. Energy revenue increased more than three times to $32 million, reflecting elevated hedging activity from clients, driven by volatility from the conflict in the Middle East. Securities revenue also increased 127% to $33 million, reflecting the inclusion of winter flood following its completion in December, with the business performing strongly. Adjusted profit before tax increased to $56 million, with margins expanding to 40%, a strong revenue growth more than offset higher front office compensation and the additional headcount following the winter flood acquisition. Finally, solutions which delivered another record quarter in Q1. Revenue more than doubled to $93 million, reflecting growth across both financial products and hedging solutions. Hedging solutions revenue increased to $36 million, driven by higher client demand for hedging products across both commodities and FX amid the high volatility in the market. Financial products revenue also increased to $58 million, reflecting continued strong structural products issuance volumes, supported by the rollout of our new technology platform last year. Adjusted profit before tax increased nearly threefold to $33 million, as margins improved significantly to 35%, reflecting strong operating leverage in the business. Turning now to net interest income at the group level. First quarter, 2026, NII was $41 million, compared to $53 million in Q1 2025, as higher interest expense more than offset the growth in interest income. Interest income grew by $17 million, reflecting materially higher average balances of $22 billion, which more than offset a 70 basis point reduction in the average Fed funds rate. However, high interest expense related to the group's $500 million senior debt issuance in May 2025 and structured note issuance in solutions brought net interest income down overall. As we've said previously, we continue to hold significant liquidity headroom. Whilst this creates a modest near-term headwind to Group NII, it is a deliberate choice that we view as an insurance cost that strengthens the balance sheet and positions us to support clients and pursue future growth opportunities. NII increased by $15 million compared to the fourth quarter, predominantly due to the $2 billion of growth in clearing client balances in the first quarter. Looking now at our balance sheet, which I covered in detail at our recent Investor Day. As you remember, one of the distinguishing features of our firm is that around 80% of our balance sheet is directly driven by client activity, which is highly liquid and essentially self-funded. This quarter, total assets increased to $36.5 billion at the end of March, driven by growth in clearing client balances. After net incline assets and liabilities, the remaining residual balance sheet primarily consists of corporate cash and other assets totaling 7.5 billion against group liabilities of 6.2 billion, including our structured notes and senior notes issuance. Turning now to capital and liquidity, we continue to manage capital and liquidity prudently, maintaining substantial headroom above regulatory requirements to ensure resilience across market environments. At the end of March 2026, regulatory capital was $1 billion against a requirement of $403 million, representing a capital ratio of 253%. This provides a substantial buffer and supports our investment-grade credit ratings. Total corporate funding increased to $6.7 billion, up from $6.2 billion at year-end 2025, and we maintain significant liquidity headroom of approximately $1.4 billion. As Ian mentioned, we announced an increase in quarterly dividends to $0.16 per share for the first quarter to be paid to shareholders on 3 June. Finally, closing with risk management, average daily bar increased to $5 million in the first quarter, reflecting the extreme levels of volatilities in the commodities market and set against a trading profile that included a higher number of days generating over $2 million of revenue with only six negative trading days. This remains at a very low level relative to the performance delivered by market making this quarter, reflecting the client flow driven nature of our business. In terms of credit risk, we had no realized credit losses in the quarter. Now I'll hand you back to Ian. Thanks, Rob.

In closing. We are two years into life as a public company and have consistently delivered. Every quarter has been ahead of the same quarter in the prior year, with growth averaging well above our stated long-term guidance. Quarterly earnings have increased from around $55 million pre-IPO to over $150 million in the first quarter of 2026. The opportunity ahead remains substantial and exciting. High barriers to entry, structural shifts in bank focus, and the increased demand for our services create a long runway for growth. And we are better positioned to capture today than at any point in our history. On margins, the combination of AI-driven productivity, a growing proportion of earnings from high infrastructure businesses like Clearing and Prime, and the operating leverage of the platform gives us confidence in continued margin expansion over the medium term. The consistent growth we are delivering is not a function of any single market environment. It is the result of the platform we have built, the clients we serve, and the organization we have built over many years. 2026 has started extremely well, and we're excited about our prospects for the rest of the year and the future. With that, I'll hand it over to the operator to open the line for questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Chris Allen with KBW. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Yeah, morning, guys. Thanks for taking the question. I guess I just wanted to start out with April and just the commentary there tracking above last year. And maybe you could help us think about what April looks like from an organic perspective, because the comps last year weren't exactly easy. And then what's been the incremental impact from inorganic or just build out of different capabilities and segments?

Sure, Chris. Thanks. So, look, as we mentioned, you know, we did have a strong April. I think the So the backdrop here is, as you'll be familiar with, exchange volumes down on March as well as sort of the first quarter. So no sense in which those extremely elevated exchange volumes have sort of maintained themselves, nor would we really expect that. But sort of notwithstanding that, we do have in April, which is – you know, sort of stronger than last year and has been, you know, a strong month. You know, the opportunities in, you know, sort of market making and probably, you know, somewhat lower just as sort of the market is sort of pausing some amount. But what we are seeing is, you know, real interest, you know, in the prime, you know, the clearing volumes are, are up the um and the clearing balances are up and so you know essentially you know the diversified platform is working out uh you know we are seeing uh nice contributions from some of the acquisitions that we closed uh last year so hamilton court in particular you know, has had, you know, very strong April. But, you know, the business is performing, you know, as we would hope, you know, not at the levels of March, which I think were, you know, somewhat unsustainable over the longer term, but certainly, you know, very strong performance, you know, in April. And, you know, that gives us confidence, you know, for the second quarter as well as, you know, for the rest of the year.

Got it. And just as a follow-up, maybe we could dig into financial products a little bit more. Obviously, you've seen really nice growth trajectory here. You know the impact of the new tech platform. Maybe you could just discuss whether there's specific client opportunities here, regional opportunities. Any additional call would be helpful.

Certainly. As you mentioned, we did invest a lot last year in upgrading our technology, our infrastructure platform, which enabled us to support a much larger number of products and be able to bring products to market more swiftly. In addition, you know, we've been consistently, you know, investing in sort of building out, you know, some of the regions. And certainly with financial products, there's been a lot of take up in Asia. And then, you know, although, you know, it's very early days, you know, we've been investing in the in the US markets. And, you know, while those are not. really relevant in the first quarter numbers or you know even in april and we actually have a lot of confidence that that's going to deliver so you know what's really going on i think is just the the output of you know a lot of effort to you know sort of invest um you know undoubtedly you know the market environment in the first quarter was uh was sort of helpful you know for that particular business But I think that most of what it represents is just the ongoing, you know, investments that we've been making in the product. You know, probably not going to, you know, it's going to sort of be hard to maintain the growth rate that we saw in the first quarter. But, you know, we still see it as likely to perform very strongly, you know, through the rest of the year. Thanks, Chris.

Your next question comes from the line of Alexander Blostein with Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hey, Ian. Good morning, everybody. I wanted to start with a question around operating leverage. Really strong margin, 22% in the quarter. Obviously, the revenue environment was very helpful and the sources of revenue growth have contributed to that. But curious if you could expand on ability to sustain these type of margins for the rest of the year as the environment perhaps kind of normalizes a bit? And then ultimately, as you look forward, what the scope is for incremental margin expansion over the next couple of years?

Yeah. Look, I think that, you know, as we indicated at sort of Invest Today, you know, we do think that the way in which we're growing is likely to be increasing of margins. So, you know, we expect that our growth will be differentially in infrastructure-intensive businesses like Prime and Clearing, and those, I think, just sort of naturally increase margins. And I think that over time, we will start to see more economies of scale. At the moment, as we've grown, we've grown essentially to look to diversify, adding new products, new geographies, Over time, I think more of the growth will be by getting bigger in things we're already in rather than just simply adding new things. And I think that in and of itself lends itself to sort of higher margins. And then although it is not reflected in the numbers at the moment, but I think it will be over a period of time, as we look at the potential for AI to evolve, enable us to not only do functions better and more efficiently, but, you know, potentially, you know, reduce some amount of cost. You know, that feels like it's very early in what will be a long game. So the combination of all those things, I think, put us in a position where we're pretty confident that, you know, over a three-year horizon, you know, the margins are likely to be in, you know, sort of the mid-20s, somewhere in around there. And as we look at, you know, this year, um i think that uh you know continuing to operate at these margin levels is is quite uh plausible and feasible um you know again first quarter was not a quarter where we had you know particularly strong uh sort of prime you know obviously it was up a lot on the prior year but it wasn't up on the prior quarter and i think that for the rest of the year we we actually anticipate that Prime, which is a very high margin business for us, will actually be growing. So I think that maintaining the margins at these levels and then seeing them grow over the next three years to something like mid-20s is sort of sensible expectation.

Great. Super helpful. And then for my follow-up, I wanted to touch on some of the corporate actions you guys have announced. I guess one Just want to make sure whether there are any implications from a business perspective from re-domiciling, whether it's incremental operational efficiencies or any capital benefits. And then related to your authorization coming up, share buyback coming up in May, just curious how you're thinking about utilizing buybacks as part of the overall growth algorithm for the company going forward.

With regard to the re-domiciling, we're very explicit about it's not changing the operating model. It's really about just the location of the holding company. It will mean that we will have... you know, for regional holdco's. And I think, you know, that will promote the right longer term sort of structure and focus for us. It is not likely to and was never motivated by a desire to capture sort of capital efficiencies. And while I think there will be some operational efficiencies, you know, we expect them to be relatively modest. And they will mostly arise, you know, as a result of the complexity of operating as a UK company. domiciled company, you know, as well as having a US listing. And that complicates, you know, a variety of matters, including sort of compensation and other things, and typically involves, you know, having a lot of, you know, legal help with ensuring that, you know, what you're putting in place really works for all of the various requirements. So I think we expect, you know, relatively modest improvements in operations. We're not doing this for tax reasons. We remain UK tax domiciled. We don't anticipate, you know, sort of capital advantages, but it is consistent with where we're looking to evolve the firm and there will be some limited cost savings as a result of it. So I think that, you know, I think people are sort of aware that we. We don't have an authorization currently. And I think that there's a sense that's pretty widely shared that what we want to have is the ability to buy back our stock if it is sort of sensible for us to do so. And particularly when we saw the stock drop, a reasonable amount last year, I think the question was, should we, in fact, have been in a position to buy back our stock? It doesn't represent a shift in our view that our current capital allocation is, in fact, the right one, which is ensuring we can maintain our investment grade rating, maintaining the dividend and using excess for you know, acquisitions. And as long as we're seeing acquisitions at the kind of prices we're seeing them at the moment, you know, we think that's the best way to create value for shareholders. But, you know, operating in a world where you don't even have that authorization, you know, seems to us to be an error. And so we're hoping to get authorization from our shareholders to enable us to buy back stock if it was sort of necessary or the board felt it was sort of sensible for us to do so.

Very well. Thank you so much. Thanks, Alex.

Your next question comes from the line of Bill Katz with TD Cohen. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Okay. Excuse me. Thank you very much for taking the question. Good morning. Good afternoon. Just coming back, just want to make sure I understand the April framework. I was wondering if you could unpack that a little bit. I joined a moment late, so I apologize if you covered this busy morning. I heard that April is looking somewhere between February and March. I was wondering if you might be able to unpack that a little bit further, obviously a pretty wide spectrum underneath that, and maybe what you're seeing just in terms of client behavior, client margin balances, and within that, any sort of shift in risk just given the loss in January month. Thank you.

Okay. So, look, I think that, as you point out, you know, the range between February and March is quite large. I mean, I think that to sort of give everybody a sense of, you know, where within that range we are, you know, if we were able to continue the rest of the quarter at the level of where we were in April, I think we'd be in and around what we did for the first quarter in aggregate. What's underpinning that strong performance is obviously client balances have been very strong. So that's been supporting our clearing businesses. We've seen a great deal of interest in sort of the prime product. And so that's certainly been helpful. I think that there is retrenchment just in the marketplace generally from some of the market makers in some of the commodity products. So while spreads remain quite wide, volumes are somewhat lower there. And so while revenues are quite strong, they're not at the levels that we saw in March. So I think that... You know, that's probably what we're seeing. We're certainly not seeing, you know, sort of increases in risk. We're not seeing... concerns with, you know, with sort of credit, as I sort of indicated in the remarks, those of essentially all of those situations have sort of resolved. So, you know, we're feeling that, you know, it's just indicative of the ongoing strength in the franchise and, you know, the ongoing progress we're making with clients. I don't know if there's sort of anything I haven't covered within your sort of multiple question there, Phil.

Well, it was one long question, but thank you very much. Just following my peers. Second question for you is just on deals at the investor day. I think you had mentioned that the pipeline is pretty robust. I was wondering if you'd give us an update, maybe how that pipeline has seasoned since the investor day and maybe frame out maybe size of opportunities and what specifically you might be looking at. Thank you.

Sure. Look, I mean, I think that since the investor day, some of the the companies we've been talking with, things have progressed in a positive way. So I think we're sort of closer to sort of reaching terms on those or completing diligence. So that feels like we're actually making good progress in moving all of that forward. I think that what it looks like is we'll be able to deliver very comparable outcomes levels of, you know, sort of acquisition in aggregate as we did, you know, last year. So, again, you know, acquisitions in the clearing space, acquisitions in, you know, we will have web trader, you know, acquisitions in sort of the market making space. I think all of those are, you know, likely to complete this year. And then I think that, you know, in aggregate, it's likely to have very, comparable impact of what we saw in 25, maybe somewhat more. So we're very pleased with how that all goes. We're able to increase diversification, particularly geographically. So one of the acquisitions we're looking at is in Asia. One is in Brazil. Some are across regions. They're probably you know sort of focused on clearing um you know bolt-ons like uh like the honor acquisition um but something you know essentially a range of acquisitions which will strengthen you know all parts of our business okay thank you for taking the multiple part questions oh no problem

Your next question comes from the line of Alex Cram with UBS. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Yeah. Hey, good morning, everyone. Just digging a little bit deeper in, I think, the first answer you just gave to Bill, and it's specifically on the energy trading environment. You know that it's a little bit softer. And this is not just a merit, but also an industry question. So I think you mentioned market makers, maybe a little bit less active. There were some well-documented losses in the space, not the one that impacted you, but just in general, some of the larger trading houses and macro funds. So just wondering what you're seeing out there, anything that makes you worry a little bit more than usual after these kind of volatile quarters, and maybe any expectations when you think

um things are will be ramping again even inside even any signs of of things ramping already again thanks yeah i think that what we're seeing um you know is you know less activity from sort of the pure traders and the market makers and ongoing engagement from you know, participants in this marketplace that are typically, you know, buyers or sellers of the commodity itself. So, you know, oil or the various derivative products. You know, as you would expect in these environments, the margins on transactions, you know, tends to be higher. Volumes tend to be lower at this point in the cycle, you know, The point at which those market makers or that speculative capital comes back into the marketplace couldn't really say. But certainly what we're seeing is those people who are buyers or consumers are you know, almost of necessity, quite active in hedging in an environment where there's this much volatility and uncertainty. So that's really what we're seeing. You know, it's most pronounced in energy. There's, you know, less, but still some in, you know, in the metals markets as well. So somewhat less activity, but the spreads are wider and that obviously helps maintain productivity.

know offset the sort of impact to lower volumes okay very good thank you and then maybe more in terms of growing the franchise with new client onboarding you made some comments already maybe you can be a little bit more specific i think at the time of the investor day there was a really uh big pipeline of some i think near-term large onboarding so just wondering have a lot of those now happened and then you know, with maybe that behind us, how would you describe the kind of pipeline over the next couple of quarters? Any, you know, any specific comments around obviously clearing and prime where it matters the most?

Yeah, so I think that, you know, the good news is we did, you know, we have onboarded some of those larger mandates. So they're onboarded. You know, the pipeline remains, you know, quite robust over, you know, the next series of quarters, but not, You know, as you will appreciate, Alex, you know, the clearing pipeline has a great deal of visibility because people work on these arrangements for many, many months, sometimes quarters. And so you have a pretty rich sense of it. So the good news is, you know, it's being realized about as we would expect. And it does also mean that, you know, we can see that – you know, over the subsequent set of quarters, there still are a number of, you know, really interesting clients that should come onto the platform. So that feels exciting. And, you know, we talked about, you know, customer balances being up about $2 billion. Some of that is, Existing clients with more balances, some of that is new clients. And that level of activity, we would expect to increase over the course of the year, albeit perhaps not at the same rate. And then with regard to Prime, there was a bit of a dip in February as the markets dipped, but that is... You know, that business is now operating at record levels and, you know, has a robust pipeline, a very robust pipeline over the rest of the year. And it really is, you know, it's the part of the firm that offers diversification when exchange volumes might be, you know, sort of coming down. We saw that in the third quarter of last year. And certainly, you know, we're seeing... the very positive impact of Prime in April, and we expect that to continue into the second quarter and beyond. Very helpful. Thanks, guys.

Your next question comes from the line of Dan Fannin with Jefferies. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Just wanted to talk about some of the recent acquisitions and their contribution. You mentioned Hamilton Lane and Winter Flood. Can you talk about kind of how those have tracked as they've been onboarded versus expectations? And then remind us if there's any cost benefits that maybe still could come through to think about maybe margin enhancement as those businesses continue to scale.

Yeah, sure. So it's Hamilton Court and Hamilton Court, you know, is performing very strongly. So, you know, It may actually operate at a level which is almost double what it was prior to acquisition. So we're actually really pleased with how Hamilton Court is operating. I mean, it's just an example of how you take a sort of strong business, a strong capability, and you put it onto acquisition. the marriage platform where, you know, it has advantages in terms of, you know, how it hedges out, um, you know, it's positions, it's terms of trade with the street, the ability to generate liquidity, the comfort that clients have with you. And, you know, that just has created, uh, you know, really considerable, uh, scope for growth. And I think, you know, the, the team is doing a very good job of, uh, sort of capturing that, you know, with regard to winter flood, um, You know, it closed in December. You know, the sale of the custody business to Epirus, now that regulatory approval has been obtained, you know, will be happening, you know, this quarter. The revenue performance of the business is strong and ahead of what it was prior to acquisition. We have you know, we need to complete the sort of splitting of the business into the market-making piece and the custody piece and move, you know, and have the sort of EPRA sale complete. And at that point, you know, we do believe that there will be, you know, some opportunity for margin expansion. You know, we did indicate that we thought that Winterfly would get to, you know, a 20% margin, it's operating, you know, below that. So there is, you know, some scope for margin expansion within the winter flood business as we change the support model and are able to capture some of the sort of synergies that would exist as part of merits.

Understood. Okay. Thank you. And then, Following up on some earlier comments just on the hedging and investment solution business, which continues to be on a really robust growth rate, can you just maybe frame what is the best backdrop for those products to be sold and adoption? Clearly, we've been in a volatile one, but I just want to make sure I understand kind of the macro components that increase or drive demand, or we shouldn't think of it that way. It's just more of what you guys are doing in the blocking and tackling and executing.

I think it's probably a combination of those two things. So, you know, the business comprises two elements. You know, one is essentially OTC hedges for clients. So clearly, you know, the more volatile environment, which... creates a sort of more requirement for people to hedge out commodities exposures. And, you know, that is helpful to the business as a sort of general backdrop. And then within financial products, which is the structured note component of the business, you know, the backdrop, which is, yeah, higher volatility, but probably also sort of stable or increasing equity prices. Those are probably, yeah, You know, that's sort of the helpful backdrop. You know, I think that the improvement quarter on quarter and year on year in that business is a function of both, you know, a supportive environment as well as, you know, sort of structural improvements in the business and the investments we made last year in infrastructure, which are really very significant in this. I mean, not only because this year we're now able to free up all the bandwidth of the senior management team that were involved in ensuring that that infrastructure build-out was successful, but also with that infrastructure build-out has been an ability to you know, have more products, bring products to markets more swiftly, you know, be able to do that with, you know, high levels of confidence around controls. And so I think it's the combination of the investments we made, the ongoing investment in staff, the broadening of the business geographically, the progress we're making over a period of time, most noteworthy in Asia, but not uniquely in Asia. you know, with the sort of backdrop, which is sort of helpful to that business, all of those things, you know, have contributed to, you know, a very strong, you know, sort of quarter in that business. Understood.

Thanks for taking my questions. You're welcome.

We have reached the end of the question and answer session. I will now turn the call back to Ian Lowett, CEO for Closing Remarks.

Well, thanks, everybody, for joining us. You know, another really strong quarter for the firm, you know, record by some margin. It's obviously partly a function of, you know, an environment that was supportive for our business, but it also, you know, I think reflects the ongoing improvements we make quarter to quarter, just improving, you know, how we operate. And that combination, you know, has delivered, you know, the record results. We're obviously pleased with how the business has performed in April, which is a less supportive environment, but one which we continue to perform strongly. That gives us confidence for the second quarter, and it also gives us a lot of confidence for the rest of the year and beyond that. It's great to be able to continually come and describe record quarters to you all, and hopefully we'll be able to continue to do that. Thanks, everybody.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.