11/14/2025

speaker
Conference Operator
Moderator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the B3 Earnings Results presentation for the third quarter of 2025, where André Milanese, B3 CFO, will discuss the results along Fernando Campos, Investor Relations Associate Director. We would like to inform you that all participants will be in a listen-only mode during the company's presentation. After the company's remarks are completed, there will be a question and answer section when further instructions will be given. As a reminder, this conference is being broadcast live via webcast. The replay will be available after the event is concluded.

speaker
Fernando Campos
Associate Director, Investor Relations

Hello, I'm Fernando Campos from B3's Investor Relations team, and it's a pleasure to welcome you to another earnings event, where André Milanese, B3's CFO, and I will analyze the results of the third quarter of 2025. André, we will start by providing an overview of the quarter. André.

speaker
André Milanese
CFO

Thank you, Fernando. Well, the third quarter once again reaffirmed the strength and efficiency of our business model, Even in a challenging period for the equities and derivatives markets, we saw a 2% revenue growth compared to the same period last year. Growth that was driven by areas that demonstrate robust resilience, even in tough macroeconomic scenarios such as the ones we have been going through. I would like to highlight the solid growth of 21% in fixed income and credit, 18% in data analytics and solutions, and 13% in technology and platforms, results that reflect our ability to capture opportunities in areas adjacent to our core business. Our expenses during the quarter remained below the inflation for the period, proving the effectiveness of our budget management and commitment to efficiency net income reached 1.3 billion reais and earnings per share were up to 24 cents per share which represented a 12 increase compared to the third quarter of last year uh growth that growth that was boosted by our buyback program executed during the period. Now, Fernando will detail the operational performance, and I'll come back later with more financial highlights. Fernando.

speaker
Fernando Campos
Associate Director, Investor Relations

Thank you, André. Regarding markets, I'll start with the derivatives, which had that revenue that totaled 880 million reais. a 7% decrease compared to the third Q24, reflecting mainly the depreciation of the dollar against the Brazilian real, which impacted revenues from FX and foreign currency interest rate products. The ADV totaled 9.3 million, an 80% decrease compared to the third quarter last year, due to the lower activity in interest rates in BRL and FX markets, a result of the reduced volatility during the quarter. On the other hand, RPC grew 11% in line with the volume reduction. For another quarter, OTC derivatives showed strong performance, with growth in both insurances and outstanding volumes. Now talking about fixed income, which remains a highlight of our revenue. showing strength in challenging scenarios. The segment's revenue grew 21% compared to the same period last year, with the corporate debt market consolidating itself as the main financing alternative for Brazilian companies. and the search for interest-linked assets gaining even more relevance in this challenging scenario. In equities, despite the high interest rate environment impacting the ADTV, which totaled R$22 billion, a 6% decrease compared to the same period last year, there are some highlights, mainly in BDRs, which saw volumes growing by an impressive 41% in the period. Alongside ETFs and listed funds, these instruments represent 16% of the cash equities market ADTV in the third quarter in 2025 versus 14% in the same period last year. The small margin recovery that we saw quarter-on-quarter was not enough to offset the volume decline, resulting in a 10% decline in the segment's revenue, which totaled R$518 million. Highlights of the other segments include in the data analytics solutions growth in the vehicle financing and 18% in increase in revenue from platforms and analytics with a strong presence of recurring revenues, especially in the credit, loss prevention, and insurance in vertical. In technology and platforms, the funding industry continues to expand, mainly related to the fixed income and reflected in an increased use of our technology solutions and the registration and custody of fund quotas, strengthening our market support services. Now, André will talk about B3's financial performance and strategic advances. André?

speaker
André Milanese
CFO

Thank you, Fernando. Well, as I did mention in the beginning, our expenses remained under control. growing below inflation, even with the impact of the annual adjustment of salaries and benefits, as well as increased IT spending during the quarter, which were partially offset by reductions in third-party services and reversal of legal provisions. This reinforces our discipline and ongoing pursuit of efficiency and more predictability in terms of our expense behavior. Our recurring EBITDA reached 1.7 billion reais in the quarter, 1% above the third quarter of 24 with a 69.5% margin. In financial results, we successfully completed a 2.6 billion debenture issuance with a very competitive cost of CDI plus 0.45% per year and a five-year term. which allowed us to early redeem the seventh issuance with a positive impact in terms of net present value, even considering the non-recurring effects that we had in the quarter of around 23.5 million as a result of the early redemption that was recognized in the period. The distributions for the quarter, they totaled 1.3 billion reais with 875 million in share buybacks and $403 million in interest on capital. Year-to-date, we have already repurchased 125 million shares, representing around 2.5% of the share capital and around a third of the 2025 buyback program. In our innovation agenda, we have launched the Tesoro Selic B3 Index, a benchmark for treasury financial bills performance, and the Gold Future Index, tracking the gold future contract, new offerings that expand our portfolio of solutions and reinforce our commitment to the market. Finally, we advanced in our strategy as an infrastructure for the credit journey, announcing the acquisitions of SHIPE and CRDC, both acquisitions strengthening our presence in the trade receivables market. The acquisition of SHIPE was completed in October, while CRDC's acquisition is still pending regulatory approval. Thank you for your trust and partnership on another quarter for our company.

speaker
Conference Operator
Moderator

Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. If you have a question, please press the raise your hand. If you are connected by phone dial star 9 for raise your hand. If your question is answered you can leave the queue by clicking on put your hand down or dialing star 9. Our first question comes from Caio Prato with UBS. You can open your microphone

speaker
Caio Prato
Analyst, UBS

Hello Andre, Fernando, good morning. Thanks for the opportunity to ask questions here. I have one question on top line that actually I would like to divide in three sub-segments, if I may please. First is on platform and analytics. almost 20% in a year and you mentioned that it was driven by credit and insurance vertical, if I'm not wrong. I just would like to get a sense if you can share a little bit more details on that and if we can consider that this level should be more sustainable going forward. The other line that showed strong performance in my view was market support services that grew almost 30% in the year. So I'm not sure if this has some relation with the all-time high Ibovespa that impacts the funds or not. If you can share more details on that and also how sustainable it could be going forward. And finally, the third is on securities lending. So, this line also showed an interesting evolution on this type of revenue this year, almost 16% this quarter. Year-to-date growth is also good. So, you mentioned the press release about some operational improvements. If you can talk a little bit more about these improvements, what happened here would be good as well. Thank you very much.

speaker
André Milanese
CFO

thank you for joining kyle um i'll start i'll start drawing some uh some comments on the on securities landing and then i'll i'll pass on to fernando to uh to give you more more more details on the other on the other revenue lines but In securities lending, we have been working in several initiatives to help to unlock liquidity in that product. And I think what we have been seeing in terms of revenues and results, it's already the beginning of some of those initiatives paying off and helping. I think we still still believe we're far from where we want to be in terms of where that product and that market should be, but we can also already see some improvements given some of those initiatives that we have been working with the market. So I think one potentially to highlight, we have been working very closely with the brokers to use what we call the intermediation account after some improvements we've made on our platform to basically allow more of the retail position to be used as part of the SEC lending product. That has helped. to expand the volumes here. The automatic renew of contracts, another feature that was introduced, also helps. More recently, we have initiated, we launched the liquidity pool, which is aimed to increase liquidity and transparency, especially for the local buy-side participants. They are now more present on the screen of those products. And there's still a lot to be done. I mean, we're still working in potential different models that could help to unlock volume from foreigners on that market. But I think what you're starting to see in terms of the revenue is a result of some of those initiatives that we have been introducing and have been taken in order to increase volume and liquidity for that product.

speaker
Fernando Campos
Associate Director, Investor Relations

So talking about market supporting services here, I think the main impact comes from the development of the fixed income fund industry. And there it's basically, there was an increase in AUM of those funds. that we charge custody fees on it, so that this volume, and there was a price adjustment that we implemented on this fund quota custody. So that's basically the main reason. So this can be, we can see, I'm not sure, I cannot predict in which level, but we can see that there's still room to grow here. Talking about platforming analytics in the vehicle and real estate, we do have a better scenario for allowance in the auto vehicle industry, which has a positive impact, a direct impact on the revenues in that segment. And when you go to the analytics, which was the former – Now in Eurotech, they exist, but they've been in merger with us. I'd like to highlight three different segments in those business. First one, loss prevention. Loss prevention basically grew because of the commercial efforts. So I think we have a nice set of products. that it's easier to sell now. And I think we are developing a lot of products that are super interesting to the market. And I think the commercial efforts here are paying off. In credit, and I think here new products as well, so the development of new products, but also it's benefiting from products that are related to the auto vehicle finance that I mentioned before. So given that we are seeing a strong increase in that segment, there is a direct demand for products, for credit, for analytics credits that are related to it, and insurance as well. It's been a positive impact by the vehicles industry here.

speaker
André Milanese
CFO

And just to finalize, Kyle, I think this is a good example to demonstrate that, you know, the investments and efforts that we have been putting into increasing potential new avenues of growth for the company and diversification are starting to show better results. but also that there's still a lot that can be also done in the core business in terms of new features, product development, improve of liquidity. So that's why our strategy remains, you know, investing a lot in our core business to ensure that we continue to bring innovation and capture the growth that we will be seeing in the market but also investing in other avenues of growth for the company and diversifying in the areas adjacent to our core business. Thank you.

speaker
Tito Labarta
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Thanks, Guilherme. Thank you very much.

speaker
Conference Operator
Moderator

Our next question comes from Yuri Fernandes with JP Morgan. You can open your microphone.

speaker
Yuri Fernandes
Analyst, JP Morgan

Hi, Fernando. Hi, Milanese. I have a question regarding taxes. In Brazil, we are seeing a lot of noise on a potential key tax to be debated in the coming days or weeks. And I'm not sure if we should expect an impact for B3 from that. And if yes, if there are any measures that B3 could take to mitigate part of the impact on this potential headwind. And then I have a second question, just regarding markets, especially equities and derivatives that I think are the two lines that were a little bit more lackluster this quarter. Particularly on equities, we see kind of a bottom, right, on individuals when we try to estimate the turnover velocity. For retail, we also see a U at very low levels. Maybe if you can give us an outlook here, this is really the bottom with the Brazilian index getting back to all-time highs, you know, like you are seeing better outlook for retail. So if you can comment just on if the bottom is here and what is your view for 2026 regarding those lines. I think derivatives is more about pricing than volumes per share. but I would appreciate any outlook we could provide. I know it's hard, these lines are volatile, but with lower rates, if you can give us some color, it would be good. Thank you.

speaker
André Milanese
CFO

Thank you for your question, Yuri. Let's start with with taxes, which is always a tricky subject for us Brazilians. But, you know, we had a provisional measure that could potentially represent an increase in our taxation with the increase on the social contribution from 9% to 15%. As you know, that ended up not being approved by Congress, so it lost, it expired before it became into force. But then we have a similar discussion now that was included together with the taxation of fintechs and on bets in a project that is being discussed, if I'm not mistaken, at the Senate at this stage. So there is a chance that that could be approved. We have been working. to try to not have that approved because we do believe that we shouldn't be part of those measures to try to equalize banks and fintechs. We are not a bank. We are not a fintech. But there is a chance that that could go through. What we have been doing and were doing before that, working in measures that the company could try to take in order to at least try to partially offset potential impacts coming from those measures. They are not directly related, but we think that we're How can I describe that? Maybe they were already in the books and we decided to accelerate some of those given that context, but they would not be able to completely offset any negative impacts that could potentially come from that increase in taxation if that gets approved, which I would say at this stage seems that there is a a good chance of that not going through. So we have to continue to monitor that very closely and try to work with policymakers and the industry to try to not have that being voted and approved. Regarding the ADTV and ADV, you know, this is always a very tricky question. If you look besides, you know, let's say the more very short term, you know, there has been some stability on volumes around the 23, 24 mark. I mean, in some months you will get... slightly higher volume and others slightly lower, but they have been hovering around that level. Our impression is that this is kind of where we will stay until there is a trigger to see some pickup in activity, and that trigger potentially is interest rates coming down or a heavier and stronger allocation coming from foreigners, which is in part what has been driving the appreciation that we have been seeing on the May index. So, potentially for next year, we could see some improvement on volumes, but I think in order to see that... really coming more strongly and in a more sustainable way, we will need to see interest rates coming down, right? I think it can be positive for next year, the outlook can be positive, but to really see a recovery, a more strong recovery and new sustainable levels, I think we also need to see interest rates coming down in order to achieve that. and in relation to the adv i mean i think you know we are coming from a a very high comparison base also next year last year uh we saw some reduction on the bitcoin future volumes as a result of the the increase in margin requirements we also If you recall, there was a lot of volatility on the interest rate curve last year that helped to see a lot of activity on derivatives trading for interest rates. But I think, you know, we might, as we approach the beginning of another easing cycle, we could see some pickup also in volatility for interest. for the interest rate, which always benefits our derivative business. So, I think, in both cases, the outlook seems positive, even though not ideal, given the reasons that I mentioned.

speaker
Yuri Fernandes
Analyst, JP Morgan

Super clear. Thank you, Milanes. Thank you, Fernando.

speaker
Conference Operator
Moderator

Our next question comes from Renato Meloni with Autonomous Research. You can open your microphone.

speaker
Renato Meloni
Analyst, Autonomous Research

Hi, everyone. Thanks here for the questions. I want to explore a little bit the pipeline of new products. And more specifically, I'm curious about how you're looking at the development of predictive markets globally. And if this is something that you would be interested in implementing, if there's space to implement this, if it's close enough to your business, and if there are any regulatory hurdles that you foresee that. Thank you.

speaker
André Milanese
CFO

The question is about prediction markets, right?

speaker
Renato Meloni
Analyst, Autonomous Research

Yeah, pipeline of products in general, but more specifically about predictive markets in your view there.

speaker
André Milanese
CFO

Thank you, Renato, for the question. Look, as we have been discussing, I mean, we remain very active in the pipeline of new products. As you know, we've launched several derivatives this year, not only derivatives, a lot of indices, ETFs, a new trading platform, so continuously bringing innovation and new products to ensure that the needs of our clients are being properly served and matched remains one of our key priorities. We have also been testing new products and more innovative products as well. In terms of what we still have on the pipeline for this year, we should be launching still derivatives linked to the to the VIX, Brazilian VIX index, an index that we launched and started to publish last year. So it has been a year that the index is up and running, and we are planning on launching the derivatives based on that index. It is also on the pipeline to launch the options on Bitcoin. We already have the futures, a lot of ETFs, and now the options as well. uh we will continue to advance in other uh types of products such as you know the zero day expiry options uh digital options and these sort of things products that we are still uh or or are starting to to discuss with the regulators uh as you know For any products that we want to launch, we need to seek regulatory approval for that. And prediction markets could potentially be also on that agenda. I think we have already started those discussions. but they will come potentially after some of those initiatives that I did mention to you, such as the zero-day expiry options, the digital options, et cetera. But this is definitely something that is in our agenda to explore and to discuss.

speaker
Renato Meloni
Analyst, Autonomous Research

Does the regulator see this as a positive? Does it have any considerations on you launching predictive market products?

speaker
André Milanese
CFO

I think there are sometimes different opinions and views regarding this kind of products. But there's also, I mean, we need to look at what has been happening not only here but outside Brazil. This is definitely a global trend that cannot also be ignored. So, I don't think they have a definite view. But, of course, they have concerns about this kind of product and think that we will work together with them to assess whether this can be, you know, addressed or mitigated in order to launch this kind of product. But that's the beginning of those discussions. So we don't have a clear view still around, you know, those products as of yet.

speaker
Renato Meloni
Analyst, Autonomous Research

Okay. Thank you very much.

speaker
Conference Operator
Moderator

Our next question comes from Eduardo Nishio with Genial Investment.

speaker
Eduardo Nishio
Analyst, Genial Investment

Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Good morning, Andrea, Fernando. Two questions from my end. The first is on expenses. You had a great result this quarter, basically flat expenses. Is that a trend that you will try to take before next year? If there's any major investments or initiatives for next year that we have to put into account, of course, excluding the revenue-linked expenses, your thoughts on that. And also an update, if you can, on competition. particularly the two local new exchanges. If you can give us a timeline, testing results, anything you can share with us, it would be great. Thank you.

speaker
André Milanese
CFO

Thank you for your question, Nishil. Glad to hear from you. So, look, regarding the expenses, right, so as we have been saying since the beginning of the year, this year we have been working in order to, you know, to better plan our expenditure throughout the year. and therefore have less volatility and give more predictability around the behavior of our expenses. We do have some seasonality, but not at the level that potentially we have seen in recent years. So part of our efforts this year was to work on how to better plan that kind of spending throughout the year. And I think we have been so far successful in achieving that objective. The reason why you are seeing, you know, so this quarter revenues, almost flat in relation to last year is because we had a very, you know, last year you had a much heavier second half of the year in relation to the first half. It's natural that the second half is slightly higher because that's where we get the annual adjustments on our salaries and other things, but it didn't have to be as volatile as it has been in recent years. So I think, you know, for this year, you can expect us to deliver the guidance that we gave, which is going to be a growth slightly above the inflation. And going forward, that remains our target and our commitment, trying to deliver cost growth, around inflation, slightly above or slightly below. It's difficult to grow much lower than inflation, given the nature of our cost structure, given that we continue to invest in new initiatives, in product development, in expanding our portfolio. So, the mantra here has been, to be able to continuously find efficiencies in our core business, in our mature products, in order to generate funding for us to continue to invest in new initiatives, in expansion of portfolio, and achieving that without necessarily having to grow our cost base much above inflation. So that has been the way we have been working in relation to that. And regarding competition, Look, I mean, I don't have a lot of updates, timeline. I mean, we have the information that we hear from market participants. Both initiatives are talking about, you know, potentially being launching by the second half of next year. I think they have been progressing. We don't have a... a lot of visibility in relation to our infrastructure, et cetera. But I think they're still working and trying to progress. I don't have a lot of news that I can share with you at this stage.

speaker
Brian Flores
Analyst, Citi

Thank you.

speaker
Conference Operator
Moderator

Our next question comes from Pedro Leduc with Itaú BBA. You can open your microphone.

speaker
Pedro Leduc
Analyst, Itaú BBA

Thanks. Good morning, everybody. Question. This quarter, especially in September, I believe, that you guys performed some adjustments on the market incentives for market makers, HFTs. I believe you did some fine-tuning on the way. I'm not going to say that you priced, but the way your programs work with different types of participants. From the outside, I know it was only just one month, but we see different behavior there on the revenue per contract in equities. We also saw some volumes as a backfire maybe. Can you talk to us a little bit on how you saw this happening on the ground and maybe what we can expect its consequence to be also in the fourth quarter onward? Thank you. Sure.

speaker
Fernando Campos
Associate Director, Investor Relations

Thank you, Pedro, for the question. So from what we look, and I mentioned this on the last call, we didn't expect a lot of impact. We thought that from the back test that we run, we thought that the impact would be neutral, and that's a little bit of what we saw. I know that there is some – I think the volumes are low because the market is kind of – it's a challenging scenario for macros, in the macro scenario. But we haven't seen a significant impact from the changes that we did mainly on the market maker programs. And we did – we did – dug a lot deeper on that we enter in the ticket from ticket ticket to ticker to stock to stock to try to understand the impacts of it and we haven't seen a different performance on the volumes of of tickers that we incentivize from the ones that we don't so we don't understand it that's a a That's a sign that there wasn't a direct impact from the changes in market-making programs in the volumes. All the other products, all the other changes, I think they were implemented. They are kind of successful. Like I said, we didn't saw a lot of impact on the margins, but we have received positive feedback from clients. And I think it made our operational leverage even clearer. So we are able to share more volumes with the market. So I think that's pretty much it.

speaker
Pedro Leduc
Analyst, Itaú BBA

Any particular comment on the revenue per contract or trading margins that we're seeing in equities?

speaker
Fernando Campos
Associate Director, Investor Relations

So for the future, I mean?

speaker
Pedro Leduc
Analyst, Itaú BBA

Again, a little bit on what happened this quarter sequentially and for the future.

speaker
Fernando Campos
Associate Director, Investor Relations

So, yeah, sure. So on the margin, on the trading margin in equities, we did see a performance that was kind of similar to what we saw. We just had a lower volume, so we had a little bit more prices. And like I mentioned, this will be more visible from now on that we have this kind of discount per quarter. for an institution. So, and that's a trend that we should see. On the RPC, we didn't make significant adjustments on any contracts on this quarter. So, I think here we have an impact from the, like, it's on the, yeah, on the mix, and we did have an impact from the lower, the devaluation of the USD against the BRL. This has an impact on the FX contracts and the interest rates in UST contracts. So that impacts, but all the other things, I think, are performing the way that we thought they would.

speaker
Carlos Gomez Lopez
Analyst, HSBC

Thank you.

speaker
Conference Operator
Moderator

Our next question comes from Daniel Vaz with Safra. You can open your microphone.

speaker
Daniel Vaz
Analyst, Safra

Hi, everyone. Hi, Milanese. Hi, Fernando. Thanks for the opportunity for making questions. Just trying to put a context here. We are right now maybe with a weaker dollar, right? The context is of a renewed dollar. emerging market appetites, at least for now. So, we started to hear, again, some companies maybe preparing for an IPO or for any follow-on, given this renewed interest in the emerging markets or after markets. So, However, on the other side, the local funds remain a lot under pressure. We see a lot of outflows on the industry and retail also. I think someone mentioned the turnover velocity is very low because the appetite is pretty much shifted toward the... the taxes and fixed income instruments. So my question is, it seems likely that some of the IPOs could end up listing abroad, as we've seen in the past, like Nubank, for example. So is BitTree prepared for this next window, maybe 26 or 27, I don't know, of IPOs, if there is any window? And any meaningful progress or new initiatives that could serve like a silver bullet to attract these listings, like the key listings mainly on the tech, on whatever, to the local markets, like to your market, instead of going like to NICE, to NASDAQ? Thank you.

speaker
André Milanese
CFO

Thank you for the question, Daniel. We are... ready to receive these companies when there is a window of opportunity here. With conversations that we have directly with some of those issuers, potential new issuers with investment banks, I would say there are around potentially 100 companies that could be candidates for an IPO within, you know, 12, 18 months. Some of those are already ready when the opportunity presents itself. Others working to get ready to be prepared. And I think, you know, as we have been saying, you know, listing abroad is potentially going to be an alternative for few companies companies that have there are not I would say Brazilian companies but they have a level of international exposure there is very high or companies there are you know tech tech companies that has been the case not only for Brazil but for other jurisdictions as well so you you see big, you know, English companies, German companies decided to have their primary listing in the U.S. I think that's natural given the size and the relevance of the U.S. market. And it will be – it will make sense for some very specific companies that have those – attributes that I did mention. In those cases, of course, we will work to have a dual listing or to have BDRs and try to have some of that volume in Brazil. But those are going to be exceptions and not the general rule. I think for the vast majority of the Brazilian companies, the listing in the local market, in the domestic market, it's what will make more sense. We've seen companies that doing that very specific window that we have between around the regretting that decision, some of them coming back. We had the example of a tech education company that ended up delisting in the U.S. and we domiciled their listing here. We have also been working very close with the regulators in initiatives that could help try to make the access to the capital markets easier. We have the so-called FASIO program starting next year. I believe that can also be an interesting opportunity for small-sized companies. I think that in the beginning we will see that potentially helping companies that want to access the local DCM market, but that could potentially be also an interesting alternative when conditions are more favorable for an IPO, for the equities market, for these companies to access the ECM market using that new regime for the small companies to use that regime. So I think we are very, very confident With that, I think the main question remains when that window of opportunity will present itself. And then in order for that to become reality, there are primarily external factors, economic factors that are completely outside of reality. you know, our control and the control of the companies. But we are looking at that very closely. We are very close to these new issuers, but I think that's how we are seeing that moment and that environment.

speaker
Daniel Vaz
Analyst, Safra

That's super clear. Thank you. Thank you very much.

speaker
Conference Operator
Moderator

Our next question comes from Antonio Ruetsch with Bank of America. You can open your microphone.

speaker
Antonio Ruetsch
Analyst, Bank of America

Hey, thank you for your time. So my first question goes on M&A. You mentioned in the past that you already did the two big acquisitions that you needed to make. That was NAOE and Neurotech. I would like to ask if you still believe that that's the case. And how do you see M&A today? Could we continue to see small acquisitions or are you considering that there is a line of business and that maybe you'd benefit from a big one? And also a second question here. I would like to follow up on the question I did last quarter on the electronic trading of fixed income. I'd like to ask if you guys did any improvement in that sense on platforms or in order to bring more volumes to your platform trade. Okay. That's it for me. Thank you.

speaker
André Milanese
CFO

Thank you, Antonio. So the first question, sorry, was regarding M&As, right, sorry. Look, I think that remains being the case. I think the two large M&As that were in our radar, in our pipeline, were executed. As I have been saying, the big focus since then has been on execution of that strategy, particularly on data. M&A remains a potential alternative that we could use to achieve some of our, or to deliver some of our strategic objectives that we have. There is always a consideration if we should, you know, maybe for, you know, If we want to increase our offering and offer a new product, a new service, there is always a consideration if there is room for us to develop that internally, to do a partnership, sometimes to do an M&A. That remains being the case. So, In the two recent cases of these smaller size acquisitions, those were capabilities that the company didn't have and that we understood that it would make more sense for the company to acquire those capabilities rather than trying to develop that internally. We have been doing a lot of, besides M&As, a lot of partnerships as well. And I think that will remain being one of the alternatives that we will have to achieve our strategic objectives. but at the moment there is not a large size M&A, or at least not of the size of what these two companies were on the radar. Regarding the TradeMate, our platform, we have been seeing improvements on that, especially on the government-bound market. We have been breaking record after record in terms of volume. I think the last time that we reached the record was the end of last week or beginning of this week. There is still a lot to be captured in terms of how much of the trading activity is happening on screen, is electronified, but we are starting to see progress. This already represents, I don't recall from the top of my head now the percentage, but it has been increasing. Besides the platform, we have also been investing in liquidity provider programs, market-making programs, also to increase liquidity on the platform. It's a journey. It will take some time, but we will start to see improvements on that. So that remains being one of the areas also of focus for us.

speaker
Antonio Ruetsch
Analyst, Bank of America

That's great. Thank you.

speaker
Conference Operator
Moderator

Our next question comes from Tito Labarta with Goldman Sachs. You can open your microphone.

speaker
Tito Labarta
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Hi. I'm taking my questions. Two questions also. One, a bit of a follow-up, I guess, on the previous question on M&A, because you did do two small acquisitions, Shipday and CRDC in the quarter. I think maybe you answered it, but I guess these are more capabilities that you wanted to fill in. Any other color you can provide and what opportunity you see with those two? acquisitions are. And then my second question on the Bitcoin features, you made some changes to the product, I think you mentioned, to try to improve liquidity. It did impact trading volumes, I guess, in the short term. Yeah, just how do you think about those changes? Do you think the Bitcoin features can become more relevant? You talked about Bitcoin options, something that you can also begin to offer, just thinking about that opportunity and what potential upside that could bring. Thank you.

speaker
André Milanese
CFO

Thank you for your question, Tito. As I said, I think those two companies we identified as part of our discussions and our strategy on the receivables market. ShePay particularly was a company that we had already been working on a partnership and given how things were progressing and the potential that we were seeing on that, we thought it would make more sense to have that company with us. It brings features that we plan to offer as part of our solution for the credit receivable, especially on payments, which will also be an important feature when this new market is working. But we also have seen potential opportunities of leveraging from those skills and capabilities in order to launch new products or improve or add new features to existing products of the company. I think it's The biggest focus now has been on the receivables market, on that, but we also see potential for that acquisition to help generate value in other parts of our business as well. And with CRGC, which is, by the way, we just need to recall that this is, yet subject to regulatory approval. On the case of SHIPE, that has already been achieved, but in the case of CRDC, this is still ongoing, still pending. But on CRDC, we saw there, besides some of the solutions that they already have, and they will complement our offering on trade receivables. They also have... capability of reaching a part of potential clients or players in that market that we are not used to deal with. So the commercial association, NCRDC, will help to increase the reach that our solutions will have, especially with you know, small and mid-sized companies, commercial stores, etc. So that's where CRDC fits into that strategy. As I said, in the previous response, M&A remains being a way of us achieving some of our strategic objectives. It is not a strategy per se, but a way of achieving some of those. And as a result, you know, that remains on the radar for the company. But, you know, at the moment, you know, small-sized acquisitions, as add-ons or additional features to some of the initiatives that we have been developing.

speaker
Fernando Campos
Associate Director, Investor Relations

On Bitcoin futures, like we mentioned, we did some adjustments on collateral requirements on the second quarter, as by the regulator. So, obviously, this had some negative impact on volumes. But we think we still consider the product a success. It's part of the strategy of having a more – A full set of products for the retail are retail-oriented products in derivatives, which, as I mentioned before, we do have derivatives on other cryptocurrencies. And it is still a big part of what we plan to do with this retail-oriented product portfolio in derivatives. So I think that's pretty much it.

speaker
Tito Labarta
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

All right. Thank you, Mr.

speaker
Conference Operator
Moderator

Our next question comes from Brian Flores with Cici. You can open your microphone.

speaker
Brian Flores
Analyst, Citi

Hi, Tim. Thank you for the opportunity to ask questions. We have seen that non-listed markets, data and technology, as you mentioned, it's central to your diversification strategy given the high volatility of listed equities. So I just wanted to see if you could recap that. What new product rollouts could we see, particularly for digital assets, crypto-based products? And also, if you could elaborate a bit on what are the margin expectations of these new ventures compared to the current portfolio? Thank you.

speaker
Fernando Campos
Associate Director, Investor Relations

So, Brian, can you repeat the first one? So, what can we do to enhance the other segments besides markets? That's it?

speaker
Brian Flores
Analyst, Citi

No, basically the diversification strategy, right? We have seen that non-listed markets and also data and technology are very key to the whole diversification strategy. So I just wanted to understand which new products we could see, particularly on digital assets and crypto, and if you could elaborate on the margin profile of these ventures.

speaker
Fernando Campos
Associate Director, Investor Relations

Sure. So on data, on crypto, I think we have already, I don't think we have any other futures planned in the upcoming months. We think we have the three largest contracts, the three largest cryptocurrencies, we have the futures here. So I think that's in crypto by itself, the crypto derivatives, I don't think we have anything planned for the near future. uh regarding data uh data it's it's a set of small initiatives so we don't have like a big silver bullet of products in any of the segments that we have and uh when you break down uh the the growth it's a lot of small things that we are doing so uh we are working really close with clients to develop products and solutions to them to kind of uh customize solutions for those Obviously, when you look at midterm or longer term, I think we're going to have the data that we have are going to cross paths with the AI discussions that we are seeing. So it's something that we are already looking at our strategic planning, how those paths will cross at some point in the future. How can we monetize and enhance all the data that we have as a source of for AI tools. I don't think we're going to see that on the short term, but it's the discussions that we are having within the company that can be really huge in the long term. So that's a little bit of what we're seeing. On the short term, I think it's the development of products really close, working really close with Alliance, which has been what's been supporting this impressive growth that we are seeing in data and analytics in the last quarters.

speaker
André Milanese
CFO

And, Brian, I think it's worth for you to understand that we are not selling data here. We are actually selling data. selling data solutions that are helping clients to resolve problems, right? So we have certain verticals that we have been working on, sales and marketing, loss prevention, credit, insurance, There are several examples of those solutions that we have been developing, leveraging from the data that we end up producing as part of our core business on the trading, on the fixed income market, on the infrastructure for financing units. All of those business activities that we have ended up producing a lot of and in some cases unique data, and we are leveraging on that to deliver data solutions that can add a lot of value to our clients. So there's a lot of potential to continue to expand not only on the portfolio of new products and solutions, but also on the penetration of those solutions amongst customers. you know, client segments, et cetera, and that goes beyond the traditional set of clients that the company typically has, right? Regarding margins, the standard or the average for the industry is typically margins around 30 to 40%. That's where we will aim at at some point, but in the near and the short term, we are basically, you know, deciding to invest more growth at the expense of profitability, but ensuring that this business or that business unit is generating cash, right? It's not burning cash. We don't want to see growth at the expense of generating losses or burning cash. But we are at this stage not really... trying to maximize profitability we do believe that there is still a lot of potential for growth before we can start to work in maximizing profitability on those on those businesses on those initiatives no super helpful thank you our next question comes from carlos gomez lopez with hsbc you can open your microphone

speaker
Carlos Gomez Lopez
Analyst, HSBC

Thank you for taking the question and congratulations on your EPS growth. So two very big ones. First, on the Forex, you mentioned that you have been hurt by the appreciation of the Real versus the US dollar. Could you quantify that to the extent that you can? I'm sure you have done studies. How much do your earnings move with Forex moves? And can you mitigate that if you expect that the Real is going to strengthen further? And second, in terms of your buyback, you still have, I believe, 65% of your program open. The stock is now at 14. You tend to be quite savvy in terms of choosing between paying dividends or IOC or buying back stock. What's your inclination today? Thank you.

speaker
Fernando Campos
Associate Director, Investor Relations

So, Carlos, thank you for your question regarding your first question, the effects. We have close to 15% of our revenue that are linked to the USD. We do have the derivatives contracts that I mentioned, which moves. The prices of those contracts are linked to the USD. So when there's a strength in the real, you're going to see the prices dropping. And we have the part of the market data that we sell to vendors that are also linked to USD. So that comprises of close to 15% of our total revenues, 10% to 15% of our total revenues. But we do have a debt that is linked to the USD, and we do have a cash flow hedge account. that kind of offset those impacts on the revenue per se, not on the prices. So, Andre, I can talk about the second question.

speaker
André Milanese
CFO

So, regarding the buybacks, right, when we announced the buyback program last year, I mean, we were in an environment where the share price was extremely depreciated. We have been executing a lot of the buyback and basically as we have always been saying, we will move the proportion more towards buybacks or dividends depending on market conditions, on share price, on multiples, level of discounts, discount compared to our peers. That's what's going to be driving, and this is very dynamic. So having said all of that, I think... I don't expect us to execute the whole buyback program, given that the share price has responded a little after we've announced the buyback program earlier. at the end of last year, but we will continue to execute buyback. Basically, if the share price goes down, we will accelerate the execution of the buyback. If the share price appreciates, we will slow down until there is a point. where potentially we will stop buying back shares, and the difference is going to be delivered back to shareholders through dividends. So that's how we have been managing that, and that's how you should expect to continue to see us dealing with that equation between buybacks and IOC and dividends.

speaker
Carlos Gomez Lopez
Analyst, HSBC

We understand that and we think that's exactly right. So the question is, at 14, are you still buying or this is a level in which you are more inclined to give more dividends?

speaker
André Milanese
CFO

No, we're still buying at that level. Mm-hmm. Let's share at a lower pace, but we're still buying. And you can see that on the results that we publish every month. So you can track the execution of our buyback program monthly on our website.

speaker
Fernando Campos
Associate Director, Investor Relations

We do have all the volumes and all the prices at the average price there. So it's super easy to track.

speaker
Carlos Gomez Lopez
Analyst, HSBC

Very good. And finally, on the forex, so I understand the impact on the revenues, and you say that you have that hedge. So on your operating margin, is there, in the end, a net impact of the foreign currency, or it's only on the top line? It's basically on the top line. All right. So your net income should not be too much affected by where the currency goes. No. Very clear. Thank you.

speaker
Conference Operator
Moderator

Thank you. This concludes today's question and answer session. I would like to invite André Milanese to proceed with his closing statements.

speaker
André Milanese
CFO

Well, I just wanted to thank you all for your trust and support. We remain committed and focused on our clients, on delivering what they need, bringing innovation and new products to the market. That remains being our focus. I would also like to invite you all to our annual investor day, our B3 day, which will take place on the 16th. of December, so more than welcome to join us on a moment where we will discuss a little bit of the strategy of the company, present to you some of the achievements that we have seen during the year and talk a little bit about the future and how we are seeing the development of our market and our company. So it's a very interesting opportunity to be with us. So you're more than welcome to join us on the 16th of December. And with that, I finish this call and hope to see you all soon. Bye-bye.

speaker
Conference Operator
Moderator

That does conclude B3's presentation for today. Thank you very much for your participation and have a nice day.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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