Bolsa Mexicana Val A Shs

Greetings, and welcome to the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Ramon Guemes. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to Bolsa Mexicana de Valores Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Goal. Before proceeding, I would like to provide a brief safe harbor statement. This presentation contains forward-looking statements and information related to Bolsa that are based on the analysis and expectations of its management, as well as assumptions made and information currently available at Bolsa. Such statements reflect the current views of PULSA related to future events and are subject to risk and uncertainties. Many factors could cause the current results, performance, or achievements to be somewhat different from any future results or performance that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, among others, changes in general economic, political, governmental, and business conditions, both in a global scale and in the individual countries in which PULSA does business. such as changes in monetary policies, inflation rates, prices, business strategy, and various other factors. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary considerably from those described herein as anticipated, estimated, expected, or targeted. Bolsa does not intend and does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. This call is intended for the financial community only, and the floor will be open at the end to address any questions you may have. Joining us for today's call are Jorge Alegria, Chief CEO, Claudio Vivian, Chief Information Officer, Gabriel Rodriguez, DeFiCap CEO, Alfredo Piquen, Managing Director of Equity Markets, Jose Miguel de Dios, Managing Director of Derivatives Markets, Luis Rene Ramon, Chief Commercial Officer, Canarribas, FP&A and IR Director, and myself, Ramon Gómez, CFO. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to our CEO, Jorge Alegria.

Thank you, Ramon, and good morning, everyone. Yesterday evening, we released our earnings results, including a detailed review of our fourth quarter 2025 performance. The press release and slide deck are available on BNB, in the investor relations section. Before turning to our ongoing initiatives, I'd like to briefly frame where we are headed as a group. Our focus is clear, positioning the company as a market leader through innovation supported by advanced technology and a stronger infrastructure that enables advancement, access to new markets, and long-term value creation. We remain committed to disciplined capital allocation that supports our strategy while maintaining shareholder returns. As mentioned and communicated since 2024, our strategic plan contemplates higher investment levels to support growth initiatives. Accordingly, in 2025, we invested over 250 million pesos to maintain the competitiveness of our core systems and advance to our NASDAQ platforms, making the start of a multi-year investment cycle with capex declining from 2027 onward. In 2026, we are planning an additional investment of approximately 500 million pesos supporting a data-driven business, the expansion of our debt CCP, enhanced surveillance cybersecurity, cloud migration, and stronger continuity and recovery plans. Initial deliveries are expected with the completion of the derivatives platform under the NASDAQ Eclipse solution, followed by the repo CCP, both this same year towards 4Q26. While executing a significant investment program, we continue to balance this investment program with our shareholder return. So we are maintaining a dividend of 2.05 per share and a buyback program of at least 160 million pesos, implying a distribution of 81% of 2025 net income. With flexibility to complement this objective, through an extraordinary dividend toward year end if required. In 2026, our focus will be on the execution of our initiatives, laying the groundwork for revenue generating initiatives that we are expecting to see generating revenues and contributing from 2027 onwards. Let us begin also with a brief overview of the quarter's most relevant initiatives. We continue advancing on our new bond services for our CCP. November 2025 marked a significant milestone for the Mexican market with the launch of the first central counterparty for fixed income bonds. The first live transactions cleared by five banks through two inter-dealer brokers confirmed the successful launch of the CCP. While participation is not mandatory and adoption is expected to be gradual, Its introduction lays the foundation for the debt market's transition from a traditionally voice-based environment to a fully electronically centrally cleared marketplace. Experience from other markets shows the impact of combining centralized clearing and electronic trading. Mexican equities is an example. Experienced a nearly 20-fold increase in activity over two decades, while U.S. treasury volumes expanded by roughly 10-fold after adoption. These examples show how CCPs and electronic trading support growth across asset classes, and in this context, the Mexican bond market is a people's coin. With an average trading daily volume of around $6 billion, the introduction of a CCP and the shift toward electronic trading are setting the stage for higher volumes, more access, and greater liquidity. Consisting with our roadmap, The initiative is to advance for a second phase, the repo service on our CCP. This is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. And unlike the initial phase, adoption is expected to be faster, given strong market demand and benefits. With approximately $100 billion daily trading volumes, the repo segment materially expands the scope of centralized clearing and sets the stage of a surface extending to securities lending. On our data agenda, we are defining a unified data infrastructure strategy. This includes designing the target architecture to support the new trading and trading platforms for derivatives, along with data requirements across the rest of the business. A core element is the transition from an on-premise desktop to a cloud-based model, which will support advanced analytics Customizable reporting, data-driven products, and coordination with Merced and Asigna. New data product releases are planned for late 2026, aligned with the launch of the new derivatives platform. I would also like to briefly update you on our efforts and progress in market data. As part of a long-term strategy initiated several years ago, we have focused on increasing the international visibility of the Mexican markets by reducing access barriers and bringing market information closer to global participants. Complementing this solution, during 2025, we further evolved our access model through the deployment of the Global Access Network product, a fully virtualized co-location solution now operating in production. And under this model, Bolsa provides the core access and connectivity infrastructure enabling scalable framework for direct market access. This architecture enables more competitive pricing, faster time to market. As adoption instruction, the existing client pipeline supports a potential 5% uplift in market data revenues for 2026. Turning to derivatives, we see growth potential for Mesler given that substantial share of activity in the derivatives market remains in the OTC. This creates an opportunity to keep migrating volume towards listed and clear products over time. To address this, we are focusing on three levers, international exposure, retail product expansion, such as single stock derivatives and SIC options, and also supporting institutional participation through the ASICNA Liquidity Alternative Framework. At the same time, we are advancing the migration of our transactional services to NASDAQ Eclipse trading solution, which essentially, and this is essential to provide the scalability required for the long-term growth in the listed derivatives marketplace. As mentioned regarding the liquidity alternatives initiative for ASCINA, progress is still being made, gradual, but continuous. We have three major banks advancing in their implementation, while regulators are working on aligning the legal framework. From a Cigna side, the infrastructure is already in place, and the initiative is expected to materialize in the coming months. In parallel, equity listing activity resumed with the IPOs announced in the prior quarter materializing through Essentia, Aeromexico, and FibraNext, the follow-on transactions. This reflected an improvement in market conditions after several years of inactivity, with momentum continuing beyond the quarter. Currently, there are four companies actively exploring potential IPOs on a confidential basis. In parallel, the IPC index has reached historical highs, and equity valuations have improved. So together, all these factors affect strengthening equity market conditions and growing interest in public markets as a source of capital. Beyond the recovery in equity listings, market activity is also strengthening across other asset classes with record levels in 2025. As total financing reached MXN 755 billion pesos, 24% increase compared to 2024. Demand for debt listings is increasing across short- and long-term activities supported by a pipeline of approximately more 80 billion pesos for the first two months of the year, with high-profile transactions that increase visibility. Most of these issues are expected to be listed on BNB. Finally, structured products are also showing strengthening activity with higher demand for listed warrants driven by private banking and wealth management participation. Following on, the simplified listing initiative reminds an ongoing long-term initiative. The same confidential company is still in process, alongside with our ongoing efforts to promote the regime and build market awareness. This is a constant effort that with adoption expected to be gradual. Turning to our equity fee schedule, and as noted last quarter, we received a regulatory authorization to adjust our fees. However, implementation reminds our discretion with no requirement regarding timing or application. Currently, we are not planning any changes on our fees. Let me now move to our key financial highlights in the following slides. Please keep in mind that all figures are expressed in message competitors. On the slide three and four, for the key 2025 financial highlights, Q4 2025 revenues were flat at 1.1 billion pesos, while operating expenses rose 15% using our accelerated strategic investments. This pressure operating leverage driving a 9% EBITDA decline to MSN 608 million pesos, and with a 900 basis point margin contraction to 54%. Net income fell 20%, and at the full year level, revenues grew 7% to MXN 4.5 billion. Operating expenses increased 11%, and EBITDA rose 5% to 2.5 billion pesos. Despite the investment cycle, Margins remain strong at 56%, only 198 basis points below 2024 as expected. Net income shows resilience, easing 2% year over year. Taken together, Q4 reflects the timing of our accelerated and planned investments, not a change in the business structural profitability. The full-year results provide the right lens with solid revenue growth, higher EBDA in absolute terms, and structurally strong margins. Let's turn to the next slide, please. Revenues by business line across both 4Q 2025 and the full-year. Top-line behavior followed with the same pattern and was driven by revenue mix. Growth consistently came from equity and derivatives trading, $7 million, and 4 million, and for equity clearing, 10 million. Information services, 19 million, and capital formation for 8 million pesos. Steady growth in central security depository in the value of 10 million, and these gains were partially offset in both periods, seeing declines in the derivatives clearing space for 19 million, and our OTC trading for 6 million. Top line involved periods reflected a similar mix of strong growth segments and areas of softness, highlighting our model of the stability of the business fundamentals. Turning to the next slide on equity trading and trading activity, we see on 4Q2025 equity trading activity strengthening. Average daily trading value increased 10% versus Q424. This performance was driven mostly by growth across local and global markets. In addition, global markets transaction rose 23%, reflecting higher investor participation. BNB's market share remained stable, ranging between 78% and 80%. In the Cleveland businesses, revenues increased 19% in Q4-25, reaching the highest four-quarter level and delivering a strong year-over-year increase. Meanwhile, equity segment revenues rose 10%, reflecting a solid year-over-year recovery and remaining broadly stable compared to the previous quarter. Let us go on the next slide to review derivatives. Next there, posted 16% year-over-year revenue growth. However, this increase was offset by a significant decline in the derivatives creating business, resulting in a 19% increase in quarterly revenues for the derivative segment. Against this, trading dynamics remain active, particularly in dollar futures, where the average daily notional value increased 68%, an open interest group 1.2 times compared to 2024, Regarding margin deposits in ASCINA, year-to-date average balance in 2025 decreased by 15% compared to the prior year. On slide nine, we can see OTC trading results moving to SIPICA. OTC trading revenues declined 4% year-over-year, both Mexico and Chile, experienced an appreciation of their currencies, so Mexico revenue grew 6% and Chile decreased 8%. The performance in Chile was driven by lower market interest rates combined with volume discounts. On the slide 10, we have figures for our capital formation segment, where revenue increased by 6%. mainly driven by a 58% increase in medium and long-term debt listing activity. As a result of this record-breaking issuance phase, total outstanding long-term listings rose 8% year over year, reaching 546 issuers as of December of 2025. While the equity market has shown renewed activity, as previously noted, the debt market continues to strengthen. In 2025, BNB Finance 636 Mexican pesos, billion Mexican pesos. This represents an 8% year-over-year increase. This momentum has been further reinforced by the addition of new high-profile participants such as CFE, AMS, and SACI. Moving to the Central Securities Depository, slide 11 shows in the value revenue increase by 2% driven by more dynamic cross-border activity and higher assets under custody across both domestic and global markets.

This is compensated in part by FX.

During 4Q2025, total assets under custody reached some extent 45 trillion, representing a 13% increase compared to our 4Q124. Custody volumes increased across all segments, led by a strong growth on sick listed ETFs and debt securities. This higher level of activity was also reflected in settled metrics, with the average daily value settled increase by 4%. And additionally, following the recent retail tariff adjustment, operations in this segment grew by more than 50%. Let's move to slide 12. for information services. Information services revenue increased 9%, driven primarily by market data, which grew 13% compared with the fourth quarter of 2024, and accounted for 72% of the total revenue. At Valmer, our quarterly revenues remained flat, while ethics movements had a negative impact on our results. Take a look at our operating expenses on the slide 13 and 14. For Q25, the 15 in-person expenses respect a clear investment and execution phase. As a group of BNB accelerated strategic initiatives and advanced its modernization agenda, expenses grew across key categories, led by personal on $23 million, technology, $23 million, and depreciation, $21 million. The evolution of expenses through 2025 was concentrated in the same key categories, all directly linked to the implementation of the strategic plan. The expansion of teams in priority areas strengthened internal capabilities while the increase in technology and depreciation reflect sustained investment in infrastructural renewal, particularly in storage and cyber. The expense level reached in the fourth quarter establishes the new cost baseline for 2026, which clearly reflects a phase of strategic execution and modernization. With this, I would like to thank you for connecting today and listening to my remarks. Here and alongside with my colleagues, we will gladly address any questions we may have. Thank you very much.

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star key. And our first question will come from Yuri Fernandez with JPMorgan.

Thank you all and good morning. Thank you for the opportunity of asking questions. Maybe if you can explore more a high-level guidance in view regarding the investment in technology like the OPEX, how much should we see on growth on that line and maybe an update on CAPEX? I guess the last message for 2026 was for CAPEX to increase some 50%, 50%, 75% over 2025. So just checking if it was clear from Mr. Alegria that we should see more investments this year, right? But if you can provide more call or how much just for us to quantify this. So basically, OPEX, CAPEX, and maybe if you want to discuss a little bit the margins, what should we expect for EBITDA margin here for the company?

Thank you. Yes, Judy, good morning.

As you say, we are expecting capex for 2026 to be close to 500 million pesos. It should come down for 2027. We don't have an exact number yet, but it will still be above 300 for 2027 and then decrease further for 2028. For operating expenses, We're expecting a high single digit increase for 2026. We're expecting margins to be stable. Maybe revenues are hard to estimate, but I would say it's a stable plus minus one for EBITDA margins. That would be our expectations for 2026.

Just on the margin, if I may, just a clarification. When you say stable or maybe down one point, are you referring to the fourth quarter margin of 54 or are you referring to the full year margins around 56? Just to be clear here. Thank you.

I'm referring to the full year margin of 56.

Okay. Super clear. Thank you very much. No, thank you, Judy.

And our next question comes from Daniela Miranda with Santander.

Hi. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question.

Just a very quick one on financial income in 2016. I mean, assuming additional 50 basis points are caught in reference rates from current levels, how should we think about financial income next year or this year. Could you help us frame approximately like how sensitive is financial income under that scenario?

Daniela, we couldn't fully understand, but I understand you're asking about financial income. We're expecting less according to the reduction of interest rates. So that's something that's definitely going to affect us. And we're also taking steps to reduce the variability on the ethics gain loss. So you should have an impact on the reduced interest rates unless, And we're working towards less volatility in FX gain and loss.

Thank you.

Again, that is star one if you would like to ask a question. And we'll go next to Carlos Gomez with HSBC.

Hello, good morning and thank you for taking the question. Going back to the expenses, you ended up growing them 10.6% this year. Was that more or less than you initially expected? I think it's a little bit more. On the CAPEX, can you also remind us the average life of the CAPEX that you introduced and therefore the amortization rate? And should we expect your depreciation charges, which would have 14% this year, to increase significantly in the next couple of years? And finally, can you remind us your sensitivity to exchange rate?

Thank you.

Carlos, I would say the increase in expenses came in line with our expectations. Mm-hmm. We had a year ago, we had said that we expected a decrease in margins for 2025. Revenues were higher at the beginning of the year, but expenses came in line where we had expected them. Regarding your second question, average depreciation is done between seven and ten years for these, technological evolution program that we're calling these new platforms, we're thinking about 10 years. You should start seeing the most of the impact in 2028. That's when we'll begin to amortize the full investment. Regarding your third question, our sensitivity to the FX, as a rule of thumb, because it varies depending on market conditions, it's about 50 million pesos per one peso of depreciation. As I said, it can vary. And with the new, it will surely vary with the new expense, with the new expenses that we're acquiring, which are more related to the FX. But as of now, take that rule of thumb.

Okay. So, it hasn't changed. There's still a $50 million in EBITDA for the 5% month in the currency. Yes. Thank you. And I don't think the queue is too long, so I'm going to throw another question. You are buying the systems from NASDAQ. As you have seen, because of the impact of AI, the market has interpreted that pricing for that type of software is going to decrease. As an acquirer of these products, of cloud services, of software services, Have you seen any change in pricing over the last year that you can say is the impact on AI? And do you expect any changes in the coming years?

Thank you. We haven't seen any changes. We are, let me say, we're still in the process of ending negotiations on some of the services we're acquiring. But we haven't seen any changes. And we'd love to see a decrease in some of them.

But you haven't so far.

Sorry? No, we have not. All right.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

And our next question will come from Ernesto Gabalondo with Bank of America.

Thank you. Hi, good morning, Jorge, Ramon, Hanna, and good morning to all your team. My first question will be a follow-up in terms of FX and interest rates. I was wondering what are your expectations for the FX and interest rates for this year? and if you are evaluating any kind of hedge to mitigate the impact. And looking into the first half of this year, it seems it will be a tough comp considering the strong peso appreciation and rates. So just wondering what are you deciding to do on that? And then my second question is also related, a follow-up in terms of your investment phase and OPEX. So just wondering, for this year, should we expect OPEX growing at a higher pace when compared to revenues? If you can provide if there will be some seasonality in expenses throughout this year. And also, can you walk us through the timing of the investment this year and when do you think the revenues will start showing up? I think will be very helpful. And I also remember you were expecting Indeval to be at the cloud by 2027. So just wondering how should we expect OPEX, as you were saying, it should be declining in 2027, but maybe not at the lows that could be at 2028. Just wondering if 2027 will continue to have some of the Indeval investments or other investments in 2027.

Thank you. Ernesto, good morning.

We thought we were going to have to do without the pleasure of your questions. Regarding your first question, FX and interest rates, interest rates are coming down, so we're expecting less financial income there. And FX, we've been working to reduce our exposure to the FX gain loss that we have. We're expecting less financial income and a little less impact from the FX gain loss. For OPEX, for this year, we're expecting it to be high single digits, somewhat in line with what we're expecting in revenues. You're asking time and when we would expect to see. There's got to be seasonality in the expenses. Yeah, there's always some seasonality. It's usually they start slower towards the first half and tend to lean a little more. We try to even them out throughout the year, but there is usually some seasonality. We expect to see revenues from our initiatives in 2027, especially with the launching of the repo services in our CCP. We're expecting to see some revenues from the bond clearance for this year, but really nothing significant, nothing that moves the needle. So expect them for 2027 with the launching of the repo services. And regarding Indeval in the cloud, yes, we're expecting to have the new platform for Indeval towards the end of 2027. So, it'll be fully operational in 2028. We would expect to start seeing, let me say some, we'll have double expenses while we take out the old platforms and the old technology. So we would expect to see a reduction in revenues, sorry, a reduction in expenses for 2028 and downward, at least from an overall point of view.

Okay, no, perfect. Thank you very much, Roman. Very helpful.

Thank you, Ernesto.

This now concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to Jorge Alagria. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Thank you very much, again, to everyone. We had a very, very active . I think we may have another question.

Sorry. Apparently, we had one more person lining up.

Okay, yes. We have a question from . Pablo Ordenes with GBM.

Okay. Go ahead, and then I'll keep my remarks for later.

Hi. Good morning. Can you hear me? Yes, Pablo.

Hi. Good morning, Jorge Ramon. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Just quickly, how should we think in terms of the payout for dividends and buybacks for the next three years? And are you considering using some part of the $3.7 billion that you're still holding in your balance sheet for dividends and buybacks in this year? of CapEx and how, and also a second question is maybe if you can help us with some of how should we think of the additional revenues for the debt CCP once they just are rolling out the rebus business in 2027.

Thank you.

Thank you, Pablo. For the dividend, this year we're, Our distribution is going to be a dividend of 71% of net income, and we're doing a buyback of at least another 10%. We will try to keep our cash distribution at this 80% level of net income. That's at least, let's say, our guideline. We estimate that in spite of the investments we're doing, that's fully achievable. And this will be for next year and after that as well. We could have additional on buybacks, yes, but let's – Take the guideline as at least or around 80% of distribution. Regarding your second question on the additional revenues from the repo services, we don't have an estimate on that yet. It's a big market. It's about 100 billion pesos in average daily revenue. No, $100 billion in daily volume. So, we're still working on the fee to get that. But when we have additional information on that, we'll let you know.

Okay, perfect. Thank you very much for a moment, Jorge. Thank you. And this does conclude the question and answer session, Jorge.

Now is my turn again.

Thank you very much. And again, this 2025 proved to be a year where we realized and started to operate on our strategic plan for the next three, four, five years. This year, we are going to be focusing on the execution of the plan, providing value to our shareholders. and we look forward for an exciting 2022 and onward. So thank you very much, and talk to you soon.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines and have a wonderful day.