Selected financial figures for the first half of 2024
(% corresponds to change in comparison with the same period of the previous year)
- Operating income rose to CHF 790.9 million (+3.4% at constant exchange rates, +2.6% at reported rates)
- Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) increased 1.0% at constant exchange rates to CHF 224.7 million (-0.4% at reported rates)
- Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of CHF 153.2 million are above previous year’s level (+16.9% at constant exchange rates, +14.9% at reported rates)
- Group net profit grew by 14.0% at constant exchange rates, to CHF 117.5 million (+11.8% at reported rates)
Growth in Operating Income and Group Net Profit
In the first half of the year, SIX increased its operating income by 2.6% year-on-year to CHF 790.9 million. At constant exchange rates, this amounts to 3.4%. Three out of the four business units contributed to this growth. This was primarily driven by higher revenues from debit cards services, mobile payments and eBill, from international securities custody, as well as from reference data, regulatory services, and indices. The growth in these areas significantly overcompensated for lower earnings in equity trading.
In the period under review, costs grew by 3.8%, corresponding to 4.4% at constant exchange rates. The main elements contributing to this figure were higher personnel expenses caused by acquisitions and inflation, and sales-related costs. The latter are primarily composed of fees from third-party providers in payment services and revenue shares for data products to partners. Overall, operating income before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of CHF 224.7 million was 1.0% above last year's level at constant exchange rates (-0.4 % at reported rates). Due to a higher financial result, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rose by 14.9% (16.9% at constant exchange rates) to CHF 153.2 million. As a result, group net profit also increased by 11.8% (14.0% at constant exchange rates) to CHF 117.5 million.
Business Highlights
With the IPOs of Puig on BME Exchange in Spain and Galderma on SIX Swiss Exchange in Switzerland, SIX saw the two IPOs with the highest placement volumes worldwide in the first half of 2024. Furthermore, with the listing of a CHF 200 million bond from the World Bank, SIX Digital Exchange reached the CHF 1 billion mark for digital assets listed on its platform.
In February, SIX reached over three million registered users of its end-to-end digital invoice service eBill for the first time. In May, SIX successfully migrated its international securities business to shorter US settlement times (T+1). Shortly after, in June, SIX launched new global equity indices and thus further strengthened its position as a global provider of indices and data.
Strategic Investments
SIX continued to pursue its growth strategy and underpinned it with strategic investments during the first half of the year. In March, SIX acquired a majority stake in FactEntry, a global provider of fixed income data solutions, strengthening its international position in the fixed income business. SIX also completed two strategic minority investments. The investment in BITA, a leading provider of indexing technology and services, will further expand the index business of SIX. With its stake in BridgeWise, a global provider of AI-based equity research, SIX is expanding its expertise in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).
Jos Dijsselhof, CEO SIX, highlights: “With our half-year results, we are on track to achieve our medium-term goal of annual revenue growth of over three percent. I am proud of the significant milestones realized by our employees in the first half of the year. Through our services and innovations, we continue to facilitate access to the capital markets and the flow of information and money between all market participants in our national and international target markets.”