Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (CBOE) Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Thank you for standing by. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the CBO Global Market's fourth quarter earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. And if you'd like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Ken Hill, Head of Investor Relations and Treasurer. Ken, please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for our fourth quarter earnings conference call. On the call today, Fred Tomczyk, our CEO, and Dave Housen, our global president, will discuss our performance for the quarter and provide an update on our strategic initiatives. Then, Joe Grieveno, our chief financial officer, will provide an overview of financial results for the quarter, as well as discuss our 2025 financial outlook. Following their comments, we will open the call to Q&A. Also joining us for Q&A will be Chris Ivogson, our Chief Operating Officer. I'd like to point out that this presentation will include the use of slides. We'll be showing the slides and providing commentary on each. A downloadable copy of the slide presentation is available on the Investor Relations portion of our website. During our remarks, we'll make some forward-looking statements, which represent a current judgment on what the future may hold. And while we believe these judgments are reasonable, these forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain assumptions, risks, and uncertainties. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. Please refer to our filings with the SEC for full discussion of these factors that may affect any forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as result of new information, future events, or otherwise after this conference call. During the call this morning, we will be referring to non-GAAP measures as defined and reconciled in our earnings materials. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Fred. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today.

I hope the year is off to a great start for everyone. I'm pleased to report on strong fourth quarter and full year results for CBO Global markets. During the quarter, we grew net revenue 5% year-over-year to $524.5 million and adjusted diluted earnings per share by 2% to $2.10 over a strong fourth quarter in 2023. These results capped another record year which saw us grow net revenue 8% to a record $2.1 billion and adjusted diluting earnings per share 10 to our record eight dollars and 61 cents our results for the year were driven by a solid volumes across our derivatives business strong volumes across our cash and spot markets growth of our data advantage business formerly known as data and access solutions and more disciplined expense management i'm incredibly pleased with the strong eight percent net revenue growth in 2024 coming against a modest six percent increase in adjusted expenses stabilizing our margins and driving a 10 improvement and adjusted diluted earnings per share for the year while the robust option volumes were a standout for 2024 the results were notable in that each category derivatives markets state advantage and cash and spot markets contributed to the fourth quarter and full year growth record-setting trends drove broad-based growth across business lines as every major segment and category produced year-over-year net revenue growth in 2024 our derivatives business delivered a solid year with organic net revenue increasing eight percent wrapping up another record year of option volume growth Total volume across CBO's four options exchanges was 3.8 billion contracts traded in 2024, with an ADB of nearly 15 million contracts traded, a fifth consecutive record-breaking year. For 2024, we saw record volume in SPX and VIX options as investors turned to our S&P 500 volatility toolkit to help navigate markets adb and spx options was a record 3.1 million contracts traded while adb and vix options was a record 830 000 contracts traded our data vantage business finished the year strong driving a seven percent increase in organic net revenue in 2024 the technology investments we made to further optimize access data and insights for our data vantage business drove positive results for SIBO and our customers we continue to see durability in this business as we leverage our global footprint and technology enhancements to drive growth our cash and spot markets performed well during the year as organic net revenue increased 10 percent driven by healthy trading volumes and growth across all of our regional equities markets overall it was an excellent year for both transaction and non-transaction growth capped by a strong fourth quarter for SIBO as we entered 2025 with our sharpened strategic focus and framework we outlined last quarter we believe that we're well positioned for the secular trends that we expect to continue shaping the markets globally the rising popularity and adoption of options trading the continued rise of the retail investor the globalization of markets and the rapidly evolving area of technology and data management including newer technologies like artificial intelligence 2024 was another record-breaking year for the options market as more investors embrace the utility and versatility of options. Our derivatives business remains resilient, supported by a growing customer base, demand for access to the U.S. market, and an increasing demand for options. The combination of these trends means that we're well-positioned as we enter 2025 to further expand and enhance our derivatives ecosystem. With our diverse suite of products, we are well situated to help market participants navigate the elevated uncertainty we're witnessing across the market and geopolitical environment. We believe the new administration in Washington has a markedly different tone signaling a pro-business environment with regards to deregulation and tax cuts, fostering a bullish sentiment. However, significant uncertainty remains around the strained geopolitical environment combined with the record number of executive orders and the more recent tariffs coming out of the new administration, all of which injected volatility in the market. As markets evolve in response to these events, our SPX and VIX products provide an unparalleled toolkit for investors to help seize opportunities and hedge their portfolios around the clock. We believe that the strong performance in the U.S. market, with the S&P 500 index notching a return of more than 20% for two consecutive years, will continue to attract new investors both domestically and internationally. Through our SPX options complex, the ability to facilitate risk management and import foreign investment back into the U.S. market is expected to be a significant and growing opportunity that will be a top focus for us in 2025. On the retail front, we continue to work with key retail broker partners across the globe to expand access to our products and education so more investors can leverage the numerous benefits of index options. I'm pleased to report that CBO's index options are now available to all customers at Robinhood, one of the largest options trading platforms for retail investors. We believe that retail adoption of index options still has room to run and SIBO is well positioned to meet this growing demand through education, access and product innovation. One of the core components of innovation is technology and over the last year we have reallocated capital and resources to rewards investment in our exchange technology platform. Last month, we unveiled a new brand identity for this platform, Sibo Titanium, signaling an exciting new chapter in our ongoing evolution and commitment to delivering best-in-class trading technology for our market participants around the globe. Sibo Titanium enables innovation across our markets, products, data, and insights, all on a unified and scalable global technology platform in every new market we have entered our market share has improved following a migration to SIBO technology as we enter 2025 i'm excited about how SIBO is positioned our strategic framework is well aligned to the secular trends we see in the capital markets we compete in and leverages our strengths our balance sheet is in a strong position that enables us to follow a disciplined and long-term approach to capital allocation. And we're well-suited to invest in strategic organic growth opportunities that drive growth not just in 2025, but beyond. I'll now pass it over to Dave to discuss the business line results in more detail.

Thanks, Fred. Starting with our derivatives business, on a full-year basis, net revenues were up 8% led by another year of strong index options growth. We remain excited about the secular trends in place for our options business as SBX Options volumes increased 7% year-over-year to a record ADV of 3.1 million in 2024, while VIX Options ADV hit a record high of 830,000 contracts, up 12% from 2023's record. The fourth quarter showcased the utility of our S&P volatility toolkit in helping investors quickly and effectively navigate changing market conditions. While we saw a pickup in hedging demand going into the U.S. election, we saw a risk-on rally that caught many investors by surprise following the results. SPX call auctions volumes jumped post-election as investors used auctions to quickly adjust their portfolio. Meanwhile, VIX put volume surged higher as traders positioned for a normalization in volatility. While volatility conditions and market outlooks changed, what stayed constant was the sustained growth in our zero DTE options in both SPX and RUT. In the fourth quarter, SPX zero DTE options ADV gained 8% quarter over quarter to nearly 1.6 million contracts, now making up over half of all SPX options ADV for the first time. Since we launched daily expirations on options on the Russell 2000 index last January, RUT option volumes have grown 11% year over year, with the share of zero DTE options trading doubling from 11% in January 2024 to 23% in January 2025. As we look ahead to this year, we see a sustained need for investors to stay nimble in the face of changing monetary and fiscal policies in the us as well as rising trade tensions globally we believe options are a great tool in these environments as they allow investors to quickly reposition and hedge their portfolios as market conditions change against this macro backdrop we're excited to work towards broadening access to our products increasing education efforts for all investors and showcasing the advantages of our expanding S&P volatility toolkit to help manage risk. On the access front we are well aligned with the secular drivers of our business including the rise of the retail investor. We are pleased with the early traction following the Robinhood launch in the fourth quarter and anticipate the increased volume from the platform will be additive to our proprietary product volumes as we expand access to more retail traders. With the expanded access on Robinhood platform customers are able to leverage the full advantages of index options from the simplicity of cash settlement and the certainty of European style exercise to the potential 60-40 tax treatment. Turning to our international endeavours we are excited by the import and export potential of our derivatives products. We anticipate that making investments in our sales and educational efforts around the globe will translate to greater volumes being imported back to the u.s in the asia pacific region specifically we remain focused on expanding our presence in our six priority markets japan australia south korea singapore taiwan and hong kong by building a local sales force and educational tools tailored for local customers during the fourth quarter we saw two new brokers turn on access in our priority markets making SIBO products available for trading during global and regular trading hours outside our initial priority markets we now have two brokers providing Malaysian investors with listed options on the export side SEDEX continues to add capabilities with over 320 single stock company options available to trade from 14 countries and record levels of open interest to finish 2024. And on the innovation front, the fourth quarter was a busy one for our product development team as we introduced two new ways to trade S&P index volatility, through various futures and VIX options on futures. Given the introduction of these products, education will be a key focus in 2025 as we continue to grow the toolkit. To maximise the impact of these initiatives across our global derivatives platform, we must have the right talent in place to drive success at SIBO. This week, I was incredibly excited to welcome Megan Duggan, who is joining the company as Head of US Options. In addition, we recently outlined several new hires and key promotions to further strengthen our business development, market intelligence and sales capabilities across the us europe and asia pacific we expect 2025 to be a transformational year as we leverage a strong bench of talent to provide customers with improved access enhanced education and continued innovation around our volatility toolkit moving to cash and spot market the fourth quarter produced robust results with net revenues increasing 14 percent on a year-over-year basis this capped a strong year where net revenues increased 10 percent given solid contributions from all regions 2024 was notable not only for the healthy results but also the innovation across markets that helped drive improved market share in regions like europe and asia pacific as we near the end of our integration efforts in Canada later this quarter, we are excited to leverage the full power of our global and cohesive trading infrastructure. In North America, a 28% increase in net transaction and clearing fees during the fourth quarter helped improve net revenue for the segment by 10% on a year-over-year basis. Industry volumes were a tailwind. The 22% growth in the U.S. on-exchange ADV, 5% growth in off-exchange ADV, and 11% growth in Canadian ADV on a year-over-year basis. Capture in U.S. on-exchange equities improved 42% as compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, as we continue to strike the right balance between market share and capture to optimize revenue. In Canada, we are excited to build on the solid 2024 trend as we anticipate completing the migration of our Canadian market to SIBO technology on March 3rd. Our Europe and Asia-Pacific segment delivered impressive 17% year-over-year net revenue growth in the fourth quarter and 16% growth for the full year. The increases were driven by higher net transaction and clearing fees, up 23% in the fourth quarter and 17% for the full year. For Europe specifically, SIBO was the largest European stock exchange for the fourth quarter, with our share of continuous trading volume hitting 33%, up nearly 90 basis points versus the third quarter's record level. The results were again helped by strength in periodic auctions with a market share of 87%, with periodic auctions accounting for a record 9.6% of continuous trading during the fourth quarter. In Asia-Pacific, we saw sustained progress in both Australia and Japan market share and industry volumes, driving year-over-year net revenue growth in the region. Turning to DataVantage, net revenue grew 8% for the fourth quarter and 7% for the full year. Results in the fourth quarter were driven by increases in all three components of our DataVantage business, real-time market data, analytics, and indices, with notable strength in our dedicated cause offering and proprietary market data. More broadly, on a full-year basis, the record results were underpinned by two hallmarks of SIBO data vantage that we expect to carry through 2025 and beyond, new product development and the ability to sell products across our global network. The uptick from our U.S. dedicated cause launch in 2024 exceeded our expectations. We have built on that success by rolling the product out across Europe and Australia in the first quarter of 2025, highlighting our ability to take a product working well in one region and replicate that success across our global network. With our technology team shifting from migration work to revenue generating activities, we look forward to further product development that leverages our scaled infrastructure. Looking at our sales trends for data advantage more broadly, in 2024 we saw net new annual contract value hit record levels, increasing 33% year-over-year. International growth was healthy, with 40% of new sales coming from outside the US. I am excited to build on that global growth with a larger sales and educational resources footprint across the globe. This investment should help amplify the benefits of our global network. The fourth quarter again highlighted the power of the entire ecosystem at SIBO, with derivatives, cash and spot markets, and SIBO data vantage all delivering durable results. 2025 will be a year of focused execution for SIBO by providing more uniform access, greater education, and leveraging our differentiated set of products for investors. January is off to a great start, with Index Options ADV running at record levels, trends we look forward to building on in the year ahead. With that, I will turn the call over to Jill.

Thanks, Dave. CBO posted a solid fourth quarter, with adjusted diluted earnings per share up 2% on a year-over-year basis to $2.10. The fourth quarter results continue to illustrate the strength across our segments that was on display during 2024. I will provide some high-level takeaways from this quarter's operating results before going through segment results. Our fourth quarter net revenue increased 5% versus the fourth quarter of 2023 to finish at $524.5 million. The growth was driven by strengths in our cash and spot markets and data vantage categories, as well as solid results from the derivatives business. Specifically, cash and spot markets' organic net revenues grew 14% on a year-over-year basis, with all geographies contributing to the growth. Data Vantage net revenues increased 8% on an organic basis during the quarter, and derivatives markets produced 1% net revenue growth versus a robust fourth quarter of 2023. Adjusted operating expenses increased 7% to $205 million for the quarter with the year-over-year growth driven by higher travel and promotional expenses as well as technology support services expenses. Adjusted EBITDA of $332 million grew three percent versus the fourth quarter of 2023. Turning to the key drivers by segments, our press release in the appendix of our slide deck include information detailing the key metrics for our business segments, so I'll provide some highlights for each. The options segment produced another quarter of record net revenue, with 3% year-over-year growth led by higher multi-listed options transaction fees. Total options ADD was up 5%, driven by an 8% increase in multi-listed options volume. Revenue per contract decreased 5% as index options represented a lower percentage of total options volume during the quarter. North American equities net revenue increased 10% on a year-over-year basis. Net transaction and clearing fees grew 28%, reflecting higher industry volume and an improved net capture rate in on-exchange U.S. equities. On the non-transaction side, access and capacity fees increased 14% as compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. The Europe and APAC segment delivered a 17% year-over-year increase in net revenue, a result of strong growth across both transaction and non-transaction revenues. Transaction revenues across each region benefited from market share gains as well as increased volumes versus the fourth quarter of 2023. Futures net revenue decreased 7% from the fourth quarter of 2023, with lower net transaction and clearing fees reflecting a 12% decrease in ADB. And finally, the FX segment recorded 3% year-over-year net revenue growth as a product of higher net transaction and clearing fees. Turning now to SIBO's DataVantage business, net revenues were up 8% on an organic basis in the fourth quarter. International sales enhanced growth, with 40% of new sales coming from outside the U.S. over the quarter. We believe DataVantage is positioned to perform well in 2025. More specifically, we expect increased capabilities around our data, access, and insights as we reallocate technology resources from integration efforts to organic revenue generating enhancements. We anticipate growth will be aided by greater demand for access across our global markets, particularly as we increase our sales presence in new geographies and leverage the distribution capabilities of SIBO Global Cloud. Turning to expenses, total adjusted operating expenses were approximately $205 million for the quarter, up 7% compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. The increase primarily resulted from higher travel and promotional expenses, as well as technology support services expenses. I would note that the fourth quarter is a seasonally high quarter for travel and promotional expenses given our annual risk management conference. This year, we also saw an increase in our marketing spend, coinciding with the launch of index options on Robinhood's platform. While we plan to continue investing behind marketing efforts as we see opportunities for returns for our business, we expect to see travel and promotional expenses move lower sequentially from fourth quarter levels. As we look ahead on slide 16 to our 2025 guidance, we anticipate our DataVantage organic net revenue growth to be in the mid to high single digit range, and we expect our full year total organic net revenue growth to be in the mid single digit range. I would note that while we tweaked our guidance framework for 2025, both our DataVantage organic net revenue guidance and our total organic net revenue guidance are in line with the ranges we provided under our previous guidance framework at this time last year. We are also introducing our full year 2025 Adjusted Expense Guidance range of $837-852 million, representing 4.8% growth on the lower end and 6.7% growth on the higher end. The 2025 guidance accounts for modest growth in our core expense lines, while allowing for investment to help drive incremental revenue expansion across CBO's businesses. A few examples of the types of investments we plan to make include incremental sales hires in the APAC region, our securities financing transaction offering in Europe, and continuing marketing efforts to improve investor education and monetize the expanding access to our index options products. Taking a step back, in 2024, CBO produced 8% net revenue growth against 6% adjusted expense growth, stabilizing our adjusted EBITDA margin and expanding it by 30 basis points for the full year. We believe the 2025 revenue and expense guidance outlined today strikes the right balance between investment for long-term growth and disciplined expense management as we look to drive long-term margin stability. Rounding out the remaining pieces of our 2025 guidance, our full-year guidance range for CapEx is $75 to $85 million, and depreciation and amortization is expected to be in the $55 to $59 million range. The year-over-year increase in CapEx and depreciation and amortization reflect our efforts to sustainably invest in the business where we see long-term growth potential. A portion of the CapEx budget is also earmarked for our Kansas City office move, which is planned for this summer. We maintain a sizable presence with many of our technology and operations, finance, and regulatory associates in the area, and we remain committed to investing in our people and culture. We expect the effective tax rate on adjusted earnings under the current tax laws to come in at 28.5% to 30.5% for the full year. And while we don't provide formal guidance on interest income or interest expense, I wanted to highlight that fourth quarter interest income outperformed our expectations given some additional accounts that started to earn interest income in higher cash balances. We expect that interest expense, net of interest income, will be in the $5 to $6 million range for the first quarter of 2025. The last element I wanted to touch on as it relates to our 2025 guidance is the below-the-line items, earnings on investments, and other income. In past years, we have provided detailed guidance on these items, but today we believe that we have reached a more mature phase in our investment cycle and anticipate a more modest impact on our earnings and investments line in 2025. We anticipate other income will continue to grow gradually, in line with cash dividends received. Turning to our balance sheet, the effective allocation of capital has been a cornerstone of our strategic review process. We take a long-term view in allocating capital to areas where we see the greatest returns, whether it be organic investments or in the form of share repurchases, dividends, or inorganic investments. In the fourth quarter, we returned a total of $66 million to shareholders in the form of a $0.63 dividend, bringing the total amount of dividends paid to $249 million for 2024. Factoring in both share repurchases and dividends for 2024, CBO returned a total of $454 million to shareholders, representing 50% of adjusted earnings for the year. We enter 2025 on a strong financial footing with $880 million of adjusted cash on our balance sheet, an attractive debt profile with low-medium-turn fixed rates averaging below 3%, and an average leverage ratio of 1.1 times. As we move forward, we anticipate leveraging our flexible balance sheet and healthy free cash flow profile to produce durable returns for shareholders. Now I'd like to turn it back over to Fred for some closing comments before we open it up for Q&A.

I'd like to thank the entire SIBO team for their incredible work in 2024 that led to record results. When I moved from the board to CEO in September of 2023, my priorities were to stabilize the organization after the sudden departure of the previous CEO, sharpen our strategic focus, bring a more disciplined approach to capital allocation, and leadership development and succession. On my first priority, unexpected succession require an experienced CEO to lead the organization through that challenging time. The management team has been stable since. Our current management team is a strong team that is more unified than ever and focused on executing our refocused strategy. Over the past 18 months, we've made significant progress sharpening our strategic focus and framework leveraging the core strength of our equity derivatives franchise. We're well positioned to benefit from the secular trends as we start the year. We have also changed our capital allocation strategy to focus less on M&A and more on investing in organic growth opportunities and allocating resources to line up behind our strategic focus. Following the completion of the two technology migrations this year, this will be the first time in 10 years that our technology resources will be fully focused on the business and driving out our strategy as opposed to focusing on migrations redeploying our technology resources enables us to leverage one of our greatest strengths to focus on strategic organic growth opportunities the company now has a clear organic growth strategy moderated expense growth and stabilized margins an attractive return of capital strategy and a strong balance sheet as we enter 2025 on solid footing with a refined strategic focus and the financial flexibility to execute that strategy while being well positioned to take advantage of opportunities as they arise which brings me back to my last priority leadership development and succession SIBO has been through a lot of change in the executive ranks over the last 18 months but not only did we get through all that change i believe we've come out stronger and more unified as a team this is a credit to the strong management team i have around me while the board and i have devoted considerable time to leadership development and succession throughout 2024 and the latter part of last year the board engaged a search firm to more formally assist with the process we have reviewed internal candidates and are also considering external candidates with the search firm's help while the board and i are putting greater focus on my succession i will continue to serve as ceo until a successor is appointed and will help ensure a smooth transition upon transitioning out of the ceo role i plan to remain a director on the board I will continue to work closely with the management team to execute our strategy and drive continued success for SIBO. We have many exciting initiatives underway, and I remain steadfastly committed to ensuring we stay focused on our long-term goals. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Ken for Q&A.

At this point, we'll be happy to take questions. We ask that you please limit your questions to one per person to allow time to get to Feel free to get back in the queue. And if time permits, we'll take a second question.

Thanks, Ken. And at this time, again, if you'd like to ask a question, press star 1 on your telephone keypad. Once again, star 1. And we will pause just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Looks like our first question today comes from the line of Patrick Moley with Piper Sandler. Patrick, please go ahead.

Yeah, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. So I just had one on the DNA revenue guide or data vantage that you're calling it now. Jill, you mentioned it, or you touched on it a little bit in the prepared remarks, but it does seem like the mid to high single digit revenue growth range is a little weaker than the 7% to 10% that you guided to the last few years. So could you just maybe talk about some of the drivers that went into the decision to adjust the parameters there? And is it incorrect for us to think that the growth outlook there has softened a little Yeah, you bet.

Thanks for the question, Patrick. So just to clarify, you know, historically we've provided a great deal of more granularity. We've just, we want to be helpful, but we believe that what we've moved to today in the refresh guidance language reflects more of the market standards. So as I alluded to in my prepared remarks, again, very consistent with, so thank that five.

Okay, thank you, Patrick. And our next question comes from the line of Ben Budish with Barclays.

Ben, please go ahead. hi this is chris oh i'm on for ben thanks for taking the question i actually wanted to dig into uh robin hood a little bit it sounds like it's been a healthy start for index options over there and i know it's early days but uh what is the uptake among spx and the smaller xsp contract look like uh and kind of what the mix looks like of of uh the product adoption for this customer and can you maybe dive into some of the initiatives that might help increase the education and drive further adoption as they get going? Thanks.

Absolutely. It's Dave here. Thank you for the quote. I mean by that.

That's for the question. And our next question comes from the line of Jeff Schmidt with William Blair. Jeff, please go ahead. Hi, good morning.

Could you discuss some of the initiatives you have on the AI front that could help customers generate more revenue? Thanks.

Good morning, Jeff. Thanks for the question. As we mentioned last year, we created an AI center, and we've been adopting AI quite a bit internally, as well as grow pros.

Thank you, Jeff. And our next question comes from the line of Alex Cram with UBS. Alex, please go ahead.

Hey, just maybe since the beginning of the year, capital allocation is a topic we should talk about. I noticed you didn't buy back any stock in the quarter, but then, Fred, you also talked about, you know, obviously thinking about M&A a little bit differently over the last year or so since you've taken over. So maybe if you just give us your latest update, A, why you didn't buy back stock, and then where are you still interested in enhancing the product set with M&A?

I can start with the remarks. Given where we were and the fact that it wasn't public, we just decided that it wasn't a part of our strategy in the future. It absolutely is. like I mentioned again 2025 here you know within an area that we great thanks Alex

and our next question comes from the line of Michael Cypress with Morgan Stanley Michael please go ahead great thank you good morning just a question on U.S. equities trading in your announcement to move to 24.5 just hoping you could elaborate a bit on the opportunity set that you see here if successful what might we see in terms of contribution to volume so maybe you can remind us what you see across extended day and just more broadly what are some of the hurdles here that you might see to implement time frame you know why not go to 24 7 all the way and why you chose to run this on ajax versus other exchanges that you have thank you and in particular in asia pacific we're seeing increased demand over we see good cd when the

infrastructure will be ready for us to go there and we've as we stated we'll be ready to go at that time because in return for that thanks michael and our next question comes from ashish

sabadra excuse me ashish is with rbc capital markets ashish please go ahead thanks for taking my question i was just wondering if you comment on the price increases for options in 2025 and then just as we think about adoption of greater retail adoption of options how should we think about that influencing RPC going forward? Thanks.

Thanks for the question. As we look at our options complex, I would divide that for you into two broad categories. One would be the multi-list options complex and one would be the proprietary index. In the former there, changes are quite dynamic. When you look over to the end, changes are much less frequent and much more tight. You look at the last find retail adoption and then more generally in retail as we spoke just earlier on this call liquidity pool in the world being deepening our venture.

Thanks for the question Ashish and our next question comes from the line of Craig Siegenthaler with Bank of America. Craig please go ahead.

Good morning this is Eli Abouj from Craig's team thanks for taking the question. Can you elaborate on the recent decision to rebrand SIBO's technology platform as titanium? What's the materiality of that change? And I know some of your exchange peers have been successful white labeling their technology to third-party trading venues. Should we read this as a step in that direction? How do you think about that opportunity as well?

Thanks for the questions. Chris here. We decided to read to name zero titanium, our technology that runs all of our equities You mentioned others to monetize it.

Thank you for the question, Elia.

And our next question comes from the line of Owen Lau with Oppenheimer. Owen, please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for taking my question. So for the succession plan or search, could you please talk about the characteristic of the new CEO? Why now, the timing of the search, and how will this search impact the strategy you have put out so far? Thanks.

All right, thanks for the question, Owen.

And our next question comes from the line of Alex Blastom with Goldman Sachs.

Alex, please go ahead. Hey, everybody. This is Anthony on for Alex. Maybe just one on the SBX franchise. What are you seeing in terms of customer trends that can maybe reaccelerate growth from here? And maybe I've missed it from earlier on the call, but would you expect the volume contribution from HUD to be throughout the year, given the early traction?

Thank you very much. I think it's probably worth referring you to the earlier answer on Robinhood, which was reasonably detailed. But just briefly there to say that the rollout was better results. The next thing you need to partner around education and marketing there. It's a really positive setup. Think about those almost 25 million funded accounts. We're in a runway there. I'm really excited about the setup. On average daily basis in January, which is 12th.

Thanks for the question, Anthony. And our final question today comes from the line of Dan Fannin with Jeffries. Dan, please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning. Just to clarify a couple of the guidance comments. So for the new segment, Data Vantage, just to clarify, you're saying the old way that you used to be guided to and talked about 2024 is still consistent and in that range. And then on the below-the-line items, can you tell us what the actual dividends and interest was in 2024 to understand that that's to go forward versus some of the one, I guess, other things and markups that you were expecting or you booked this year just so we understand kind of the run rate?

Sure. I'll start with the data manage question, just looking at kind of market standard range. And then for the below-the-line items, I think we'll provide more clarity. I will say, though, the components that comprise the below-the-line items, we do have minority investments make up one portion of it, and then dividends from investments are another portion of it. So you do see the income from the minority investments drop a bit compared to what it had been previously. So much of that relates to our minority investments in trading technologies. That minority investment, 21, it's typical. you take quarterly marks based on that investment sign to see that taper off of it. The dividend income, though, from other investments, that continues to pick up. So, again, more granularity will be provided later in February in the form of that 10K.

All right. Thank you, Dan, for the question. And that appears to be all the questions we have, so I will now turn the call back over to management for closing remarks.

Thank you for joining us today, and I wish everyone a great two thousand Thank you.

And ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Again, thank you for joining and you may now disconnect. Have a great day, everyone.