Operator
Joining us and welcome to the Merrick's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. I will now hand the conference over to Adam Strachan, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today for Marex's Q3 2026 earnings call. Speaking today are Ian Lowett, Group CEO, and Rob Irvin, Group CFO. After their formal remarks, as usual, we will open the call to questions. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that certain matters discussed in today's call are forward-looking statements relating to future events, management's plans and objectives for the business, and the future financial performance of the company that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, and the risk factors that may affect results are referred to in Marix's press release issued today. The forward-looking statements made today are as of the date of this call, and Marex does not undertake any obligation to update them. Finally, the speakers may refer to certain adjusted or non-IFRS financial measures on this call. A reconciliation schedule of the non-IFRS financial measures to the most directly comparable IFRS measures is also available in today's earnings release. A copy of the release and investor presentation are available on the IR page of the Marex website at marex.com. I'll now hand the call over to Ian.
Good morning, and thank you for joining us for our third quarter earnings announcement. Marix has delivered another record quarter, with revenues and profits increasing both year-on-year and sequentially. Revenue for the quarter increased 53% year-on-year to $743 million, while adjusted profit before tax rose 75% to $176 million. The adjusted profit before tax margin was 24%. Adjusted return on equity remained very strong at 36%, reflecting our high return on risk business model. Adjusted earnings per share increased 73% to $1.75. For the first nine months of the year, revenue reached $2.1 billion, and adjusted profit before tax increased 63% to $495 million. On a trailing 12-month basis, adjusted basic earnings per share was $6.25. These results demonstrate our ongoing success executing our strategy. We've purposefully expanded our capabilities, diversifying our earnings dreams to build a more resilient business capable of delivering sustainable growth. And the third quarter is a further illustration of our strategy working in practice, as I'll discuss in more detail later in my remarks. While our individual businesses are obviously impacted by market conditions, our goal is to create a portfolio of businesses which can deliver sustainable growth across a range of market environments. The operating environment for commodities remained favorable in the third quarter, where elevated prices, volatility, and exchange volumes continue to provide a supportive backdrop. Exchange volumes in aggregate are up 20% year-on-year, above the historical growth trend of 8% to 10%. In the third quarter, volumes remained robust, increasing 2% over the second quarter levels, although they were down 8% on the very strong first half. Equity markets and volatility associated with those markets were somewhat softer following a strong first half, which affects our prime and solutions businesses. Together with a seasonal summer slowdown, this would ordinarily have pointed to some reduction in earnings following a very strong second quarter. However, we delivered another record performance with adjusted profit before tax increasing 6% sequentially. It is instructive to unpack how we were able to grow in the third quarter, given that backdrop of the summer slowdown and a somewhat less supportive market overall compared to the first half of the year, as this helps to illustrate what we mean by structural growth or setting cyclical factors. In the third quarter, we benefited from the structural growth associated with the acquisitions of Levmet and WebTraders, both of which are already making important contributions to earnings and performing well above their pre-acquisition earnings run rates. These businesses have broadened our capabilities across physical commodities and equity derivatives, creating a larger and more diversified market-making franchise. The Winterflat acquisition has also expanded our equity market-making capabilities. The disposal of its custody business in the second quarter has enabled us to focus on improving margins as we integrate the retained business into Marex. We're also seeing a material expansion of our FX franchise. Since the acquisition of Hamilton Court in July last year, Revenues have tripled on a run rate basis. Importantly, this isn't being driven by taking on additional risk, as we have materially tightened our risk standards. We've consolidated three separate offerings into one, improved the client mix, and increased average ticket sizes. We've also off-boarded approximately 200 clients, where we saw limited potential for profitable growth. Combined with Marix's broader relationships, geographic reach, infrastructure, and ability to invest, these changes are enabling the business to grow very quickly. In prime and clearing, we're also continuing to win larger institutional client mandates and to deepen existing relationships. In prime, third quarter revenues of $115 million doubled year on year, and we're only modestly below the $120 million we made in an exceptionally strong second quarter. Given the softer equity market backdrop, in particular the repricing of AI-related stocks which impacted balances in certain retail ETFs, one might have expected a more significant decline sequentially. While our third quarter balances are somewhat lower than the second quarter average, share gains offset some of the market impact, and balances remained at around twice the level of a year ago. The improved brand and position of our clearing franchise is apparent in the conversations we are now having with clients. The following is an example of how our brand is improving and the receptivity to do business with Marix. As recently as two years ago, a leading hedge fund, with whom we were looking to expand an existing execution relationship into clearing, wouldn't even engage in a conversation about clearing with Marix. Then, a year later, when we were able to initiate the discussion, the conversation was about why they wouldn't move their clearing business away from their existing banks. Now, following their decision to clear one product with us, the conversation is about what additional business they can do with us. That's a microcosm of what's happening more broadly. This ongoing progress is apparent in the growing number of clients generating more than $5 million in annualized revenue, which is now up to 82, from 49 in 2025 and 36 in 2024. At the time of our IPO, we had a narrower franchise, with earnings heavily influenced by external factors, specifically interest rates and exchange volumes. We've deliberately expanded into activities with different, less correlated earnings drivers, building a portfolio of businesses that can perform well in different environments. Successfully executing that strategy has resulted in consistent earnings growth over the longer term, with year-over-year adjusted PBT growth in 19 of the past 20 quarters, including every quarter since our IPO. Central to our strategy is attracting new, potentially large institutional clients onto our platform and then growing the business we do with them. Providing attractive new services is a cost-effective way to engage with these sophisticated clients, in addition to providing potentially important structural growth. On our second quarter earnings call, I shared with you the example of our cross-margining solution for U.S. Treasury futures and cash across the CME and DTCC, providing clients with improved capital efficiency. We've seen very strong client interest, with six clients now live and a further 15 in the pipeline, including several very large and sophisticated hedge funds. In prediction markets, we are seeing strong institutional demand for access. We recently went live on Cauchy as an FCM and already have six major institutional clients ready to trade with us. This includes two hedge funds we have been prospecting for some time. We also plan to go live on Polymarket, further expanding the venues available to our institutional clients. We're also seeing momentum gradually build around tokenization, and we see opportunities both to provide additional services to our existing institutional clients and to participate in what could become a significant new market. During the quarter, for example, we executed the first OTC swap on the Canton network with DRW, referencing a fully tokenized index. Our work is being well received by participants already active in the space, and we continue to invest and work with our partners on its development. Another area where we see opportunities to innovate is compute, the processing power needed to run AI models. Investment in AI and related infrastructure is expected to exceed a trillion dollars annually, and we are focused on finding a way Marix can provide services. We're already seeing commodity hedging activity from participants in this space, which contribute to our current earnings. There is also a lot of work underway to develop new hedging products, including what are being referred to as compute futures. Merix intends to participate in the development of these markets, both as a clearer and market maker, and we have the infrastructure in place to support these products as they become available. We're working with exchanges and other market participants on the development of contracts that could provide effective hedges, helping establish pricing data, and educating potential users, while providing market access and liquidity to support institutional participation. It's very early in this process, but we're willing to experiment and work with clients and other participants in the ecosystem as the market develops. We don't know how significant these markets will ultimately become, but we believe there is value in being involved at an early stage. I'll now hand over to Rob to go through the financials in more detail.
Thanks, Ian, and good morning, everyone. We delivered another strong performance in the third quarter, building on the momentum established in the first half. Revenue in the quarter increased 53% year-on-year to $743 million, with strong growth across all four segments. Total adjusted expenses increased by 44%, driven by performance-based compensation tied to strong revenues, continued investment in technology and infrastructure, and the integration of acquisitions. We continue to expand margins, with adjusted profit before tax margin increasing to 23.7%. Adjusted profit before tax increased 75% to $176 million. We also increased net provisions for credit losses by approximately $7 million during the quarter, primarily reflecting an increase in our stage one expected credit loss provisions. Importantly, the increase does not reflect a deterioration in underlying credit quality or concerns relating to any individual client exposures. For the first nine months, revenue increased 47% to $2.1 billion, and adjusted profit before tax increased 63% to $495 million. I'll now take you through each bids in this segment, starting with clearing. Clearing had another strong quarter, with revenue increasing 27% year-on-year to $170 million. Average clearing client balances were $18.7 billion, up 41% year-on-year, and materially higher than the Q4 2025 average of $14 billion. Robust new client onboarding added more than 1 billion imbalances year-to-date ahead of our annual target, and we continue to deepen relationships with existing clients. This drove a 35% increase in clearing net interest income to $83 million, as balanced growth more than offset the year-on-year reduction in interest rates. Net commission income increased 16% to $77 million, reflecting client wins and increased activity from existing clients. Adjusted profit before tax increased 26% to $85 million, with the margin broadly stable at approximately 50%. For the first nine months, adjusted profit before tax increased 14% to $222 million. Agency and Execution delivered another strong quarter, with revenue increasing 40% year-on-year to $361 million. Security's revenue increased 58% to $286 million, led by strong growth in Prime, FX, and equities. Prime revenues doubled year-on-year to $115 million, reflecting the increased scale of the business, and continued growth in institutional client relationships. FX revenue more than doubled to $59 million, reflecting strong growth in corporate FX following the acquisition of Hamilton Court last year, alongside continued momentum across the broader FX franchise. Equities revenue increased 23% to $66 million, supported by increased client demand for securities lending and equity derivatives. These performances more than offset lower energy revenue, which declined 4% to $72 million. Adjusted profit before tax increased 73% to $115 million, with the margin expanding to 32%, reflecting the greater contribution from higher margin security activities, including Prime and FX. For the first nine months, adjusted profit before tax increased 68% to $323 million, with the margin increasing to 31%. Market-making delivered another excellent quarter, with revenue more than tripling year-on-year to $151 million, albeit from an unusually low prior-year base. Growth reflected strong organic performance, particularly in metals, together with contributions from recent acquisitions in a favourable operating environment. Metal's revenue increased to $91 million, reflecting elevated prices and volatility, which supported client activity and hedging demand across precious and base metals, including copper. Performance also benefited. From the contribution from Levmet, following completion of the acquisition in June, securities revenues increased to $36 million, benefiting from winter flood and the addition of web trailers following its acquisition in August. Energy and agricultural revenues also increased, supported by strong client activity. Adjusted profit before tax increased to $58 million, compared with $7 million in the prior year period, with the margin expanding significantly to 38%. For the first nine months, revenue increased 165% to $409 million, and adjusted profit before tax increased to $158 million. Turning to hedging and investment solutions, which delivered revenue of $61 million in the quarter, up 26% year-on-year. Hedging solutions revenue increased 42% to $32 million, supported by continued client onboarding and strong demand for hedging products across commodities and FX. Financial products revenue increased 13% to $29 million, driven by continued growth in structured product issuance and new client wins. Adjusted profit before tax increased 15% to $14 million, with the margin at 23% compared to 25% in the prior year period. Lower equity volatility impacted financial products during the seasonally quieter summer period, decreasing revenues and margin versus the second quarter. For the first nine months, revenue increased 68% to $225 million, and adjusted profit before tax increased 145% to $71 million, reflecting the continued growth and increased scale of the business. Turning now to net interest income at the group level. In the third quarter, NII was $36 million, compared to $39 million in Q3 2025, as higher interest expense more than offset the growth in interest income. Interest income grew by $28 million year on year, reflecting $6.6 billion of higher average balances, which more than offset a 60 basis point reduction in the average Fed funds rate. However, higher interest expense related to the group's $500 million senior debt issuance completed in April and structured note issuances in solutions reduce net interest income overall. As we've said previously, we continue to hold significant liquidity headroom. While this creates a modest near-term headwind to Group NII, it reflects a deliberate and prudent decision to maintain substantial liquidity headroom, strengthening the balance sheet and preserving our capacity to support clients and pursue future growth opportunities. NII increased by $6 million compared with the second quarter, primarily reflecting the 10 basis points increase in the average Fed funds rate. Turning to the balance sheet, approximately 80% of our assets continue to be directly driven by client activity, which is highly liquid and largely self-funding in nature. Total assets increased to $45.4 billion at the 30th of September, reflecting continued growth across the franchise, particularly within our prime business. After netting client assets and liabilities, the residual balance sheet is primarily comprised of corporate cash and other assets funded by group liabilities, including our structured notes and senior debt issuances. We continue to manage capital and liquidity conservatively with our internal framework designed to support the group's growth, maintain substantial financial flexibility and underpin our investment grade credit ratings. Following our re-domicile to Bermuda, the group is no longer subject to consolidated FCA capital and liquidity requirements. However, our regulated entities remain subject to their applicable local requirements, and we continue to manage the group against conservative internal standards consistent with our previous consolidated framework. Our key benchmark remains maintaining sufficient capital to support our investment-grade credit ratings. Our risk-adjusted capital ratio was 12.3%, comfortably above the 10% level SMB defines as strongly capitalised, and we remain comfortable with our capital headroom. On liquidity, we finished the quarter with $8.9 billion of total funding sources, up from $6.2 billion at year-end and $1.3 billion of liquidity headroom. Providing significant capacity above our internal assessed requirement. Taken together, our capital, liquidity and funding position remains strong and provides the flexibility to continue supporting clients and executing our strategy. Finally, closing with risk management. Average daily VAR for the first nine months was $5.6 million, reflecting the increased scale of the business and the market environment. 87% of trading days were profitable, the 100% of weeks and months generating positive trading revenue. That concludes the financial review, and now I'll hand you back to Ian.
To conclude, the third quarter was a further demonstration of our strategy working in practice. We're executing against the priorities we've laid out, growing our existing businesses, winning mandates from larger institutional clients, and expanding our capabilities through acquisition and innovation. The market backdrop remains favorable, particularly in commodities, and based on what we can see today, we expect that to continue in the near term. While market conditions will, of course, vary, we're focused on what we can control, executing our strategy, gaining market share, deepening client relationships, and integrating acquisitions. Looking ahead, the announced acquisition of BrightPoint will further strengthen our clearing franchise in Asia and enhance our access to China, creating additional opportunities for growth in 2027. Our acquisition pipeline remains very strong, and we see further opportunities to expand our capabilities and support future growth. With our S&P REC ratio above 12%, this gives us meaningful capacity to fund future acquisitions. We are currently in the middle of our budgeting process, and based on what we see today, remain very comfortable with our target of delivering 10% to 20% adjusted PBT growth in 2027 from this year's level. We have a clear strategy, we're executing against it, and the results continue to demonstrate that it's working. Thank you.
Operator
We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Bill Katz with TD Cowan. Bill, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Okay, thank you very much. Good morning, good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for taking the question. So I was most intrigued by the slide in the deck that sort of spoke to some of the incremental growth opportunities. You sort of laid out the cross-margining on the Treasury side, the prediction markets, the compute futures, if you will. Could you maybe double-click into that a little bit and spend a little more time on the cross-margining opportunity set and maybe the prediction markets? Those seem to be probably most near at hand in terms of the opportunity and how we might try and quantify that. And then related to the prediction markets, there's been some pretty fast development of KPIs by SIBO and some others. I'm just sort of wondering if you could talk about your activity or interest level in getting involved with that as well. Thank you.
Yeah, sure. Yeah, I mean, we're also sort of excited about those opportunities that we sort of highlight on that slide. You know, in terms of the cross-margining product, I mean, I sort of think about this in two ways. I mean, one is just the cost of the... The fact that you're sort of getting really attractive clients onto your platform, and you're doing it in a way that doesn't require you to provide any sort of subsidy of any kind. So they're actually excited to come onto your platform. And as we found, you know, once somebody's on your platform, you're just in a different league, you know, you're no longer part of the very large world that are trying to get access, you're actually part of the inside. So that's probably the biggest value to us. You know, away from there, you know, it feels like it's... You know, a few tens of millions of dollars of revenue associated with sort of the existing set of clients. So, you know, it's probably in the 15 to 20 run rate at the moment. You know, what level it gets to, I don't know. You know, at some point, we won't be the only person providing that. But like right now, we have an opportunity to bring people on and have them use our platform. In terms of prediction markets, we only recently set up to clear Kaoshi. Again, it's not so much the size of the revenue that it's contributing now, it's the fact that it's getting you into a really strong position with key prospects. And the people at those sort of prospect firms that are involved are, you know, very senior, often the principal owners of those funds. So that's very exciting to us. Again, very hard for me to, you know, assess what, you know, the revenue contribution will be from that activity itself. But, you know, the level of interest is extremely high. So that's a, you know, that's sort of a positive.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Patrick Moley with Piper Sandler. Patrick, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, and thanks for taking the question. Ian, maybe just following up on Bill's question, maybe digging more into the compute. I think last quarter when it came up, you guys said you hadn't looked into it too much, and it was a big part of the prepared remarks this quarter. So, I guess it sounds like the opportunities moved up the priority list. Could you maybe just talk about what you're seeing, where that, you know, demand is coming from? Is it coming from hyperscalers that you already work with, or is it in reaction to some of the exchange-driven product development that we've seen here recently? Thanks.
Yeah, sure. So, I think that, you know, it's sort of worth just sort of noting that You know, obviously, there's a huge amount of spend, you know, in this space. And there's actually a lot of hedging that's going on, you know, around a lot of these products, you know, whether that's, you know, hedging out copper, or that's hedging out, you know, some of the power requirements. So the fact is, we are participating not, you know, in some way, just through the normal course of our business with regard to, you know, some of the people who are investing, you know, these massive sums in building up this infrastructure, you know, with regard to compute. You know, I think that, you know, some of our sort of key partners are quite engaged in this, you know, and have a lot of interest. And as a result, you know, we're being, you know, sort of consulted around this a fair amount in the course of the last quarter. You know, it's also apparent to me that You know, if these products do take off in some sort of meaningful way, that it has the potential to take down some of the sort of noise that you see around some of the companies here. So, I mean, if you could actually sell some of your. You know, sort of production forward by way of example, you know, then I think that takes some of the concerns away around, you know, the mismatch of timing between expense and revenue. So I do think it's, you know, it's potentially quite important as a way to sort of stabilize these marketplaces. Yeah, I had no view on, you know, when this gets. Sort of approved by the regulators, and it appears as though that's sort of being pushed off a little bit. So it doesn't appear that it's sort of imminent, but it is an area that I think we are engaged in, as you say, to a differentiated extent versus where we were a quarter ago. You know, it's not a massive effort on our part, but it's one where, you know, the potential marketplace, as I think, you know, you've written about is, you know, very substantial. And, you know, if it is going to take off, you know, players like Marix will have, you know, some part to play in their development.
Great. Thanks for that, Ian. Thanks.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Dan Fannin with Jefferies. Dan, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning. So, Ian, I wanted to follow up on some of your comments around M&A. You talked about a very active pipeline, so I was hoping you could expand upon that. And then also, you've been quite active year to date, and maybe just update us on the integrations of the businesses. I think you mentioned in your remarks, winter flood, in terms of that happening, and then obviously a couple deals this quarter that were announced, maybe some updates in terms of contribution from that as well, please.
Sure. We're really, really sort of pleased and excited with how the acquisitions have gone. Obviously, we've talked a lot about the success we had with the Cowan acquisition, which was the basis of our very successful prime business going further back. I mean, EDNF was a transformational deal sort of for us. You know, we talked in the remarks about, you know, the success we've had with Hamilton Court. And again, I think it just is a demonstration of, you know, what can happen if you take, you know, sort of a franchise that's sort of small, having, you know, some set of challenges in the market, you may get part of Marix and all those sort of advantages they have, you know, sort of sort of turn into, you know, a lot of growth. And, you know, in terms of what we've completed more recently, you know, Winterflight, as you know, a sort of negative goodwill deal. And it's certainly, you know, sort of broadened our participation in equity market making. And I think we're pleased with both the integration as well as, you know, how that sort of broadened out that part of our franchise. You know, LevMet has been, you know, really terrific. I mean, you see it in the... In the increase in market-making revenues in LevMet really has been very impactful in the course of the quarter. And I have a lot of enthusiasm for what that's going to do to diversify the franchise and provide an additional meaningful sort of growth vector for us. And Web has also had, you know, a terrific start. So, you know, the transactions we've completed this year have been... And really, they've worked well, they've integrated, you know, sort of per the plan. And we're sort of excited about their prospects. Obviously, we talked a bit about Brightpoint, which, again, you know, likely to close early part of next year. And again, you know, creates a real vector of growth for us in China, which is a priority area for us. I think I'll actually just pass over to Paolo, who's here with us, who has. You know, information about all the rest of the pipeline.
Thanks, Ian. Yeah, I mean, Dan, in terms of the immediate pipeline, we have, I would say, four transactions where we've agreed commercial terms there. So in the size range that is sort of most common for us, so somewhere around the sort of revenue and contribution range that you're seeing for some of that bright point, which is, you know, clear in business. I would say, you know, they lean towards clearing and prime in terms of services. And they're also, in terms of sort of geography, their sort of majority are either Asia or Latin America. So four transactions that I think, you know, are close to signing. And with those sort of characteristics, there's probably another four to six transactions that are a little further away. But it is really encouraging the number of opportunities that we're being asked to review, that we're being shown, the number of transactions we're participating in where it's a competitive process. So, I mean, of those that are where it's commercial terms have not been agreed, you know, again, there's a sort of very interesting mix that perhaps, you know, is a little bit more agency and execution focused. Prime, perhaps, you know, elements of prime. But, you know, it's surprised me just how many of these opportunities we're seeing. And I think, you know, in most cases, you know, we're, you know, well positioned to be able to, you know, be competitive with, you know, with these purchases.
And then I'll just sort of make the additional point, Dan, that we're sitting on... In a capital position where our rep ratio is like 12.3%, 10% is investment grade. So we have close to $300 million of capital that we can deploy in a way and still remain at the investment grade level.
Great. Thank you. Thanks, Diane.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Schmidt with William Blair. Jeff, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. The prime services revenue continues to grow at a high rate. Where's that growth coming from? Is it mainly the on-balance sheet business now, or is the prime of prime still growing at a high rate? And how much is the leveraged ETF component at this stage?
Yeah, I think that, you know, we're very pleased with, you know, how that business has performed, you know, in the through the course of year. You know, it does have sort of those three components that, you know, we described. So, you know, the on balance sheet business, the prime of prime and the outsource trading. I mean, the on balance sheet prime, you know, is the largest component of it, but it's not the whole of the business. And, you know, I think that... While we don't anticipate that, you know, it will continue to grow at the same pace, I think we remain quite optimistic about its future. Pallad, do you want to add anything to that?
Yeah. Hi, Jeff. I mean, just to sort of reinforce that, you know, it's more on balance sheet than it's prime of prime. I mean, in terms of the contribution, I think, you know, the ability to generate, you know, high returns is much greater when it's on balance sheet, Even if, you know, the number of clients that we're bringing on is sort of roughly equal in terms of, you know, those two offerings. In terms of the sort of total balance sheet, sort of levered ETFs, you know, represent, you know, it's an important contribution. It's a relatively small amount, you know, if we look at the sort of assets on the management that we're supporting. But, I mean, it's a much higher margin business. Obviously, it's been a little bit softer with the sell-off in AI and AI-related stocks, but balances have been very stable in sort of totality. If you sort of take out some of this volatility, some of this sort of day-to-day volatility, they've been very consistent through the third quarter, and even going into October. You know, we've seen sort of levels of activity that on that side of the business that are sort of comparable to to the third quarter and sort of point in time, maybe a little bit softer towards the end of, you know, end of the period. But but overall, it remains a stable balance and an important contributor. I mean, given that the growth is largely on balance sheet, I think Ian's point about the sort of pace at which we're going to grow, it's going to be a little bit more constrained than it has been because, you know, it uses capital. And so, you know, we are we have to sort of manage within our capital resources and that will slightly, I think, you know, constrain growth. And it will probably mean that it's more comparable to the growth of the firm as a whole rather than the sort of very fast growth that you've seen this year. The hundred, you know, we're not going to repeat 100 percent growth. You know, I wouldn't expect. We'll try.
Yep, that makes sense. And then NII was a little bit lighter than expected to fight strong growth in client balances. Was that mainly related to higher funding costs and liquidity you're maintaining? I think you would be pointing that out. Or did deploying more balance sheet into the prime business have an impact as well? Just trying to think, how do we think about that tradeoff? Thanks.
So, look, thanks, Geoff. I think NII came in broadly where we were expecting. So, if we decouple the two parts, obviously, what drives our net interest income is the client balances. The client balances have grown very significantly this year. We got a little bit of a pickup in the quarter as interest as the average Fed funds increased. And then obviously going against that is our interest expense, which is from the solution structured notes and from the senior debt issuance. Obviously, during the quarter, we were long liquidity again. Some of that liquidity, we made a conscious decision to deploy into our trading businesses. These trading businesses typically are self-funding, but it allows us to sort of shield against the negative carry. And obviously, we could pull that back if we needed to.
Did that cover what you were looking for?
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Alex Blostein with Goldman Sachs. Alex, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hey, Ian. Good morning, everyone. I wanted to go back to slide six. You provided some interesting color just around the number of clients with over 5 million. I think you spoke to some of these metrics in the past, but they continue to improve. So as you think about the incremental cross-selling opportunity, which products and maybe which segments do you see the most compelling runway for you guys to further expand this? Just thinking through, you know, kind of on an organic basis, which one of these segments is likely to see the most uplift from this cross-selling momentum.
Yeah. Well, thanks, Alex. I think that, you know, as we sort of think about this, You know, it's important to make a couple of points. One is that, you know, the clients that are, you know, now in the $5 million plus bucket are clients who almost, without exception, are clients who are already clients of the firm. So we're not going out and finding $5 million clients. I think we've had one this year. But the, you know, the vast preponderance is just growing clients who are already at the firm. And, you know, we have. You know, 250 to 300 clients that are in that one to $5 million bucket that are the targets that you're going to grow. So, you know, part of what is driving this is clients who are already clients of the firm, and we're able to sort of expand the amount of business we do with them. You know, as we look at the data, you don't see any one area that is sort of the is a massive recipient of this. It really does have It sort of flows in every direction. So, you know, execution clients, you know, help drive clearing. Sometimes clearing mandates drive execution. You know, we have futures clients, futures clearing clients that are now becoming prime clients. You know, some of the prime clients get introduced and become execution clients. Solutions clients actually... You know, are introduced to a range of the firm's capabilities, you know, including, you know, sort of clearing and others. So, you know, as we look to say, you know, if cross-selling is sort of the big driver of organic growth, you know, does that favor one particular segment over another? I mean, the only segment which is sort of hard to see, you know, is sort of market making. And that's more because we actually don't attribute client revenues to market making. So I don't see the cross-selling effort as being anything other than cross-firm and contributing to all of the segments growing.
Got it. That's helpful, caller. Thank you. And then one more, if I could sneak one in. I'm encouraging to hear you guys talk about 10% to 20% growth next year, despite obviously coming off a really robust year this year. One, could you comment on more near-term backdrop you're seeing in the fourth quarter? October's out there behind us, and it's been a bumpy month. So I'm curious how October is trending, or how has it done so far? And then as you look about 10% to 20%, is it fair to assume that's largely organic growth that you're commenting on, or are you including some of the deals that are kind of closer in the pipeline?
Yeah. Well, I mean, obviously, we've had a really, really strong nine months. We're almost at $500 million of PBT. As I think about the environment, what we described on the last earnings call was an environment in the third quarter that felt a lot like the average of the first half. And I think, you know, that's how it's played out, you know, in quite an even way across the three months. And then as we look at it, October, we're seeing the same thing again. So we're seeing, you know, an October that looks like, you know, the average of the year, you know, from a market perspective and from a performance perspective. And so I think, you know, that's all part of what's giving us. Sort of confidence around, you know, our ability to continue to perform strongly through the year. I mean, obviously, there's the, you know, expected slowdown around sort of the Christmas holidays, but, you know, we do think that, you know, we'll continue to operate in and around the level we're currently operating. And then it, you know, reinforces our confidence, you know, going into next year. I mean, and we have that confidence in part because, you know, essentially all the businesses are exiting the year in a much stronger position than they entered the year. You know, some of that is as a result of the acquisitions that we've closed, you know, this year. So, you know, LeadMed and Web, which, you know, sort of stage two closes, you know, will have a full year effect associated with them. And I think that as we think about the growth next year, And we think about the 10 to 20%. I mean, what we really are considering, at least from a budgeting perspective, is the full year effect of the acquisitions that we've completed this year and BrightPoint, but we have not included explicitly the impact of other acquisitions that might close because we just don't know that they will.
Got it. Helpful as always. Thank you, guys.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Ben Budish with Barclays. Ben, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, and thanks for taking my question. Maybe just following up on some of those last comments on inorganic growth, curious if you could quantify how much Levenet contributed to the metals market-making business in Q3. It does look like things have sort of structurally stepped up in the first half of the year, obviously Q3 even stronger. If you could unpack what's going on there, spread, volatility, volumes, inorganic, what do we need to know? Thank you. That's quite a lot.
Well, look, I think that... Yeah, as I think about sort of medals in particular, I think we have, you know, the strongest, if not, you know, one of the strongest sort of franchise. So when you're in an environment like the one we've been in, you know, it's not surprising to me that, you know, sort of Simon and the team are delivering such strong results. And you certainly see that, you know, in this year. You know, LevMate is... In PBT terms, you know, sort of delivering actually together with web sort of, you know, low, you know, low teens of PBT in the quarter. So it's, you know, it's a, it's very. So, you know, it's a nice contributor, and it's showing sort of the power of that. So some of, you know, the increase that you're seeing in Q3 versus Q2 is a result of LevMet, but a lot of what you're seeing in terms of the improvement in 26 versus 25 is, you know, the improvement in the environment and the share gains we have in our metals franchise.
Okay, very helpful. Maybe a follow-up on some of the newer growth initiatives, thinking specifically about prediction markets and maybe compute futures. I guess, how do you think about the potential for volume? I guess for prediction markets, we sort of see existing volumes, compute futures, it's harder to say, but the potential for volume and capacity as these kind of products get off the ground. And maybe if you could talk about prediction markets more specifically, how should we think about market volumes relative to what institutions could handle? And maybe talk a bit about how you're thinking about managing risk there and sort of being able to effectively hedge given the level of liquidity in those markets, excluding sports. Thank you.
Well, I mean, just for clarity, I mean, we're participating as a clearer here. And so we're not a market maker on sort of prediction markets. And so all we're doing is providing our clients access to those exchanges, but they want to do it in a clear format rather than, you know, having direct access themselves. And that is a trend that we think, you know, sort of persists for all. Of the, I don't want to say all, for the, you know, for the, for the sort of sophisticated institutional clients that we deal with, they see the protections that they have, you know, being a clear client versus having direct access as being extremely valuable. And so all of them are looking for access to those markets in that way. You know, the... You know, potential firepower of all of those guys is absolutely enormous, but how much they're actually going to transact in prediction markets and how much they're using it as, you know, a way to get sort of data signals that they then express, you know, in other markets, I have no view of. So, you know, for us, it's really, you know, it's responding to customer demand to have access. You know, I think it'll be... Decently profitable because, you know, the amount you make to sort of support that access is quite attractive relative to other things of comparable amounts of notional invested. But, you know, what the take-up is of, you know, that set of clients, you know, we don't really have a particular view on. So, you know, it's primarily for me about getting access to those clients. And to the extent that, you know, it really takes off in some material way, then that's obviously just, you know, sort of added profitability for us.
All right. Very helpful. Thank you.
Operator
If you have a follow-up question, you are invited to press star 1 to raise your hand and rejoin the queue. Your next question comes from the line of Bill Katz with TD Cowan. Bill, your line is open. Please go ahead. Thank you.
Thank you very much. So just a couple of cleanup items, actually. When you talk about 2026, are you including the credit provision that you took early in the year as sort of the normal backdrop? I just want to make sure we're thinking about the right run rate here. Secondly, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about, as you think about the deal pipeline of the timeline to which you think you might be able to close these, and you mentioned that they're running at the same size as one of the previous deals you announced. Pre-Synergy. So would you anticipate getting the same kind of synergies from those transactions? And then the last question is a broader question. Sorry for all the questions. As you think about the business and you continue to scale, I was wondering if you could update your framework around the operating margin or the adjusted PBT margin potential. Thank you.
Okay. So, you know, when I sort of think about 2026, I think of it, you know, sort of on a as reported basis. So, you know, the first quarter, you know, we got the benefit of You know, sort of higher revenues in some of our businesses because of the higher volatility. And, you know, we had, you know, an idiosyncratic, you know, sort of credit loss. So I think of, you know, the reference point as including, you know, the impact of the good and the bad, which, you know, includes the credit loss. So we're not backing out the credit loss, if that's your modeling question, when we talk about the base for 2026. You know, in terms of... I think the second question was around synergies from acquisitions, you know, synergies in time. Do you want to take that, Carla?
So, I mean, of the four transactions that we talked about, Bill, as having agreed commercial terms, you know, I think that the likelihood is that the majority will be signed in this quarter or in the first quarter. Closing those transactions is dependent in almost all cases on regulatory approval. So there's a bit more uncertainty there. And that does vary by region. So, for example, in Latin America, that might take a little longer, always likely to take longer. Typically, once we've signed, it's somewhere between three and five months to closing. So in terms of the timing of the impact of these transactions is going to be the ones that we talked about. uh, as being, um, As being, you know, highly probable or sort of close to signing, you probably won't see much impact until the second half of next year.
And then in terms of operating margins, I mean, I think that, you know, we've talked, you know, about this a bit. You know, we don't manage to operating margins, so operating margins are sort of the outcome of a whole range of things. So, you know, operating margins are going to be a function of. You know, revenue mix, and obviously, you know, the shift of revenue into, you know, higher margin activity helps. But it's also in that sense, a function of, you know, the work that we're actually doing to improve margins, even in lower margin businesses. And those can be, you know, quite material as well. You know, it's a question of how much we invest. And, you know, as you've probably got a sense from, you know, our commentary, you know, we are continuing to invest in new products and we're excited about the prospects of those and feel that, you know, if we're going to deliver on our strategy, which is having enough structural growth to offset cyclical factors, then that's absolutely the right thing for us to be doing. But that obviously impacts margins. You know, as we grow, we get, you know, some scale effects, both in terms of. You know, the impact on support and control as well as on our fixed cost base. And I think, you know, all of those things sort of talk to gradually improving margins. You know, we've talked about, you know, how we think we could, you know, previously we talked about how we thought we could get to the mid-20s. And obviously this year we're, you know, we've taken a nice step in that direction. We've, you know, sort of gone from 21 to 24. So, um... And we also believe, you know, as we've spent more time thinking about it and thought about, you know, the role that technology is going to play in, you know, raising productivity, the potential to, you know, improve controls, but also output through AI. I think that's also sort of margin enhancing. You know, we thought that we could get to 30. And, you know, as we're getting closer to 30, I think we'll reassess and say, you know, what our next view is of, you know, what we can actually generate. But broadly, we see a series of trades, all of which should be increasing margins, but probably at a slower pace than we saw this year, just because this year we're just seeing. So much impact because the revenue growth is so high.
I'm sorry, Bill, just go back to your question just on the synergy opportunities. I mean, you know, I would say that, you know, given that these businesses that we're looking to acquire are in that clearing and prime space, you know, it's reasonable to assume that the same type of revenue synergies we expect from the announced transaction from Brightpoint and BPI, you'd see in these other transactions. We very much expect that moving these businesses onto our platform is significantly revenue accreted. And just sort of make that point. I mean, we've seen that this year with FX, where revenues are sort of close to triple the run rate that we saw pre-acquisition. That's only been closed for less than 18 months. And it's an area where we continue to invest. Yes, we are expecting to have a payments capability live towards the end of this quarter, certainly by the first quarter, and I think that sort of enhances that offering as well as giving us another sort of organic growth stream. So we answer your question, Bill?
Absolutely. Thank you for being so kind of taking all of them. Appreciate it. No problem.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Chris Allen with KBW. Chris, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Morning, everyone. Thanks for the question. Just kind of following up on the comment, just in terms of on FX, the revenue tripled. I'm just trying to think about the deals that you've done. Which ones are at? Potentially full capacity, or which ones there's significant room for expansion, either by injecting more capital, cross-selling to your customer base. Hamilton Court obviously seems like it's reaching its potential. I'm just wondering what other ones have a clear path to growth from here.
I think that... You know, we've been very pleasantly surprised by the opportunity that FX represents. And so while Hamilton Court, I think, has been, you know, a great success for us, I think that we certainly believe that, you know, we can build a, you know, an even bigger business, you know, on that business model, expanding sort of geographically and making ongoing investments. So we certainly don't think that sort of, you know, hit its. You know, it's, it's maximum. I mean, I'm personally extremely excited about sort of the opportunity that, you know, LabMed represents because it's essentially, you know, sort of magnifying some of the strengths we have in our metals franchise by giving us opportunity to extend out into, you know, some physical. Products and enhance some of the things that we were doing for clients before. So I actually think that that could be, you know, quite substantial, you know, sort of for us. And then I think, you know, obviously, we can't speak to the acquisitions of Palo's sort of reference, but, you know, those will also help advance the franchise. And then Brightpoint. You know, if we can utilize all the sort of connectivity that Penny and the team at Brightpoint have into China to sort of expand our engagement with that absolutely huge market, you know, then that in and of itself could be, you know, a massive accelerant for the firm. So, you know, we're always sort of conservative in what we... You know, say we're going to be able to deliver with regard to those acquisitions, but notwithstanding that they do, when sort of made a part of our franchise, represent sort of growth vectors that, you know, in the past have proven to be very substantial. And there's nothing in sort of the existing crop that suggests that they'll be different in kind and that they won't represent the same sort of growth opportunity.
Operator
Your last question comes from the line of Ben Budish with Barclays. Ben, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for taking my follow-up. I'm just wondering if you could talk a little bit about the solutions business. It looks like the structured notes balance actually stepped up quite a bit, quarter over quarter, but the revenues have been trending down off a very strong Q1. I understand things can be lumpy, and I think you talked a bit about some of that structured issuance flows through interest expense, but if you could help us understand what exactly is going on in there. Is there anything timing-related? How do we think about the relationship between either headcount or balances to revenues going forward? Thanks.
Sure. Well, I think that the broad backdrop there is the business is doing really well. It's grown very substantially, nine months and nine months. And even if you look at the third quarter to third quarter, it's actually up sort of whatever it is, 28, 30%. So the business is doing extremely well. The hedging solution business is continuing to grow in a very steady way. And the... Financial product business has more variability to it. I mean, what I actually take away from it is really that the first half was what was the very unusual revenue opportunity for that business, and that that's associated with very high levels of volatility that we saw in the first half. You know, as one thinks about what we're trying to do as a firm, which is, you know, build a portfolio of businesses that are going to perform well through a bunch of different market environments, then you want, you know, some businesses that are going to do really well in some of those environments, like we saw in the first half, and Solutions certainly did that, and recognize that, you know, in environments that are a little less supportive, you know, they're not going to do quite as well. And I think that's, that's really the only. Sort of takeaway, you know, sort of for this, I think, you know, the volatility in equities was down, the rate of change in volatility was lower. And that's also an important input, you know, for that, for that business. You know, there was sort of seasonal effects in August, but I think that's the extent of, you know, what one should take away, you know, from these numbers, and it remains. You know, a business that we have, you know, a lot of confidence in, and I think it'll, you know, continue to grow and thrive.
All right. Thank you very much.
All right. Well, thanks for all the questions. You know, as always, you know, good opportunity for us to provide additional color on what's going on inside the firm. You know, we're obviously, you know, very pleased, you know, with the quarter and, you know, being able to deliver, you know, yet another record and also to. You know, share, you know, just how, you know, positive and confident we are, you know, about the rest of this year and our prospects for next year. So thanks, everybody.
Operator
This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.
