Marex Group plc Ordinary Shares Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 12, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Record Q2 performance: Revenue rose 39% year over year to $696 million, while adjusted profit before tax increased 56% to $166 million; the adjusted margin expanded to 23.8% and adjusted ROE remained near 38%.
  • Positive Sentiment: Marex said its diversified platform is reducing dependence on exchange volumes, with Q2 adjusted PBT rising 9% sequentially despite a 17% decline in key exchange volumes. Management remains confident it can deliver growth toward the high end of its 10%-20% target range.
  • Positive Sentiment: Agency and execution, market making, and solutions posted particularly strong results, supported by prime services, metals, FX, Winterflood integration, structured products, and technology investments. Prime revenue reached a record $120 million, while solutions adjusted PBT nearly quadrupled year over year.
  • Positive Sentiment: Client relationships and acquisitions continue to expand the franchise: 77 clients now generate more than $5 million annually on a run-rate basis, up from 49 a year earlier, and roughly 80% of Q2 profit growth was organic. Management also cited a strong M&A pipeline, including Bright Point, Levmet, and Webb Traders.
  • Negative Sentiment: Group net interest income declined to $30 million from $35 million a year earlier and fell $11 million sequentially, as higher funding costs and the strategic use of excess liquidity outweighed growth in interest income. Management characterized this as a deliberate trade-off, with capital and liquidity issuance supporting future expansion.
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Earnings Conference Call
Marex Group plc Ordinary Shares Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

There are 11 speakers on the call.

Operator

Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Marex second 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 one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to Adam Strachan, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today for Marex's 2Q 2026 earnings call. Speaking today are Ian Lowitt, Group CEO, and Rob Irvin, Group CFO. After their formal remarks, as usual, we will open the call to questions. Before we begin, I would 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 risk and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. The risk factors that may affect results are referred to in Marex'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.

Speaker 1

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 investor relations page of the Marex website at marex.com.

Speaker 2

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Q2 2026 was another record profit quarter for Marex, our sixth record quarter since we went public just two years ago in April 2024. Second quarter revenues increased 39% year-on-year to $696 million, and adjusted profit before tax increased 56% to $166 million. Adjusted profit before tax margin expanded to 24%, reflecting the increasing contribution from our higher margin infrastructure-intensive businesses. Basics earnings per share increased to $2.09, and return on equity was 37.5%. Excluding non-operating items such as the $35 million gain on the sale of the Winterflood Custody business, as well as some costs relating to our Bermuda redomicile in the second quarter, adjusted earnings per share was $1.72. Looking at the first half as a whole, adjusted profit before tax was $319 million, equivalent to the group's total annual profit in 2024.

Speaker 2

Adjusted EPS for the first half was $3.29, while reported EPS was $3.61. On a trailing 12-month basis, reported EPS was $5.72. We believe these results demonstrate the increased earnings power of Marex franchise and validate the strategy we've been executing. We've worked hard to build a business that is diversified across products, business lines, and geographies to support sustainable growth. While market conditions remain important to individual businesses, at the group level, our portfolio of businesses has increasing earnings resilience. This is evident in the second quarter. Volumes on our key exchanges reduced meaningfully, down 17% compared with the first quarter. While market volatility also declined and interest rates were flat, commodity prices remained elevated. Notwithstanding that market backdrop, second quarter adjusted PBT increased 9% versus the first quarter.

Speaker 2

Since the IPO, we have clearly diversified in ways which make our earnings less dependent on exchange volumes. One of the questions we get asked repeatedly is how much of our performance is driven by the operating environment and how much by structural growth. When we came to market at IPO, we described our objective to invest in sufficient structural growth to offset the inevitable cyclical impact of our markets on our results. As we talked about on the previous slide, that doesn't mean the operating environment no longer matters. Of course, it does. But we have now built a platform where the combination of diversified earnings streams and structural growth outweighs the cyclical elements over time. The evidence of this is apparent in our track record. We've increased profitability sequentially every year over the past 12 years.

Speaker 2

Looking at performance at the quarterly rather than annual level, over the past five years, we've delivered year-over-year adjusted profit growth in 19 of the past 20 quarters. This is a remarkable record of sustainable growth. This includes periods of elevated volatility, lower volatility, increasing and decreasing interest rates, and varying levels of exchange activity. Since our IPO in the second quarter of 2024, quarterly adjusted PBT has grown at an average rate of 48% year on year, with the upper quintile averaging 72% and the lower quintile averaging 21%. While this is obviously a wide range, it gives us a high degree of confidence in our ability to grow at least, in line with the top end of our 10%-20% growth target range. On the previous slide, we showed how our business has grown on a quarterly basis.

Speaker 2

On the left of this slide, you can see the steady increase in monthly profitability over time. The lower Sharpe ratio for 2026 reflects the exceptional volatility and unusually strong profit month we experienced in Q1. On the right-hand side, you can see the distribution of daily profitability. Over time, that distribution has continued to shift to the right as profitability has increased. During the first half of 2026, the right-hand tail has materially thicker, reflecting the exceptional market conditions, particularly in March. Importantly, those right-tail returns weren't driven by taking more risk or by a single business. They reflected the breadth of the platform with a growing number of businesses, all capable of generating significant returns on any given day when the market opportunity arose.

Speaker 2

You can see that in the increasing number of $3 million-plus profit days, which increased to 58 over the last 12 months, representing 25% of trading days. At the same time, the number of loss-making days remained relatively low at just 11 or 4% of trading days, consistent with what we have seen historically. The left tail is consistent and skinny, and the right tail is now quite thick. I expect that as we move past the exceptional conditions of Q1, the distribution will become more typically bell-shaped, with the center of the distribution further to the right, reflecting our growth. We are already seeing that in June and July. An alternative lens on our growth and the increasing breadth and strength of our platform is the evolution of our client relationships. As the platform has expanded, we have been able to deepen relationships with larger and more sophisticated clients.

Speaker 2

In 2026, we have 77 clients generating more than $5 million of annual revenue on a run rate basis, up from 49 in 2025 and 36 in 2024. Revenue from this cohort of clients has increased 59% since 2025, reflecting continued expansion of our largest client relationships. This growth is not being driven by onboarding new $5 million clients. It is being driven by existing clients expanding the breadth of their relationship with Marex and doing more business with the firm as we continue to broaden our products, capabilities, and geographic reach. The effect is not just with our largest clients. We are seeing clients expand their relationships with us across the board, with average revenue per client up by 34%, demonstrating that clients are making broader use of the Marex platform. That is exactly the outcome we have been trying to achieve.

Speaker 2

As clients deepen their relationships with Marex and use more of the platform over time, they become an increasingly important driver of our structural growth. This is a steady, ongoing, and reliable source of growth, which also demonstrates our underlying competitiveness. Disciplined M&A is a core part of our growth strategy, helping us broaden our capabilities, extend our geographic reach, and accelerate growth. That said, most of our growth remains organic. Around 80% of our year-on-year profit growth in the second quarter, for example, was organic. That is because our approach is not about buying earnings. The initial contribution from acquisitions is typically modest. The real value comes from integration, capturing synergies, and leveraging the power of the broader Marex platform for growth. Our recent acquisitions demonstrate this clearly.

Speaker 2

If we look at our larger 2025 acquisitions, we paid a premium of around $16 million for a combination of Aarna, Hamilton Court, and Winterflood. At acquisition, based on their prior year's earnings, they generated around $16 million of profit after tax. In Q2, the three acquisitions generated an annualized run rate of around $60 million of PAT, around 3.5 times the pre-acquisition earnings. So the annualized returns from these businesses are already equivalent to the premium we paid to acquire them. That demonstrates our ability to integrate acquisitions successfully and deliver revenue and cost synergies and grow earnings materially over time. Importantly, we see further upside, particularly at Winterflood, where a number of the integration benefits and synergies have yet to be fully realized.

Speaker 2

We focus on the premium paid and return of premium because much of the book equity we acquire in the transaction consists of cash or cash equivalents or very liquid assets. While we are attentive to total consideration, our focus is on the recovery of premium. Turning to 2026, we expect Bright Point, which we announced last month, to follow a similar pattern. Strategically, it significantly strengthens our global clearing franchise through a larger presence in Asia, adds high-quality infrastructure-intensive earnings, and enhances our access to China through an experienced local management team and long-standing institutional client relationships that would be difficult to replicate organically. Importantly, we also see opportunities to create additional value once the business is integrated into Marex, including internalizing clearing activity, increasing client balances, and cross-selling our broader product offering across the combined client base.

Speaker 2

We expect the transaction to complete in late 2026 or early next year. While Bright Point is a somewhat larger acquisition, it remains consistent with our financial discipline at an attractive low single-digit multiple of premium paid, reducing further once identified synergies are taken into account. Levmet and Webb Traders are further examples of our approach. Levmet enhances our market-making capabilities while adding physical commodities and a strong, experienced management team that we know well. Webb Traders similarly adds capabilities in equity derivatives market making, and will allow us to internalize hedging activity within our structured products business, which we expect to support further margin expansion. As I said at Investor Day, we are increasingly the acquirer of choice based on the successful acquisitions we have enjoyed as part of Marex.

Speaker 2

Our M&A pipeline remains strong, allowing us to be highly selective and to focus on opportunities where we have a high degree of confidence in the outcome. It is a disciplined and repeatable playbook. Acquire strategically relevant businesses at attractive valuations, integrate them onto the Marex platform, and grow their earnings over time. Finally, turning now to the role we are playing in the evolution of financial market infrastructure. These are exciting times, with innovation proceeding at pace. This is a great time for us as it plays to our strengths as an adaptable and nimble market participant with ability to get things done effectively for clients. On this slide, there are four examples which demonstrate how clients are increasingly looking to Marex to help them engage with these market changes.

Speaker 2

We are the first, and thus far only firm, to have solved the operational complexity of offering cross margining on U.S. Treasury futures cleared on CME, and cash U.S. Treasuries clearing via FICC with DTCC. This helps clients improve capital efficiency across their cash and futures positions. We are live with three clients and have more than 10 in the pipeline. In the quarter, we enabled clients to use USDC stablecoins as initial margin under a CFTC pilot program. This assists clients with collateral flexibility. We also set up and executed an on-chain repo transaction for a key client, utilizing tokenized U.S. Treasuries over the Canton Network. This capability facilitates the tokenization of a broad range of securities, not just U.S. Treasuries. These are essential building blocks for a robust digital asset prime offering, which we are developing.

Speaker 2

We are also working to support clients looking for access via an FCM to prediction markets, and expect to be clearing on Kalshi in the third quarter. We already have a strong pipeline of clients for this service. These initiatives demonstrate the trust clients place in us and our ability to solve problems to support real-world demand. These investments are also opening doors to new client relationships and ensure Marex remains at the forefront of market structure innovation. I'll now hand over to Rob to go through the financials.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Ian. Good morning, everyone. As Ian said, we're very pleased with the strength of our performance in the first half of the year, with $1.39 billion of revenue and $319 million of adjusted profit before tax in the first half. These results reflect the strength and scale of the business. The second quarter was another record for us, with revenues of $696 million, up 39% on last year, with each of our segments growing year-on-year. Total expenses increased by 35%, reflecting higher performance-related compensation on strong revenues, together with continued investment across the platform and the impact of acquisitions. Importantly, we continued to expand margins with adjusted profit before tax margin increasing to 23.8%. Adjusted profit before tax increased 56% to $166 million and was 9% above Q1 this year, our previous record.

Speaker 3

Adjusted return on equity remained very strong at 37.8%, while adjusted basic EPS increased 59% to $1.72 per share. Turning to reported results, profit after tax was $155 million, which included $28 million of non-operating items, including a $35 million gain recognized on the sale of the Winterflood Custody business. As the custody business was classified within discontinued operations, the gain is excluded from our adjusted results. However, it increases our profit after tax and therefore our shareholders' equity and is available to be deployed to support future growth. I'll now take you through the performance of each business segment, starting with clearing. Clearing delivered another strong quarter, with revenue increasing 16% year-on-year to $161 million. Average clearing client balances grew to $19.1 billion in Q2, significantly up from $14 billion in Q4 and the Q1 average of $16 billion.

Speaker 3

This drove a 31% increase in clearing net interest income as balance growth more than offset lower rates year-on-year. As we discussed on our last earnings call, the first half has been an unusual market environment that included increased activity from some of our larger trading clients, as well as higher exchange margin requirements. We have seen structural growth in balances from expanding relationships with existing clients and strong balance growth from new clients. The latter added around $1 billion of net new balances through to the start of August, and we remain confident in our pipeline for the remainder of the year. Net commission income remains stable despite a reduction in contracts clear compared to the second quarter of 2025, which had elevated volumes as a result of heightened activity following April tariff announcements.

Speaker 3

While in Q2 2026, as expected, client activity moderated somewhat from the exceptionally strong levels seen in the first quarter. Adjusted profit before tax increased 12% in the quarter with margins at 49%, demonstrating the underlying profitability of the clearing franchise. For the first half, revenue increased 16% to $299 million, and adjusted profit before tax increased 8%. This includes the impact of the isolated client default in January. Turning now to agency and execution. Agency and execution had another outstanding performance, with revenue increasing to $351 million, up 35% compared to the second quarter last year. Securities revenue increased 68% to $283 million, led by strong growth in prime, FX, and equities. Prime revenue increased to a record $120 million, driven by strong client demand and deeper institutional relationships.

Speaker 3

FX also delivered an outstanding quarter, benefiting from an expanding European client base and the continued success of Hamilton Court, while equities continued its strong momentum, particularly in derivatives. These performance more than offset lower energy revenues, following an exceptionally strong prior year comparator and lower market-wide exchange volumes compared to the highs of the first quarter this year. Overall, these results demonstrate the benefits of the investments we've made over a number of years. Prime services has become an increasingly important contributor to the group, supporting both revenue growth and a higher margin business mix. As a result, adjusted PBT increased 69% to $117 million in the quarter, with margin expanding to 33%. Market making also delivered another excellent quarter, with revenue increasing 106% year-on-year to $118 million. Performance was once again broad-based, with particularly strong contribution from metals and securities.

Speaker 3

Metal strength reflected continued client activity across both precious and base metals as developments in the Middle East created favorable trading opportunities. Securities also continued to benefit from the successful integration of Winterflood, which is performing strongly while creating new opportunities across the broader Marex platform. Energy benefited from higher client demand for hedging and favorable trading conditions compared to the prior year, albeit down from elevated first quarter levels. As a result, adjusted profit before tax increased to $45 million in the quarter, with the margin expanding to 38%. Finally, solutions, which delivered another strong quarter. Revenue increased 74% in the quarter, reflecting continued growth across hedging solutions and financial products, supported by favorable market conditions, where the prior year period was affected by lower client activity following the April 2025 tariff announcements.

Speaker 3

Hedging solutions continued to benefit from strong client demand across commodities and FX, while financial products reflected continued strong demand from clients in structured products and the investments we've made in our technology platform. As a result, adjusted profit before taxed increased almost four-fold to $25 million in the quarter, with margin increasing to 35%. Turning now to net interest income at the group level. In the second quarter, NII was $30 million, compared to $35 million in 2Q 2025, as higher interest expense more than offset the growth in interest income. Interest income grew by $24 million, reflecting $6.8 billion of higher average balances, which more than offset a 70 basis point reduction in the average Fed funds rate.

Speaker 3

However, higher interest expense related to the Group's two $500 million senior debt issuances completed in May 2025 and April 2026, and structured note issuance in solutions reduced net interest income overall. As we have said previously, we continue to hold significant liquidity headroom. While this creates a modest near-term headroom to Group NII, it is a deliberate choice that we view as a sensible insurance cost, positioning us to support clients and pursue future growth opportunities. NII decreased by $11 million compared with the first quarter, primarily reflecting the strategic deployment of excess liquidity into our market-related businesses. While much of this activity can be self-financing, our strong liquidity position enabled us to deploy house cash to support a portion of this growth.

Speaker 3

Although this can create some quarter-to-quarter variability in reported Group NII, the economics remain highly attractive with the benefits of this liquidity deployment reflected in our strong trading revenues. Importantly, our focus remains on growing sustainable client-driven NII, as demonstrated by the continued strength and growth of clearing NII. 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 $42.1 billion at the 30th of June, 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.

Speaker 3

To support the continued expansion of our client franchise, while maintaining leverage metrics consistent with an investment-grade profile, we issued $500 million of hybrid capital during the quarter. The hybrid strengthened our capital base and provided additional balance sheet capacity to support client growth. We continue to take a disciplined and prudent approach to capital and liquidity management. Following our Bermuda redomicile, while we are no longer subject to consolidated FCA capital and liquidity requirements, our philosophy remains unchanged, and we intend to continue to internally manage the business to similarly conservative standards. Turning first to capital, we continue to hold significant excess capital relative to our previous regulatory minimum. However, as you know, our key benchmark for capital allocation remains maintaining sufficient capital to support our investment-grade credit ratings with both S&P and Fitch.

Speaker 3

On that basis, our RAC ratio, or risk-adjusted capital ratio, at the end of June was approximately 12%, comfortably above the 10% level S&P defines as strongly capitalized and supportive of our investment-grade credit rating. Given our strong M&A pipeline and organic growth opportunities, we are comfortable with this headroom. On liquidity, we finished the quarter with $8.1 billion of funding sources, up from $6.2 billion at year-end. Liquidity headroom increased to $1.8 billion, providing substantial capacity above our internally assessed liquidity required and reinforcing the resilience of our funding profile. We also successfully issued $500 million of senior unsecured notes during the quarter, extending the maturity profile of our funding. Both the hybrid and senior debt issuances were significantly oversubscribed, attracting new investors to the Marex story and were executed at materially tighter spreads than our previous issuances, demonstrating the continued strength of market demand for our credit.

Speaker 3

Taken together, these actions further strengthen our capital, liquidity, and funding position, leaving us exceptionally well positioned to support our clients, capitalize on growth opportunities, and continue executing our strategy from a position of financial strength. Finally, closing with risk management. Average daily VAR increased to $5.8 million in the first half, reflecting the increased scale of the business and the exceptional market environment and opportunities. Importantly, 87% of trading days were profitable, with every week and every month generating positive revenue. On credit risk, we again had no realized credit losses in the quarter. Now I'll hand you back to Ian.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Rob. As you've heard, we continue to build a broader and more diversified business with significant structural growth and a growing contribution from higher-margin, infrastructure-intensive activities. This is increasing the earnings power of the firm, supporting margin expansion, and making our profits more resilient. We're deepening relationships with our largest clients, expanding our capabilities through disciplined acquisitions, and investing in technology and market structure innovation. In the second quarter, we have also positioned ourselves to support future growth and client activity with additional equity and more liquidity through the issuance of $500 million of hybrid capital and $500 million of senior unsecured notes. Our track record demonstrates the effectiveness of our strategy, with year-on-year profit growth in 19 of the last 20 quarters through a wide range of market environments.

Speaker 2

We are very pleased with the progress we've made, see considerable opportunities to continue growing from here, and remain very confident about our future prospects. With that, we'd be happy to take your questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one 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 Cowen. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Great. Thank you very much for taking the question and the expanded disclosure. They're both very helpful. Just maybe big picture question for you. When you guided to feel comfortable at the high end of the 10%-20% range, what kind of M&A contribution are you anticipating? Then secondarily, your margins came in quite strong quarter-on-quarter, year-on-year. Maybe update us on your thinking on where the long-term trajectory might sit. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Sure. Thanks, Bill. I think in terms of the growth, I think that we're not anticipating any kind of shift in how relevant that is in the sense that it's around 20% of our growth in the second quarter. While there's probably going to be some variability, we wouldn't anticipate any real change there. We have a really robust pipeline. We have some really attractive companies that we're looking at. We're actually really excited about the M&A that we're closing in 2026. I wouldn't expect anything different, and it's broadly in line. In terms of the margin, I think we're at the 24% range. That's higher than we've been operating at, as you note. The things that are driving that feel like they're still in place. I think all the things that we've talked about in the remarks will play through going forward.

Speaker 2

I think that what we're seeing in terms of mix, in terms of where the business is operating, the progress we're making with some of our investments, the way in which the investments are starting to generate returns, none of that I think is changing. I think that we're comfortable with where the margins are now. Over time, I could see those potentially continuing to increase, but if it is going to increase from these levels, in all likelihood, it'll be slow and steady rather than something that's dramatic.

Speaker 4

Great. Just as my follow-up, I have a question. One thing you mentioned that the skew of your adjusted profit for tax continues to move to the right, and you expect more of a bell curve including into July, if I heard you correctly.

Speaker 2

Yes.

Speaker 4

So, I was just wondering if you might be able to give us an update of how, excuse me, third quarter trends are unfolding relative

Speaker 2

Yeah

Speaker 4

to maybe pacing coming out of the second quarter. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Sure. Essentially what we're seeing in July and into the short portion of August is just a continuation of what we saw in the first half. It's just a maintenance of exactly what we've experienced. While there's obviously some potential for things to change, based on what we see at the moment, we see the firm continuing to operate at the levels we operated in the first half.

Speaker 4

Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Alex Blostein with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hey, good morning, everybody. Thank you for the question. I wanted to go back to slide 8, with some of that incremental client-level disclosure, which is definitely very helpful. Ian, could you maybe expand on sources of growth in the larger client buckets? When you talk about 57% growth in those clients that are generating over $5 million of revenues, can you just provide a little more granularity in the types of clients, the category

Speaker 2

Yeah

Speaker 5

of clients where you are seeing the most traction?

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 5

That's the question that probably comes up the most with investors.

Speaker 2

Yeah. Thanks, Alex. Well, look, I think that the 59% includes the fact that there are more clients that are doing more than $5 million with us. It's about the cohort that is delivering more revenue for us. Some of it is just the fact that more clients are in that cohort than were there previously, and that's a big part of what's driving it. The average is actually very consistent, so essentially what's driving it is more clients operating in that bucket.

Speaker 2

The range of clients in the bucket, though, is very heartening to see because it ranges, and includes commodity producers, commodity consumers, and then a large number of financial players, whether those be other banks that are looking for access to market liquidity, whether those are asset managers, whether those are some of the hedge funds, whether those are some of the real money, long-only funds. There's actually a very broad range of clients that are all seeing essentially the same thing, which is an opportunity to engage with the firm to a greater extent as we expand out into more products, more geographies. We deepen the relationship, we establish increased credibility. What we're seeing is the most established clients are actually increasing their business with us, and they're doing that in part because they're seeing such great service from us.

Speaker 2

There's a new group of people that are coming into the $5 million-plus bucket. They're almost naturally at the low end of that because they've just come in, and those are ones that we also look to grow over time.

Speaker 5

Got it. Thank you. My second question is around your prime brokerage business.

Speaker 2

Yes.

Speaker 5

It's been an incredibly solid environment for PB businesses really across the street. You've seen spreads and funding spreads in equities widen out quite substantially, and there's clearly concerns or questions around perhaps just capacity with-

Speaker 2

Yes

Speaker 5

balancing capacity with some of the larger banks, right? To what extent does that give you guys an opportunity to see a more structural growth in PB as capacities perhaps becomes more limited with some of the larger players? Then secondly to that, I would love to get just a little more granularity on the composition of the PB revenues and how much is coming from the lever ETF community.

Speaker 2

Sure. Look, what we're seeing in this business is maintenance of what we see in the third quarter as a continuation of the second. So we're not seeing a drop-off in balances. We're seeing maintenance of balances, and we're seeing maintenance of the spreads. As a business over that time period, it's probably double where it was a year ago. So we are seeing substantial growth. That growth is coming by broadening the number of players we have participating in the business, as well as increases in balances. But it's not just because we're getting bigger with a few players, it's actually that there's a broader group of people that now see us as an extremely credible player in the space and are coming onto the platform.

Speaker 2

I'm not quite sure what are the drivers here, whether it's lack of capacity at some of the big banks or whether it's the very specific capabilities we bring here. But I think that to the thrust of your question, I don't really see anything, in the short or medium term, that's going to cause us to not be able to continue to grow this in a sensible and prudent way. I think that there is tailwinds rather than headwinds with regard to this particular business. But obviously, we are cautious in how we or not cautious. We're careful in how we look to grow that out.

Speaker 5

Great. Thanks, Ian.

Speaker 2

I think actually, Alex, you did ask a little about additional components of it. I think what's really important to understand is it's not just one thing either. We have an outsourced trading business, we have a prime of prime business, and then we have an on-balance sheet prime business, and all three of those are growing and expanding. And that's our intention, is to build a broad capability that can service clients in a lot of different ways.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Chris Allen with KBW. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Yeah. Morning, everyone. Thanks for the question. I wanted to ask a little bit about the clearing balance growth. You noted it is driven by new client wins, increased client balances, and higher margin requirements. Just trying to think about the run rate going forward. I think Rob might have talked about $1 billion from new client wins. Can you just confirm that? Then when we think about margin requirements, they have been up, but they tend to normalize over time. So maybe you could help us think about the impact there and just your pipeline for continued growth from here.

Speaker 2

Yeah. All right. So I think that in terms of client balances, we would say what drives the margin requirement is actually more price than volatility. So while volatility might normalize, if prices remain in and around the levels that they are currently, then I think margin balances will stay, or margin requirements at the exchanges will stay, broadly where they are at the moment. What we see at play in terms of these balances is the factors that you describe. So, as prices are moving up and margin requirements are going up, that is certainly a driver of what the clients have to post to the exchange to support their existing business. Clearly, business is growing, and that is making a big difference for our existing clients. Then there are new clients.

Speaker 2

I think, as Rob said, we have added about $1 billion this year, and we see a healthy pipeline for the rest of the year. I think there probably is some unusual levels of trading activity from some of our clients in the first half of the year that potentially come off some amount. But we would hope that the other factors could offset what will essentially be a more normalizing set of environmental factors. So, we have seen a lot of growth. We think that these are reasonable levels to maintain and potentially grow. What would you add to that, Rob?

Speaker 3

I would say, the only other thing I would add, Ian, is that the majority of the growth in the second quarter came from outside of the U.S., which is very positive to see and underlines the strength of our franchise.

Speaker 6

Great. Thanks. Then, just as a follow-up, I wanted to ask about Compute Futures, which both CME and ICE are launching. Wondering if your clients are focused on how you are thinking about the potential opportunity there.

Speaker 2

I am not that familiar with Compute Futures, but as a general matter, I think that what we see is clients having genuine interest in having access through an FCM to alternative venues. Whether those are prediction markets or those are other venues that they can participate in, there does seem to be genuine interest. That is partly the market-making firms that want to have access to those, then there is a decent amount of hedge fund and other institutional interests. These do not feel like flash-in-the-pan kinds of things. These feel like so long as they have support from the regulators, these will be real markets that will have a lot of interest in them. Did that address your question?

Speaker 6

Yep, all good. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Chris.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Chris.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Ben Budish with Barclays. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Hi, good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. Maybe first, I just want you to talk a little bit about the metals market-making business. It looks like your revenues pretty meaningfully outperformed both CME volumes and LME volumes.

Speaker 2

Yep.

Speaker 7

I know there's always a function of volumes, this has to do with spreads, but maybe talk about what you saw in the quarter.

Speaker 2

Yep

Speaker 7

in that line item.

Speaker 2

Yeah. We're obviously extremely pleased with metals market making and market making more generally, under Simon's leadership. I think part of the insight there is, and I realize I'm going into slightly dangerous territory with this based on how people felt about these terms when I used them in Q1. But extraordinarily high levels of volatility are not necessarily the best environment to be operating in, particularly in market making. In many ways, the second quarter, which had high levels of volatility, but didn't have quite the same extremes, may actually be a better environment for market making. Exactly to your point, it's not just about volumes, it's also about what is the spread and the success that you have supporting your clients around their trading and what it is they're looking to do that determines where you come out.

Speaker 7

Okay, helpful. Then maybe on the solutions business, you called out some pretty robust growth in the first half of the year. It looks like things have really structurally stepped up and you alluded to a pickup in client activity, but you've also in the past talked about expanding distribution, Latin America, and some other geographies.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 7

Maybe similarly, if you could unpack what you're seeing there. Are we at the right run rate, and how much is maybe new geographies, new distribution partners versus just heightened levels of activity? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I think that what we see in solutions is the output of a variety of factors. Again, I think it all speaks to our confidence in future growth for that business. I think that it's some of the factors that you've asked about, which is we are expanding, we're adding headcount, we're adding capabilities in different geographies, we're adding some product capabilities. What you also have over time is just an acceptance of the name, and the calling efforts often just take a while to generate initial interest. Then once you've done the first trade, you really are in a position where you can establish a relationship, and sell additional products to that relationship. Some of this is just a natural evolution of a business that has to establish itself in a geography or in a particular product.

Speaker 2

The other thing that I would say about solutions is, we did invest in essentially completely re-platforming the business. That was a distraction for a period of time in the sense that management needed to spend a lot of time making sure that that went well. What that has done also is created a lot of capacity and capability, so we're supporting much higher volumes. When you couple with that capability, the emphasis in the business on creating straight-through processing and the opportunity for clients to essentially structure things themselves and then execute on our platform. That's supporting a lot of additional volume that doesn't require a lot of intervention from any of the folks in the solutions business.

Speaker 2

The combination of all those things, the investment, the expansion, the ongoing acceptance of the Marex name, the progress that the team have made with clients as well as the investments we've made in technology and making that technology available to our clients. That in combination is what's driven the growth, and don't see that stopping. We see that continuing.

Speaker 7

Okay, great. Thanks so much, Ian.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Alex Kramm with UBS. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Yes. Hey, good morning, everyone. I just wanted to come back to the slide with some of the new initiatives. I know you just addressed this a little bit when Chris asked this question.

Speaker 2

Yes.

Speaker 8

But a couple of things here. One, on the treasury clearing, good to see that you're a frontrunner there. Any early reads of what is happening there? Are you actually monetizing this? I know it's early days, but are people putting more balances to you? Are they trading more because they're having savings? Just a little bit of more color what exactly is happening on the treasury clearing side. Then broad on that slide, which one of those do you think can actually scale the most, those opportunities from a revenue and earnings perspective? What are you most excited about, I guess, on those four?

Speaker 2

Yeah. All right. So look, with regard to the cross-margining, I actually think that the biggest impact of that will be just the credibility that we build in the marketplace with sophisticated players that CME and FHFA have been trying to have this cross-margining available to clients. And we were the ones who figured that out for our clients. And I think that that just positions us differently in the eyes of clients. And that in and of itself is the thing that's going to probably be the most consequential outcome of this. What we are seeing, though, to your specific question is, we are seeing larger shares of people's business in this particular space, and it does monetize effectively.

Speaker 2

It's not going to be an enormous mover of revenue and profitability, but it's attractive, and it's good business. Most importantly, it sort of establishes us with some of those clients. I think as I described at Investor Day, the whole set of digital asset prime brokerage capabilities is one that I believe is important for us to participate in. In the sense that there's an ecosystem out there and a set of people who sort of play in this particular space, and by providing these set of services to them, you can actually generate a really nice business. And if it turns out that this actually is the beginning of, I don't know, rewiring the financial infrastructure, and it's all going to go tokenized, then we'll be extremely well-positioned.

Speaker 2

So we're not doing this because we're evangelists on this, and we have a clear view that that's going to happen. I mean, it might happen, it might not happen. I don't know. I do have very high degree of confidence that we will make good money for those people who clearly do believe that this is what their business is and what they want to do. And so it makes sense for us to do that, and it'll be profitable business. I think, highly profitable business, probably. And that's really the basis under which we're making that investment. Prediction markets are sort of interesting to me in the sense that of all of these things, I think that depending on how different parts of this play out, this potentially could be very large. And I think it could represent a change in where liquidity resides.

Speaker 2

Now, from our perspective, if we're providing the layer that connects people to essentially exchanges, we're largely indifferent between where that volume actually resides. I mean, I do think that it'll reside on regulated exchanges rather than the offshore venues. I mean, there will be demand for offshore venues in the sense that there will be some retail players for whom that will be fine. But I think for most institutional players, they're looking for rules around seg and protections and visibility and all that kind of stuff. So I think the whole institutional market will remain with exchange-like venues. But whether there's a multiplicity of exchange venues over time, I can't say. But broadly, however that evolves, I think Marex is going to be in a very good place.

Speaker 2

Depending on how much prediction markets capture or are responsive to real demand that exists for hedging products and other things, this could actually be quite large. We are excited about being able to start to clear some of the prediction markets in the third quarter. We have a lot of interest from clients to gain access to that. They do not want direct access. They want to go through an FCM, again, that is helpful from our point of view.

Speaker 8

Great. Thanks. Very interesting. Thank you for that.

Speaker 2

Thanks.

Speaker 8

Just a very quick follow-up, maybe a little nitpicky, but obviously good traction on the margins, but I think the one soft spot is in the clearing segment. I think those margins have actually kind of trended lower on a trailing 12-month basis. Maybe just tell us what is happening there. Is there more investments? Are you bringing on new teams that are maybe not profitable yet? Just what is going on, this is something that could still scale higher.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I think that the real answer to that, Alex, is just we had an idiosyncratic loss in the first quarter, that dropped margins in the first quarter. If you look at our margins around the other quarters, it is actually 49, 50-ish over the entire period. I mean, there is really nothing that I would draw attention to say we think that the underlying margin in the business is sort of declining. It feels like it is 50-ish, that is a really healthy margin for that business.

Speaker 8

Fair enough. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Great.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Dan Fannon with Jefferies. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 9

Thanks. Good morning. I was hoping to discuss a little bit more about the Prime business. Obviously, a lot of growth. You talked about some of the durability. I was hoping to maybe unpack that a bit in terms of the type of customer and firm that you're having most success and where you have the right to win, and ultimately, just trying to get a little bit more context around the durability of these balances as you think about the diversity in other areas.

Speaker 2

Well, I think that in terms of durability, I think that what we're seeing is share gains. I think that in almost all environments that I can envisage, I see the share gains persisting. I think that we're not competing for the largest Prime mandates, which I think end up at the large banks. But we are taking share with funds and with hedge funds that are in that sort of $500 million to $2 billion range, where we're providing them with the products that they're looking for, and we're also providing them with very high-quality service. I think that as more and more people are aware that we're extremely skilled in the space, we know what we're doing, we're reliable, we build more record with more clients, I think that that's going to drive ongoing share gains. So it's now an extremely diversified business.

Speaker 2

That's covering an enormous number of stocks, lots of different providers. I think that it feels like the durability is there. Obviously, what we saw in the second quarter was balances increased and then dropped a bit as a result of adjustment in pricing in some of the more volatile stocks. On average, this thing is double where it was, and we don't see anything that's going to cause that to really change in any obvious way.

Speaker 9

Understood. Thanks for that. Within agency and execution, you had another really strong quarter. FX was a bit of a standout. Anything in particular that you could point to that drove that in the quarter?

Speaker 2

Yeah. You saw it on that M&A slide. Hamilton Court has really turned into a real gem for the firm. I think it shows the power of taking what's a good business, but one that's struggling because it's just not that big, and how effective it can be when you put it inside Marex, and it gets the benefit of our risk frameworks, our way of operating, the discipline that we have as a firm, the fact that they don't have to focus as much on those things, and as a business, they can focus more of their attention on winning clients and doing more business with them. What you're seeing in the FX is partly what we're seeing in Hamilton Court, which is just a great success and a very substantial growth in earnings.

Speaker 9

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Patrick Moley with Piper Sandler. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 10

Yes. Thanks for taking the question. A lot of great questions asked here. Maybe just one on the M&A pipeline.

Speaker 2

Yep.

Speaker 10

Curious how much of the focus going forward is going to be on adding capabilities to deepen wallet share with existing clients versus expanding the funnel and opening yourselves up to new client verticals that are somewhat untapped. Then maybe if you could just also talk about which new verticals, asset classes you're most focused on today. Thanks.

Speaker 2

So look, I think that it's hard to take what's a whole portfolio of M&A opportunities that we're evaluating and say how much is in increasing the funnel versus positioning ourselves to deepen. I think most of what we would be doing, though, is in the increasing the funnel, whether that's a geographic expansion, which I think of as predominantly about adding new clients or some of the things that we're considering, which at their heart is about getting us into new activity that we're not in or we're in very small scale, and what it does is it adds clients. So I'd say probably some genuine skew towards increasing the funnel rather than putting us in a position to deepen.

Speaker 2

I think that in terms of some of the things that we're focused on, I think as we look across the platform, there are, particularly in the capital markets area, some asset classes where building it out organically is slow and hard work. If we could accelerate some of that with acquisitions, then we would. Those are things that if you can get the right firm at the right price, and the cultures match in the right way, that's probably where if you could only do one thing, you'd do that thing rather than something else.

Speaker 10

Okay, great. Thanks for that. You made another interesting comment talking about prediction markets and some of the new market structure initiatives and said that the new client relationships that it's opening you up to. I'm just curious on maybe prediction markets in general, and those clients wanting access to an FCM that can get them access to the liquidity pools. How much of that is coming from customers that might not typically be in your core customer base of commodity producers and consumers, asset managers, market makers? How much of it is from a more diversified set of corporates where this is maybe just a totally new greenfield opportunity?

Speaker 2

Yeah. Interestingly, when I was making that comment, I was thinking more about the digital asset stuff. When you're thinking about some of the very sophisticated hedge funds that you don't have a natural in with at this point, the capabilities around digital assets are often the thing that are intriguing to them. The fact that we're offering that is often the door opener for us to other broader business. That's probably more true than what I would say around prediction markets. Our engagement with prediction markets at the moment is quite limited. In terms of sort of the pipeline for prediction markets, some of it is our existing clients, and in a few cases it's new clients, but in there, it's sort of financial players we would've wanted to have as clients more broadly.

Speaker 2

The entrée for us is that they're looking for access to a prediction market.

Speaker 10

Okay, great. Thanks for that color.

Speaker 2

No problem.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Ian Lowitt, CEO, for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Well, thanks everybody. Thanks for all the questions. As I'm sure you've appreciated, we're very pleased with how we did in the second quarter. We're obviously very pleased with how we did in the first half. We drew attention to elements in our track record, which again, we have a lot of pride in the 19 out of 20 quarters being up year-on-year. Hopefully, what you've gathered from the answers to the questions is we're excited about the second half and where we're able to take the firm. We see a lot of momentum. We see a lot of positivity, and we're in a virtuous circle of making progress with clients that creates more opportunity, and that in and of itself creates more growth and creates a basis for additional investment.

Speaker 2

We are very pleased with where we have got to and extremely excited about our future. Thank you all.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

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