(SNEX) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to the StoneX Group Inc. Q4 Fiscal Year '22 Earnings Conference Call (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. And I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Bill Dunaway, Chief Financial Officer. Sir, please go ahead.

歡迎來到 StoneX Group Inc. Q4 財政年度 '22 收益電話會議（操作員說明）請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。現在，我想將會議交給您今天的發言人，首席財務官 Bill Dunaway 先生。先生，請繼續。

Good morning. My name is Bill Dunaway. Welcome to our earnings conference call for our fourth quarter ended September 30, 2022. After the market closed yesterday, we issued a press release reporting our results for our fourth fiscal quarter of 2022. This release is available on our website at www.stonex.com as well as a slide presentation, which we will refer to on this call and our discussions of our quarterly and year-to-date results. You will need to sign on to the live webcast in order to view the presentation. The presentation and an archive of the webcast will also be available on our website after the call's conclusion. Before getting underway, we are required to advise you and all participants should note that the following discussion should be taken in conjunction with the most recent financial statements and notes thereto, as well as the Form 10-K to be filed with the SEC.

早上好。我的名字是比爾·唐納威。歡迎參加我們截至 2022 年 9 月 30 日的第四季度財報電話會議。昨天收市後，我們發布了一份新聞稿，報告了我們 2022 年第四財季的業績。該新聞稿可在我們的網站 www.stonex 上獲取。 com 以及幻燈片演示，我們將在本次電話會議以及討論季度和年初至今的業績時參考。您需要登錄網絡直播才能觀看演示文稿。電話會議結束後，還將在我們的網站上提供網絡廣播的演示文稿和存檔。在開始之前，我們需要告知您和所有參與者應注意，以下討論應與最新的財務報表及其附註以及將提交給美國證券交易委員會的 10-K 表格一起進行。

This discussion may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which are detailed in our filings with the SEC. Although the company believes that its forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions regarding its business and future market conditions, there can be no assurances that the company's actual results will not differ materially from any results expressed or implied by the company's forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Readers are cautioned that any forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance.

本討論可能包含經修訂的 1933 年證券法第 27A 條和經修訂的 1934 年證券交易法第 21E 條含義內的前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述涉及已知和未知的風險和不確定性，我們在提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中對此進行了詳細說明。儘管公司認為其前瞻性陳述是基於對其業務和未來市場狀況的合理假設，但無法保證公司的實際結果不會與公司前瞻性陳述中明示或暗示的任何結果存在重大差異.公司不承擔公開更新或修改任何前瞻性陳述的義務，無論是由於新信息、未來事件或其他原因。請讀者註意，任何前瞻性陳述都不是對未來業績的保證。

With that, I'll now turn the call over to Sean O'Connor, the company's CEO.

有了這個，我現在將電話轉給公司首席執行官肖恩奧康納。

Thanks, Bill. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us on our earnings call. During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022, we continue to see the effects of inflationary pressures on the global markets, sharp increases in short-term interest rates and continued volatility in both financial and physical commodities markets. This has been a great fourth quarter for us and a truly exceptional and record-setting year for the company overall, validating our strategy and demonstrating the earnings power of our franchise. Recorded operating revenues of $583.4 million, up 50% versus the prior year, and total expenses were up 25% from a year ago and up 6% sequentially. This resulted in net income of $52.3 million, up 616% over the last year. Diluted EPS came in at $2.49, which is a 592% which produced a 19.8% ROE.

謝謝，比爾。大家早上好，感謝您加入我們的財報電話會議。在 2022 財年第四季度，我們繼續看到通脹壓力對全球市場的影響、短期利率的急劇上升以及金融和實物商品市場的持續波動。這對我們來說是一個偉大的第四季度，對整個公司來說也是真正非凡和創紀錄的一年，驗證了我們的戰略並展示了我們特許經營權的盈利能力。營業收入為 5.834 億美元，同比增長 50%，總支出同比增長 25%，環比增長 6%。這導致淨收入為 5230 萬美元，比去年增長 616%。稀釋後每股收益為 2.49 美元，為 592%，產生 19.8% 的股本回報率。

Turning to Slide 3 in the earnings deck. For the fourth quarter, we realized very strong revenue growth of over 30% in each of our products, except for listed derivatives, which was up 12%. Interest and fee income on client balances was up 522% as we started to see the impact of increased interest rates off the back of a 50% increase in our total client float, which now stands at $8.6 billion. This revenue increase was driven by strong double-digit increases in transaction volumes across the board. The higher market volatility caused spreads to widen, resulting in improved revenue capture in the products where we act as a principle. The rate per contract for listed derivatives was down 4% versus the prior year, largely due to a business mix where we had a higher proportion of institutional volume versus commercial volume.

轉到收益面板中的幻燈片 3。第四季度，除上市衍生品增長 12% 外，我們每項產品的收入都實現了 30% 以上的強勁增長。客戶餘額的利息和費用收入增長了 522%，因為我們開始看到利率上升的影響是由於我們的總客戶浮動量增加了 50%，目前為 86 億美元。這一收入增長是由全面交易量兩位數的強勁增長推動的。較高的市場波動性導致利差擴大，從而提高了我們作為原則的產品的收入獲取。上市衍生品的每份合約費率與上一年相比下降了 4%，這主要是由於我們的業務組合中機構交易量與商業交易量的比例更高。

Moving on to Slide 4. For the fiscal year as a whole, it was a very similar picture with product volumes up across the board and revenue capture up except for a slight decline in the rate per contract on listed derivatives and non-securities. All of this data point towards increased client engagement, driven by volatility as well as continued strong growth in our underlying client base. It is notable that 65% of the annual increase in interest on our client float was received in just the fourth quarter.

轉到幻燈片 4。對於整個財政年度，這是一個非常相似的畫面，產品數量全面增加，收入增加，除了上市衍生品和非證券的每份合約費率略有下降。所有這些數據都表明客戶參與度在波動以及我們的潛在客戶群持續強勁增長的推動下有所提高。值得注意的是，僅在第四季度就收到了我們客戶浮動利息年度增長的 65%。

Turning to Slide 5, and a summary of our fourth quarter and full fiscal year results. As I mentioned earlier, we recorded revenues of $583.4 million, up 50% versus the prior year. Total compensation and other expenses were up 25% for the quarter, with variable compensation up 53%, in line with revenue growth. Fixed compensation and related costs increased 3% from a year ago. The resulting net income of $52.3 million is up 616% and diluted EPS of $2.49 is up 592% for a 19.8% ROE. This would accrete to a 21.6% ROE on tangible equity. We realized record operating revenues for our commercial and institutional segments. In comparison with the immediately preceding quarter, our operating revenue was up 10%. Our net income was up 7%, and our diluted EPS was up 5%.

轉到幻燈片 5，以及我們第四季度和整個財年業績的摘要。正如我之前提到的，我們錄得 5.834 億美元的收入，比上一年增長 50%。本季度總薪酬和其他費用增長 25%，可變薪酬增長 53%，與收入增長一致。固定薪酬及相關成本較上年同期增長 3%。由此產生的淨收入為 5230 萬美元，增長了 616%，稀釋後每股收益為 2.49 美元，增長了 592%，淨資產收益率為 19.8%。這將增加 21.6% 的有形股本 ROE。我們的商業和機構部門實現了創紀錄的營業收入。與上一季度相比，我們的營業收入增長了 10%。我們的淨收入增長了 7%，稀釋後的每股收益增長了 5%。

Looking at the summary for the full-year. This was a record year for us in almost every metric. Our operating revenues were a record $2.1 billion, up 26% over the prior year. Our net income was $207.1 million, up 78%. Our diluted EPS was $10.01 for the full-year, up 74%. And ROE was 21% despite equity increasing 39% over the last 2 years. On a tangible equity basis, our ROE was over 23%. Our financial results were boosted by higher interest and fee income on our client float as short-term rates increased over the period, although the majority of our increase, as I said earlier, came in just the fourth quarter. This is obviously due to the speed and scale of the interest rate increases as well as the fact that our interest-earning assets generally take about 45 days to reprice to new rates. Our average yield on our client float was 84 basis points for the year overall and 193 basis points for the fourth quarter. We are likely to see a continued ramp-up of our interest earnings on the float as we continue to reprice our client float at the current rates. We ended Q4 '22 with a book value of $52.70.

查看全年總結。對於我們來說，幾乎所有指標都創下了紀錄。我們的營業收入達到創紀錄的 21 億美元，比上一年增長 26%。我們的淨收入為 2.071 億美元，增長 78%。全年稀釋後每股收益為 10.01 美元，增長 74%。儘管股本在過去兩年中增長了 39%，但股本回報率為 21%。在有形股權基礎上，我們的股本回報率超過 23%。我們的財務業績受到我們客戶浮動利息和費用收入增加的推動，因為在此期間短期利率上升，儘管正如我之前所說，我們的大部分增長僅出現在第四季度。這顯然是由於加息的速度和規模，以及我們的生息資產通常需要大約 45 天才能重新定價到新利率。全年我們客戶流通量的平均收益率為 84 個基點，第四季度為 193 個基點。隨著我們繼續以當前利率為客戶浮動利率重新定價，我們可能會看到浮動利率收益持續增加。我們以 52.70 美元的賬面價值結束了 22 年第四季度。

Turning now to Slide 6, our segment summary. I just want to touch on a few highlights before Bill get into more detail. For the quarter, segment operating revenue was up 51% and segment income was up 72%, with a very strong performance across all our client segments. Our commercial client segment was up 82% in segment income off the back of a 40% increase in operating revenues, with strong performances from our physical metals and ag and energy business as well as OTC derivatives and, of course, higher interest rates. Our Institutional segment realized an 87% increase in revenues, which translated to an 84% increase in segment income. This is largely due to a much improved performance from our security business versus a weak quarter a year ago, as well as the increase in interest and fee income.

現在轉到幻燈片 6，我們的細分摘要。在 Bill 詳細介紹之前，我只想談幾個要點。本季度，部門營業收入增長了 51%，部門收入增長了 72%，我們所有客戶部門的表現都非常強勁。由於營業收入增長 40%，我們的商業客戶部門的部門收入增長了 82%，這得益於我們的實物金屬、農業和能源業務以及場外交易衍生品的強勁表現，當然還有更高的利率。我們的機構部門實現了 87% 的收入增長，這轉化為部門收入增長了 84%。這主要是由於我們的安全業務的業績與一年前的疲軟季度相比有了很大改善，以及利息和費用收入的增加。

Retail had another solid quarter, with operating revenue up 18%, driving segment income up 70%, demonstrating the operational leverage we have with the digital platform. Global Payments revenue was up 29% and segment income up 33% with double-digit increases in both volumes and revenue structure. For the full fiscal year, segment operating revenue was up 26% and segment income was up 33%, again with strong performances across all of our client segments. Operating revenues were up more than 20% in each of our segments. Segment income showed similar increases with the exception of Institutional, which was up 4%. These are strong quarterly results across all product groups and across all segments. But as we have said repeatedly, we like to take a long-term view on how we manage the company and grow our franchise. As such, we believe that the best way to gauge our results and progress is to look at longer-term performance, such as the trailing 12-month results rather than specific quarters taken in isolation.

零售業又迎來了一個穩健的季度，營業收入增長 18%，推動分部收入增長 70%，展示了我們對數字平台的運營影響力。全球支付收入增長 29%，分部收入增長 33%，交易量和收入結構均實現兩位數增長。在整個財政年度，部門營業收入增長 26%，部門收入增長 33%，我們所有客戶部門的表現同樣強勁。我們每個部門的營業收入都增長了 20% 以上。除機構業務增長 4% 外，其他部門的收入也出現了類似的增長。這些都是所有產品組和所有細分市場的強勁季度業績。但正如我們反复說過的那樣，我們喜歡從長遠角度看待我們如何管理公司和發展我們的特許經營權。因此，我們認為衡量我們的業績和進展的最佳方式是查看長期業績，例如過去 12 個月的業績，而不是孤立地看待特定季度。

Turning to Slide 7, which sets out our trailing 12-month financial performance. Just to note, these numbers have been adjusted for the accounting treatment related to the Gain on acquisition as disclosed in our prior filings, which appear in the reconciliation provided on the last page of this earnings pages. On the left-hand side, the bars represent our trailing 12-month operating revenue over the last 9 quarters. As you can see, this has been a smooth and strongly upward trend as we have steadily expanded our footprint and capabilities. Our revenues are up 61% over this period for a compound annual growth rate of 27%. Our adjusted pretax income likewise has grown significantly with a 42% CAGR. On the right-hand side, you can see our adjusted net income in the bars, which is up 116% over the 2 years for a 47% CAGR. The dotted line represents our ROE, which has remained above our 15% target, even though our capital has grown by 39% over this period. Lastly, you may have noticed the performance of the presentation has changed as we roll out a brand refresh. This will include a cleaner logo and an updated and more contemporary reflection of the organization that StoneX has become.

轉到幻燈片 7，其中列出了我們過去 12 個月的財務業績。請注意，這些數字已經根據我們之前提交的文件中披露的與收購收益相關的會計處理進行了調整，這些文件出現在本收益頁最後一頁提供的對賬中。在左側，條形代表我們過去 9 個季度過去 12 個月的營業收入。正如您所看到的，隨著我們穩步擴大我們的足跡和能力，這是一個平穩而強勁的上升趨勢。在此期間，我們的收入增長了 61%，複合年增長率為 27%。我們調整後的稅前收入同樣以 42% 的複合年增長率顯著增長。在右側，您可以在條形圖中看到我們調整後的淨收入，在 2 年內增長了 116%，複合年增長率為 47%。虛線代表我們的股本回報率，儘管我們的資本在此期間增長了 39%，但仍高於我們 15% 的目標。最後，您可能已經註意到，隨著我們推出品牌更新，演示文稿的表現發生了變化。這將包括一個更簡潔的徽標，以及對 StoneX 已成為的組織的更新和更現代的反映。

With that, I'll hand you over to Bill Dunaway for a discussion of the financial results. Bill?

有了這個，我會把你交給 Bill Dunaway 來討論財務結果。賬單？

Thank you, Sean. I'll be starting on Slide #8, which shows our consolidated income statement for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022. Sean covered many of the consolidated highlights for the quarter, so I will just highlight a few and then move on to a segment discussion. Transaction-based clearing expenses were up 7% to $69.1 million in the current period, primarily due to the increase in securities ADV and listed derivative contract volumes. Introducing broker commissions declined 6% to $37.4 million in the current period as an increase in IB commissions from listed derivatives were more than offset by decreases in independent wealth management and retail FX and CFD business. Interest expense increased $63.5 million versus the prior year, primarily as a result of $44.5 million increase in interest expense related to our institutional fixed income and securities lending activities as well as a $13.7 million increase in interest paid declines on the deposits as a result of the increase in short-term interest rates.

謝謝你，肖恩。我將從幻燈片 #8 開始，它顯示了我們 2022 財年第四季度的綜合損益表。Sean 介紹了本季度的許多綜合亮點，所以我只強調一些，然後繼續進行細分討論.本期基於交易的清算費用增長 7% 至 6,910 萬美元，這主要是由於證券 ADV 和上市衍生品合約量的增加。本期介紹經紀人佣金下降 6% 至 3740 萬美元，因為上市衍生品的 IB 佣金增加被獨立財富管理和零售外匯及差價合約業務的減少所抵消。利息支出比上一年增加了 6350 萬美元，這主要是由於與我們的機構固定收益和證券借貸活動相關的利息支出增加了 4450 萬美元，以及由於存款利息減少而增加了 1370 萬美元短期利率上升。

Interest expense on corporate funding increased $1.4 million versus the prior year, also a result of the increase in short-term rates. Variable compensation increased $44.7 million versus the prior year due to the increase in net operating revenues and represent 33% of net operating revenues in the current period compared to 32% in net operating revenues in the prior year period. Fixed compensation increased $2.6 million versus the prior year, with the growth principally related to salary and benefit cost of increased headcount, which increased 12% as compared to the prior year, which was partially offset by an increase in deferred compensation. Other fixed expenses increased $19.7 million as compared to the prior year to $106.4 million and were $4.7 million versus the immediately preceding quarter.

公司融資的利息支出比上一年增加了 140 萬美元，這也是短期利率上升的結果。由於淨營業收入的增加，可變薪酬比上一年增加了 4470 萬美元，佔本期淨營業收入的 33%，而去年同期占淨營業收入的 32%。固定薪酬較上年增加 260 萬美元，增長主要與員工人數增加帶來的工資和福利成本有關，較上年增長 12%，部分被遞延薪酬的增加所抵消。其他固定費用比上年增加 1970 萬美元，達到 1.064 億美元，比上一季度增加 470 萬美元。

As compared to the prior year, selling and marketing expenses increased $4.1 million and professional fees increased $2.3 million. The increase in selling and marketing primarily relates to an increase in digital marketing in our retail forex business. We have started to see increases in travel and business development, increasing $4.4 million as compared to the prior year. In addition, trade systems and market information increased $1.3 million, non-trading technology and support increased to $0.5 million and depreciated and amortization increased $2.5 million as compared to the prior year, with these increases part of our initiative to expand our digital offerings. We had bad debt expense net of recoveries of $4.4 million for the quarter versus $6.7 million in the prior year period. Net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 was $52.3 million and represented a 616% increase over the prior year and a 7% increase versus the immediately preceding quarter.

與上一年相比，銷售和營銷費用增加了 410 萬美元，專業費用增加了 230 萬美元。銷售和營銷的增加主要與我們零售外匯業務中數字營銷的增加有關。我們已經開始看到旅行和業務發展的增長，與上一年相比增加了 440 萬美元。此外，與上一年相比，貿易系統和市場信息增加了 130 萬美元，非交易技術和支持增加到 50 萬美元，折舊和攤銷增加了 250 萬美元，這些增加是我們擴展數字產品的舉措的一部分。本季度我們的壞賬費用扣除回收款後為 440 萬美元，而去年同期為 670 萬美元。 2022 財年第四季度的淨收入為 5230 萬美元，比上年增長 616%，比上一季度增長 7%。

Moving on to Slide #9. I will provide some information on our operating segments. As Sean noted earlier, it was a record quarter in our Commercial segment, adding $52.5 million in operating revenues versus the prior year and $15 million when compared to the immediately preceding quarter. Within this segment, listed derivative operating revenues declined $800,000 versus the prior year despite a 5% increase in contract volumes as a result of a 7% decline in the average rate per contract due to product mix. OTC derivative operating revenues were $49 million for the quarter, which was up $14.5 million versus the prior year quarter, primarily as a result of a 31% increase in the average rate per contract as well as a 10% increase in OTC derivative contract volumes, both of which were driven by continued volatility in agricultural, energy and soft commodities.

轉到幻燈片 #9。我將提供一些關於我們運營部門的信息。正如肖恩之前指出的那樣，這是我們商業部門創紀錄的一個季度，營業收入比上年增加了 5250 萬美元，比上一季度增加了 1500 萬美元。在該細分市場中，上市衍生品營業收入較上年下降 800,000 美元，儘管由於產品組合導致每份合約的平均費率下降 7%，導致合約量增加 5%。本季度場外衍生品營業收入為 4900 萬美元，比去年同期增加 1450 萬美元，這主要是由於每份合約的平均費率增長 31% 以及場外衍生品合約量增長 10%，這兩者都受到農業、能源和軟商品持續波動的推動。

Operating revenues from physical transactions increased $25.2 million compared to the prior year. As a result of a $13.3 million increase in precious metals operating revenues, as well as an $11.9 million increase in physical ag and energy operating revenues. Finally, interest earned on client balances increased $13.3 million versus the prior year as a result of a 28% increase in average client equity as well as an increase in short-term interest rates following recent set actions. Segment income was $80.2 million for the period, an increase over the prior year period and preceding quarter of 82% and 11%, respectively.

與上一年相比，實物交易的營業收入增加了 2520 萬美元。由於貴金屬營業收入增加 1330 萬美元，實物農業和能源營業收入增加 1190 萬美元。最後，由於平均客戶資產增加 28% 以及最近的固定行動後短期利率增加，客戶餘額所賺取的利息比上一年增加了 1330 萬美元。該期間的分部收入為 8020 萬美元，比去年同期和上一季度分別增長 82% 和 11%。

Moving on to Slide #10. Operating revenues in our Institutional segment increased $120.3 million versus the prior year. Primarily driven by a $73.5 million increase in securities operating revenues compared to the prior year period, resulting from a 60% increase in securities rate per million as well as an 18% increase in the average daily volume of securities transactions. This increase in securities ADV was primarily driven by increases in both equity and fixed income markets as a result of heightened volatility and increased market share. The increase in securities RPM was primarily driven by an increase in RPM and fixed income products, which is influenced by changes in interest rates. While the rise in interest rates positively impacted RPM for the quarter, it also resulted in an increase in interest expense for the period, which I will touch on momentarily. In addition, operating revenues increased $11.9 million and $2.4 million in listed derivatives and FX products, respectively, driven by continued volatility in global markets.

轉到幻燈片 #10。我們機構部門的營業收入比上一年增加了 1.203 億美元。主要受證券營業收入較上年同期增加 7350 萬美元的推動，這是由於每百萬證券費率增加 60% 以及平均每日證券交易量增加 18% 所致。證券 ADV 的增長主要是由於波動性加劇和市場份額增加導致股票和固定收益市場的增長。證券 RPM 的增加主要是由 RPM 和固定收益產品的增加推動的，後者受利率變化的影響。雖然利率上升對本季度的 RPM 產生了積極影響，但也導致了該期間的利息支出增加，我稍後會談到這一點。此外，在全球市場持續波動的推動下，上市衍生品和外匯產品的營業收入分別增加了 1190 萬美元和 240 萬美元。

Finally, interest and fee income earned on client balances increased $27.4 million versus the prior year as a result of the increase in short-term interest rates following recent Fed actions as well as increases in average client equity and average money market and FDI suite balances of 86% and 22%, respectively. As I mentioned earlier, the rise in short-term interest rates drove an increase in interest expense for the period with interest expense increasing $59 million versus the prior year. Interest expense related to trading and securities lending activities increased $44.5 million as compared to the prior year, while interest paid to clients increased $12.5 million.

最後，客戶餘額賺取的利息和費用收入比上年增加了 2740 萬美元，這是由於美聯儲最近採取行動後短期利率上升，以及平均客戶權益和平均貨幣市場以及 FDI 套房餘額增加的結果分別為 86% 和 22%。正如我之前提到的，短期利率的上升推動了這一時期的利息支出增加，利息支出比上一年增加了 5900 萬美元。與上一年相比，與交易和證券借貸活動相關的利息支出增加了 4,450 萬美元，而支付給客戶的利息增加了 1,250 萬美元。

Segment income increased 84% to $45 million in the current period as the result of a $52.2 million increase in net operating revenues. Variable compensation increased 66% or $20.1 million, in line with the growth in net operating revenues. Fixed compensation and benefits increased $2.2 million versus the prior year as we build out our product offering while other fixed expenses increased $9.2 million, primarily as a result of a $2.7 million increase in professional fees, a $1.7 million increase in trade systems and market information, a $600,000 increase in depreciation and amortization, a $0.5 million increase in travel and business development and a $400,000 increase in selling and marketing. Segment income declined $2.7 million versus the immediately preceding quarter.

由於淨營業收入增加 5220 萬美元，本期分部收入增加 84% 至 4500 萬美元。可變薪酬增長 66% 或 2010 萬美元，與淨營業收入的增長一致。隨著我們增加產品供應，固定薪酬和福利比上一年增加了 220 萬美元，而其他固定費用增加了 920 萬美元，這主要是由於專業費用增加了 270 萬美元，貿易系統和市場信息增加了 170 萬美元，折舊和攤銷增加 600,000 美元，差旅和業務發展增加 50 萬美元，銷售和營銷增加 400,000 美元。與上一季度相比，部門收入下降了 270 萬美元。

Moving to the next slide. Operating revenues in our Retail segment added $15.4 million versus the prior year, which was primarily driven by a $23.3 million increase in FX and CFD revenues as a result of a 57% increase in RPM, which was partially offset by a 7% decline in FX CFD average daily volume as compared to the prior year. Operating revenues from securities transactions and physical contracts declined $3.8 million and $5.4 million, respectively, as compared to the prior year period. Operating revenues in the Retail segment declined $6.7 million versus the immediately preceding quarter. Segment income increased $8.3 million versus the prior year, primarily as a result of the increase in net operating revenues. This was partially offset by a $1.8 million increase in fixed compensation and benefits and an $8.6 million increase in fixed expenses as compared to the prior year. The increase in other fixed expenses was primarily driven by a $2.9 million increase in selling and marketing, a $2.5 million increase in depreciation and amortization and a $700,000 increase in travel and business development. Segment income declined $6.1 million versus the immediately preceding quarter.

移動到下一張幻燈片。我們零售部門的營業收入比上一年增加了 1540 萬美元，這主要是由於每千次展示收入增加 57% 導致外彙和差價合約收入增加 2330 萬美元，這部分被外匯下降 7% 所抵消與上一年相比，CFD 平均每日交易量。與去年同期相比，證券交易和實物合約的營業收入分別下降了 380 萬美元和 540 萬美元。零售部門的營業收入與上一季度相比下降了 670 萬美元。分部收入比上年增加 830 萬美元，這主要是由於淨營業收入的增加。與上一年相比，固定薪酬和福利增加 180 萬美元，固定費用增加 860 萬美元，部分抵消了這一增長。其他固定費用的增加主要是由於銷售和營銷增加了 290 萬美元，折舊和攤銷增加了 250 萬美元，差旅和業務發展增加了 700,000 美元。與上一季度相比，部門收入下降了 610 萬美元。

Closing out the segment discussion. On the next slide, operating revenues in Global Payments added $9.9 million versus the prior year, driven by a 19% increase in the average daily volume and a 12% increase in the rate per million as compared to the prior year. Non-variable expenses increased $2.2 million and is primarily related to the expansion of our payment offerings. Segment income increased 33% to $24.4 million in the current period, however, represent a 1% decline versus the immediately preceding record third quarter of fiscal 2022.

結束分段討論。在下一張幻燈片中，Global Payments 的營業收入比上一年增加了 990 萬美元，這主要是由於與上一年相比，日均交易量增長了 19%，每百萬人的比率增長了 12%。固定費用增加了 220 萬美元，主要與我們支付產品的擴展有關。本期分部收入增長 33% 至 2440 萬美元，但與 2022 財年第三季度創紀錄的水平相比下降了 1%。

Moving on to Slide #13, which represents a bridge between operating revenues for the fourth quarter of last year to the current period across our operating segments. Overall operating revenues were $583.4 million in the current period, up $193.3 million or 50% over the prior year. I've covered the changes in operating revenues for our segments. However, the $4.8 million negative variance in revenues in unallocated overhead is primarily related to a negative variance in foreign currency revaluation and an FX hedge related unrealized loss.

轉到幻燈片 #13，它代表了去年第四季度營業收入與我們運營部門當前期間營業收入之間的橋樑。本期總營業收入為 5.834 億美元，比上年增長 1.933 億美元或 50%。我已經介紹了我們部門營業收入的變化。然而，未分配間接費用收入的 480 萬美元負變化主要與外幣重估的負變化和與外匯對沖相關的未實現損失有關。

The next Slide #14 represents a bridge from 2021 fourth quarter pretax income of $4.9 million to pretax income of $66.4 million in the current period. The negative variance at unallocated overhead of $9.5 million was driven by the $4.8 million negative variance in revenue I noted on the previous slide and a $10 million increase in variable compensation as a result of improved performance, which was partially offset by a $2.5 million decrease in fixed compensation and benefits and a $5 million decline in other fixed expenses.

下一張幻燈片 #14 代表了從 2021 年第四季度 490 萬美元的稅前收入到本期 6640 萬美元的稅前收入的橋樑。 950 萬美元的未分配間接費用的負差異是由於我在上一張幻燈片中提到的 480 萬美元的收入負差異以及績效改善導致可變薪酬增加 1000 萬美元，這部分被 250 萬美元的減少所抵消固定薪酬和福利以及其他固定費用減少 500 萬美元。

Finally, moving on to Slide #15, which depicts our average invested client balances and associated earnings by quarter as well as the table which shows the annualized interest rate sensitivity for a change in short-term interest rates. The interest rate earned on these client balances increased 124 basis points to 193 basis points for the current period. As noted in the table, we estimate a 100 basis point increase in short-term interest rates would increase net income by $28.4 million or $1.40 per share on an annualized basis.

最後，轉到幻燈片 #15，它按季度描述了我們的平均投資客戶餘額和相關收益，以及顯示短期利率變化的年化利率敏感性的表格。這些客戶餘額賺取的利率在當期增加了 124 個基點至 193 個基點。如表中所示，我們估計短期利率增加 100 個基點將使淨收入增加 2840 萬美元或按年化計算每股增加 1.40 美元。

With that, I would like to turn it back to Sean for a strategy discussion.

有了這個，我想把它轉回肖恩進行戰略討論。

Thanks, Bill. Before we get on to the next slide, I would just like to briefly touch on the GAIN transaction we concluded almost exactly 2 years ago, right in the middle of COVID, which was our largest acquisition to date. The logic at the outset was the retail clients of GAIN would bring flow in products we already trade that we could internalize with our existing trade flow as well as provide clearing services and additional products that they did not have access to, especially in the U.S. We have made excellent progress on all of this, as I'll touch on later. We also saw the opportunity for some easy cost synergies, most of which have been realized as well as acquiring quality incremental talent, especially on the digital marketing side.

謝謝，比爾。在我們進入下一張幻燈片之前，我想簡要介紹一下我們幾乎正好在 2 年前完成的 GAIN 交易，就在 COVID 的中間，這是我們迄今為止最大的收購。一開始的邏輯是 GAIN 的零售客戶將帶來我們已經交易的產品的流量，我們可以將這些流量與我們現有的交易流量內部化，並提供他們無法訪問的清算服務和其他產品，尤其是在美國。我們在所有這些方面都取得了很好的進展，我稍後會談到。我們還看到了一些簡單的成本協同效應的機會，其中大部分已經實現，並獲得了優質的增量人才，尤其是在數字營銷方面。

As you will remember, the COVID volatility handed us an unexpected windfall prior to the closing of the transaction, we significantly derisked the acquisition. Over the last 2 years, this business has exceeded the expectations we laid out for it at the time of the acquisition being buoyed by good market conditions. In addition, we executed well on all the integration objectives we laid out, and we now see retail trading flows a key part of our franchise.

您會記得，在交易結束之前，COVID 的波動給我們帶來了意想不到的意外收穫，我們大大降低了收購的風險。在過去的 2 年裡，在良好的市場條件的推動下，這項業務超出了我們在收購時為其製定的預期。此外，我們很好地執行了我們制定的所有整合目標，我們現在看到零售交易流是我們特許經營權的一個關鍵部分。

Turning now to Slide 16, which sets out our high-level strategic objectives that we are all focused on. We have included the slide before and I went through it in some detail at the end of fiscal 2021. So an annual review and update is probably appropriate. As we have mentioned before, we have seen an increase in the cadence and delivery of a lot of our key projects, and many of these are now through beta testing and have either been launched or are on the launch pad. Our approach is always to introduce and market our new capabilities on a steady incremental basis. None of these projects in isolation will result in a significant change to our current growth trajectory, and certain of these initiatives may not be viable in the long run. But in aggregate and over time, we believe that these initiatives will bend the growth curve upwards. And because many of them are digital in nature, we should see operational leverage and scalability start to kick in and a steady improvement in our margins.

現在轉到幻燈片 16，它列出了我們都關注的高級戰略目標。我們之前已經包含了這張幻燈片，我在 2021 財年末詳細介紹了它。因此，年度審查和更新可能是合適的。正如我們之前提到的，我們已經看到許多關鍵項目的節奏和交付有所增加，其中許多現在正在通過 Beta 測試，並且已經啟動或正在啟動台上。我們的方法始終是在穩定增量的基礎上引入和營銷我們的新功能。這些孤立的項目都不會導致我們當前的增長軌跡發生重大變化，而且從長遠來看，其中某些舉措可能不可行。但總的來說，隨著時間的推移，我們相信這些舉措將使增長曲線向上彎曲。而且由於其中許多本質上是數字化的，我們應該會看到運營槓桿和可擴展性開始發揮作用，並且我們的利潤率會穩步提高。

So looking at Slide 16, starting on the left-hand side, building our ecosystem. We want to stay relevant to our clients, existing and new by adding products and services and creating the best financial ecosystem to connect them to the global financial markets. On the equity side, we have now launched our electronic market-making platform to internalize and capture spread on domestic NMS equities while providing best execution. This is an area dominated by a limited number of large players, and our broker-dealer clients are interested in having alternative outlets for execution of these trades. We are leveraging our long-standing institutional relationships of over 20 years on the international equity side. We continue to successfully ramp up our number of clients as well as the number of names we execute on, and are seeing increasing crossing rates and incremental revenue.

所以請看幻燈片 16，從左側開始，構建我們的生態系統。我們希望通過增加產品和服務並創建最佳金融生態系統將他們與全球金融市場聯繫起來，與我們的現有和新客戶保持聯繫。在股票方面，我們現已推出電子做市平台，以內部化和捕獲國內 NMS 股票的價差，同時提供最佳執行。這是一個由數量有限的大型參與者主導的領域，我們的經紀自營商客戶有興趣擁有其他渠道來執行這些交易。我們正在利用我們在國際股票方面 20 多年的長期機構關係。我們繼續成功地增加我們的客戶數量以及我們執行的名稱數量，並且看到交叉率和增量收入的增加。

We are very pleased with the results and performance of our platform, and this is already accretive to the costs incurred. As we start to approach critical mass, this will start to add meaningful incremental revenues, and we continue to believe that this is a significant long-term opportunity for us. As mentioned in previous quarters, the addition of the higher-volume, lower-margin NMS stocks will affect our operational metrics for the securities side of our business. On the fixed income side, we have steadily been diversifying into different fixed income asset classes. This strategy paid off for us very well in recent quarters and provided resiliency to our revenues as the interest rate environment has changed. We have noticed a distinct change in perception from institutional investors as well as talent. We are now seen as a growing and successful fixed income franchise that can compete with the Tier 1 players.

我們對我們平台的結果和性能感到非常滿意，這已經增加了所產生的成本。隨著我們開始接近臨界質量，這將開始增加有意義的增量收入，我們仍然相信這對我們來說是一個重要的長期機會。正如前幾個季度所述，增加數量更多、利潤率更低的 NMS 股票將影響我們業務證券方面的運營指標。在固定收益方面，我們一直在穩步多元化，進入不同的固定收益資產類別。這一策略在最近幾個季度為我們帶來了很好的回報，並在利率環境發生變化時為我們的收入提供了彈性。我們注意到機構投資者和人才的看法發生了明顯變化。我們現在被視為可以與一級玩家競爭的不斷發展和成功的固定收益特許經營權。

We have made some crucial hires from larger players and seeing increased client adoption. The crypto market has gone through some ranching if predictable changes recently with consolidation and some of the access is being exposed. And perhaps we will see a smaller but more regulated markets started to merge where clients are looking for trusted partners. No matter what our individual thoughts are about this, it is likely to remain an asset class that some of our clients will want to access, both on the Institutional and the Retail side. We'll continue to support these clients by facilitating trading in a growing number of listed derivatives as well as public listed ETFs and other crypto industry participants. This is an incremental source of revenue for us, and we want to remain relevant to our clients by ensuring that we provide safe access to the (inaudible).

我們已經從更大的參與者那裡招聘了一些重要的員工，並看到客戶採用率有所提高。如果最近隨著合併發生可預測的變化並且一些訪問權限被暴露，那麼加密市場已經經歷了一些放牧。也許我們會看到一個更小但更規範的市場開始合併，客戶正在尋找值得信賴的合作夥伴。無論我們個人對此有何看法，它很可能仍然是我們的一些客戶想要訪問的資產類別，無論是在機構方面還是在零售方面。我們將通過促進越來越多的上市衍生品以及公開上市的 ETF 和其他加密行業參與者的交易來繼續支持這些客戶。這對我們來說是一個增量收入來源，我們希望通過確保我們提供安全訪問（聽不清）來保持與客戶的相關性。

Carbon trading is another growing market propelled by global ESG initiatives. Again, our primary role to date has been to provide our clients with access to all carbon trading instruments. In addition, we have a role in educating our clients on how best to participate in this marketplace. Many of our agricultural clients are the potential sources of carbon credits, which can be monetized. We have made good incremental progress and have a small but growing revenue stream and client base in carbon. StoneX recently became a member of the Nodal Exchange, which offers renewable fuse and gluten contracts to support an increasing focus on corporate sustainability and carbon neutrality. The users of these products include energy, refiners, distributors and producers to the energy traders and environmental, social and governance fund managers.

碳交易是全球 ESG 倡議推動的另一個不斷增長的市場。同樣，迄今為止，我們的主要職責是為我們的客戶提供所有碳交易工具。此外，我們還可以教育我們的客戶如何最好地參與這個市場。我們的許多農業客戶都是碳信用的潛在來源，可以將其貨幣化。我們已經取得了良好的漸進式進展，並且在碳方面擁有規模雖小但不斷增長的收入來源和客戶群。 StoneX 最近成為節點交易所的成員，該交易所提供可再生熔絲和麵筋合約，以支持對企業可持續性和碳中和的日益關注。這些產品的用戶包括能源、煉油廠、分銷商和生產商、能源交易商以及環境、社會和治理基金經理。

Our Payments business has made some key hires to develop the local currency paying business in Brazil, and we'll soon thereafter begin to expand into other jurisdictions. This will allow us to provide an end-to-end payment services for our large existing clients that have large in-country client bases. We can provide them an efficient way to get the dollars into the country as well as to collect the local payments from these clients to remit back to head office. This will be an attractive offering for these large corporate clients. On the Retail side, our international City Index platform will introduce cash trading and equities for all clients in Q1 2023. This platform already offers over 15,000 OTC products designed for active traders, and these same clients will now have access to investment products directly on our platform. This not only expands our product offering to these clients, but allows us to target a much larger universe of potential clients.

我們的支付業務已聘用了一些重要人員來發展巴西的本地貨幣支付業務，此後我們將很快開始擴展到其他司法管轄區。這將使我們能夠為擁有大量國內客戶群的大型現有客戶提供端到端支付服務。我們可以為他們提供一種有效的方式，將美元匯入該國，並從這些客戶那裡收取當地付款，然後匯回總部。對於這些大型企業客戶來說，這將是一個有吸引力的產品。在零售方面，我們的國際城市指數平台將於 2023 年第一季度為所有客戶推出現金交易和股票。該平台已經提供超過 15,000 種專為活躍交易者設計的場外交易產品，這些客戶現在可以直接在我們的網站上獲得投資產品平台。這不僅擴大了我們為這些客戶提供的產品，而且使我們能夠瞄準更大範圍的潛在客戶。

In the U.S., the different regulatory framework adds significant complexity to offering a multi-asset class trading platform with different regulators, legal entities and related protocols and challenges. StoneX One is our U.S.-based self-directed platform, allowing trading equity, equity options as well as listed derivatives and will also be launched in Q1 2023. This will be available as a mobile version as well as a desktop pro version with enhanced functionality. We'll soon have crypto NFX and physical gold to both international and domestic StoneX One platforms, making us a very unique cross-asset class execution capability. Longer term, we can leverage our wealth management capability by adding robo-advisory portfolio management and even estate planning options for our larger retail clients.

在美國，不同的監管框架大大增加了提供具有不同監管機構、法律實體和相關協議和挑戰的多資產類別交易平台的複雜性。 StoneX One 是我們位於美國的自主平台，允許交易股票、股票期權以及上市衍生品，也將於 2023 年第一季度推出。這將作為移動版本和具有增強功能的桌面專業版提供.我們很快將在國際和國內 StoneX One 平台上提供加密貨幣 NFX 和實物黃金，使我們具有非常獨特的跨資產類別執行能力。從長遠來看，我們可以通過為我們的大型零售客戶添加機器人諮詢投資組合管理甚至遺產規劃選項來利用我們的財富管理能力。

We continue to ensure that we offer broad access to products and marketplaces and exchanges that our clients want to access. We continue to offer new OTC products to address client needs and have invested in our technology stack to do this faster and more effectively. We are now introducing dozens of new products every month, some of which are new and industry-leading such as the cattle swaps contract we introduced into Australia. In addition to incremental revenue, this positions StoneX as the leading innovator focused on adding value to our clients.

我們繼續確保我們提供廣泛的訪問權限，以訪問我們的客戶想要訪問的產品和市場以及交易所。我們繼續提供新的 OTC 產品以滿足客戶需求，並投資於我們的技術堆棧以更快、更有效地做到這一點。我們現在每個月都會推出幾十種新產品，其中一些是新的和行業領先的，比如我們引入澳大利亞的牛掉期合約。除了增加收入外，這還將 StoneX 定位為領先的創新者，專注於為我們的客戶增加價值。

Moving on to our second strategic objective. We are a client-centric business, and we need to consistently work at growing our client footprint into new markets and expanding market share where we have existing clients. We'll also seek to serve new client segments and channels. We have all the capabilities to service clients of all types and have a large addressable market in front of us with very low market penetration currently. Obviously, as we enhance our financial ecosystem, we are able to offer a more compelling value proposition to our existing and potential clients. We continue to invest and grow our EU presence post-Brexit with an expanding office in Frankfurt to service our existing European-based clients and allowing us to more effectively market new clients in Europe, which may not be adequately covered post-Brexit.

繼續我們的第二個戰略目標。我們是一家以客戶為中心的企業，我們需要始終如一地努力將我們的客戶足跡擴大到新市場，並擴大我們擁有現有客戶的市場份額。我們還將尋求服務於新的客戶群和渠道。我們擁有為所有類型的客戶提供服務的所有能力，並且在我們面前有一個巨大的可尋址市場，目前市場滲透率非常低。顯然，隨著我們增強金融生態系統，我們能夠為現有和潛在客戶提供更具吸引力的價值主張。我們在英國脫歐後繼續投資和擴大我們在歐盟的業務，在法蘭克福擴大辦事處，為我們現有的歐洲客戶提供服務，並使我們能夠更有效地營銷歐洲的新客戶，這些客戶在英國脫歐後可能無法得到充分覆蓋。

Our Payments business has also launched its digital platform focused on small- and medium-sized Brazilian enterprises looking for a more efficient way to make international payments in both G20 plus non-G20 countries. We'll soon be launching this in Europe and the U.S. We are also adding our international payments capability to all of our existing internal platforms on the commercial side, further embedding ourselves with our existing commercial clients. During the coming year, we'll start to apply digital marketing resources to ramp-up adoption of this new digital payments platform. Over time, we will begin to offer these small- and medium-class corporations, our entire suite of hedging products, which will be an additional client channel for these products and services.

我們的支付業務還推出了數字平台，專注於尋求更有效方式在 G20 和非 G20 國家進行國際支付的巴西中小型企業。我們很快將在歐洲和美國推出這項服務。我們還將我們的國際支付能力添加到我們所有現有的商業方面的內部平台，進一步融入我們現有的商業客戶。在接下來的一年裡，我們將開始應用數字營銷資源來提高這個新數字支付平台的採用率。隨著時間的推移，我們將開始為這些中小型企業提供我們全套的對沖產品，這將成為這些產品和服務的額外客戶渠道。

The addition of cash equities to the index platform, as I mentioned earlier, as well as the multi-asset platform in the U.S., StoneX One will not only allow us to gain wallet share from existing clients, but allow us to more broadly market these platforms, dramatically increasing our addressable market. The pro version of these platforms should drive our business to our clearing custody and prime brokerage offerings as well. On the security side, we have very little client penetration outside of the U.S., despite our global product offering in both equities and fixed income. We have now added a small team in Asia and bolstered our presence in London. In addition, we are bolting our capabilities in London to enable a more fully fledged offering that.

正如我之前提到的，將現金股票添加到指數平台以及美國的多資產平台 StoneX One 不僅可以讓我們從現有客戶那裡獲得錢包份額，還可以讓我們更廣泛地推銷這些平台，大大增加了我們的潛在市場。這些平台的專業版也應該將我們的業務推向我們的清算託管和主要經紀產品。在安全方面，儘管我們在全球範圍內提供股票和固定收益產品，但我們在美國以外的客戶滲透率非常低。我們現在在亞洲增加了一個小團隊，並加強了我們在倫敦的業務。此外，我們正在鞏固我們在倫敦的能力，以提供更成熟的產品。

We will not achieve the necessary growth and scale unless we continue to embrace technology and digitize our business. This will not only enhance client engagement but increase scalability and margins. This initiative requires a rethink of our processes from front to back, which has been underway for some years now, but has accelerated with the acquisition of GAIN. Many of our product initiatives mentioned above our digital in nature, so I'll not mention them again. The advantage of digital offerings is that they dramatically expand your addressable market. Every client anywhere is a potential client, and it offers scalability and operational leverage to enhance margins. We are increasingly using technology on the trading side. All of our trading platforms are designed to aggregate trading flow and internalized spread so we can maximize the client revenue opportunity and minimize hedging costs.

除非我們繼續擁抱技術並將我們的業務數字化，否則我們將無法實現必要的增長和規模。這不僅會增強客戶參與度，還會增加可擴展性和利潤。這一舉措需要重新思考我們從前到後的流程，這已經進行了多年，但隨著收購 GAIN 而加速。我們上面提到的許多產品計劃本質上都是數字化的，所以我不會再提了。數字產品的優勢在於它們可以顯著擴大您的潛在市場。任何地方的每個客戶都是潛在客戶，它提供可擴展性和運營槓桿來提高利潤。我們越來越多地在交易方面使用技術。我們所有的交易平台都旨在聚合交易流量和內部化價差，以便我們可以最大限度地提高客戶的收入機會並最大限度地降低對沖成本。

As we gain critical mass and trading volumes, the impact on revenue capture can be significant and should drive our margins. This is the methodology behind our NMS electronic market making initiative, but is now also being applied more generically throughout all of our principal trading activities. We also spent considerable effort providing technology to help our clients be more effective and, in turn, become more valuable and stickier to us. During the year, we launched StoneHedge for our grain merchandising clients. This platform is deployed throughout the clients enterprise, allowing them to price an auto hedge grain purchases in real time from mobile devices. This platform is integrated into the enterprise accounting system, allowing all data to be shared instantly, driving efficiencies for our clients. This new platform provides trading efficiencies on our side and embeds us as a critical partner with our clients.

隨著我們獲得臨界質量和交易量，對收入獲取的影響可能會很大，並且應該會推動我們的利潤率。這是我們 NMS 電子做市計劃背後的方法，但現在也更普遍地應用於我們所有的主要交易活動。我們還花費了大量精力提供技術，以幫助我們的客戶提高效率，進而對我們變得更有價值和粘性更大。在這一年中，我們為我們的穀物銷售客戶推出了 StoneHedge。該平台部署在整個客戶企業中，使他們能夠通過移動設備實時為自動對沖穀物採購定價。該平台集成到企業會計系統中，允許即時共享所有數據，從而為我們的客戶提高效率。這個新平台為我們提供了交易效率，並使我們成為客戶的重要合作夥伴。

Some time ago, we launched a digital platform for our OTC in structured products to allow commercial hedging clients to run intricate scenarios to determine the best product for their needs and instantly get quotes. We are now planning to upgrade this platform to allow clients to instantly execute trades, which should further drive product adoption and increase efficiency on the trader. Our StoneX technology team provides technology support to our payments clients and bank counterparties by hosting their Swift connectivity. And in addition, we provide API connectivity to Swift. We also work to integrate our payments platform with our client enterprise systems, giving us the same stickiness.

前段時間，我們在結構性產品中推出了場外交易數字平台，讓商業對沖客戶可以運行複雜的場景來確定最適合他們需求的產品並立即獲得報價。我們現在正計劃升級該平台，讓客戶能夠即時執行交易，這將進一步推動產品採用並提高交易者的效率。我們的 StoneX 技術團隊通過託管 Swift 連接為我們的支付客戶和銀行對手方提供技術支持。此外，我們還提供與 Swift 的 API 連接。我們還致力於將我們的支付平台與我們的客戶企業系統集成，為我們提供同樣的粘性。

We are building out a full API storefront to allow more sophisticated clients to link directly into our systems and access the information they need in real-time. A lot of these projects are underpinned by the success of our data link, which allows any user to come to one place to get normalized data from our many systems of records. Instead of multiple point-to-point connections to the systems, information can be accessed from one place in near real-time in an easily consumable form. This was a massive undertaking given how diverse our business is with over 20 systems of record. We continue to see validation of this approach as many of our internal departments as well as our client plating platforms get an easily stand up applications. We continue to build and enhance the data lake as we expand our business.

我們正在構建一個完整的 API 店面，以允許更複雜的客戶直接鏈接到我們的系統並實時訪問他們需要的信息。這些項目中的很多都以我們數據鏈接的成功為基礎，它允許任何用戶來到一個地方從我們的許多記錄系統中獲取規範化數據。信息可以從一個地方以一種易於使用的形式近乎實時地訪問，而不是與系統的多個點對點連接。考慮到我們的業務具有 20 多個記錄系統的多樣性，這是一項艱鉅的任務。我們繼續看到這種方法的驗證，因為我們的許多內部部門以及我們的客戶電鍍平台都獲得了輕鬆站立的應用程序。隨著業務的擴展，我們將繼續構建和增強數據湖。

Over the last year or so, our risk management team has made significant strides and is able to more easily aggregate and analyze data with real-time monitoring to enhance the monitoring of risk across the entire organization. We have now also virtually completed a multiyear conversion to our new Oracle-based system for accounting in HR and are seeing meaningful efficiency even quicker and better access to granular information. We have a large number of other projects underway throughout many of our support areas to better use technology to create efficiency and scalability in our infrastructure to drive operational leverage. These include a contract management system for our legal team, technology to better track and monitor internal orders and operational risk issues and incremental technology improvements for the compliance and KYC monitoring.

在過去一年左右的時間裡，我們的風險管理團隊取得了長足的進步，能夠通過實時監控更輕鬆地匯總和分析數據，從而加強對整個組織的風險監控。現在，我們還幾乎完成了向基於 Oracle 的新 HR 會計系統的多年轉換，並且看到了有意義的效率，甚至可以更快、更好地訪問粒度信息。我們在許多支持領域正在進行大量其他項目，以更好地利用技術在我們的基礎設施中創造效率和可擴展性，以推動運營槓桿。其中包括我們法律團隊的合同管理系統、更好地跟踪和監控內部訂單和運營風險問題的技術以及合規性和 KYC 監控的增量技術改進。

Moving on to the last pillar there, which is compounding our capital. Our business is supported by capital and we need to underpin our growth as internally generated capital resources and when appropriate, access to capital markets and approach acquisitions in a disciplined manner. The most important thing we can do is to continue to create a capital runway for our continued growth. That is why we are focused on ROE. It is interesting to note that 10 years ago, we had a little over $300 million in shareholder equity and only a slightly lower number of shares outstanding as we do now. Over this 10-year period, we have more tripled our shareholder funds organically, acquired over 15 businesses and significantly expanded our line footprint, all financed organically from retained earnings and the unbelievable power of compounding.

轉到那裡的最後一個支柱，它正在增加我們的資本。我們的業務得到資本的支持，我們需要通過內部產生的資本資源來支持我們的增長，並在適當的時候以有紀律的方式進入資本市場和進行收購。我們能做的最重要的事情是繼續為我們的持續增長創造一條資本跑道。這就是我們關注 ROE 的原因。有趣的是，10 年前，我們的股東權益略高於 3 億美元，流通股數量僅略低於現在。在這 10 年期間，我們將股東資金有機地增加了兩倍，收購了超過 15 家企業，並顯著擴大了我們的產品線足跡，所有這些資金都來自留存收益和令人難以置信的複合能力。

During this growth, we have largely achieved our 15% ROE target, certainly not every year, but on average over the period is pretty close. This has happened despite the investments made in technology and infrastructure, the cost of developing new capabilities, the integration of a large number of acquisitions and also despite low interest rates for extended periods of time. Achieving our ROE targets will continue to be our north star, and we believe as we digitize the platform and gain scale that our margins and ROE should start to increase. Our strong earnings have resulted in us deleveraging our balance sheet such that we are now paying a lower spread on our bank borrowings, a ratchet that was built into our new facility.

在這一增長過程中，我們基本上實現了 15% 的 ROE 目標，當然不是每年，但平均而言，這一時期非常接近。儘管在技術和基礎設施方面進行了投資，開發新功能的成本很高，整合了大量收購，而且利率長期處於低位，但這種情況還是發生了。實現我們的 ROE 目標將繼續成為我們的北極星，我們相信，隨著我們將平台數字化並擴大規模，我們的利潤率和 ROE 應該開始增加。我們強勁的收益導致我們去槓桿化我們的資產負債表，這樣我們現在支付的銀行借款利差較低，這是我們新設施中內置的棘輪。

You also probably saw the recent announcement of our acquisition of CDI, a physical cotton business based in Brazil and Switzerland. This is a well-known and established business, which buys cotton from producers in Brazil and West Africa and sales it generally on a back-to-back basis to buyers in Asia. They hedge their own price exposure and also provide hedging services to their producer clients. And in this activity, they are both a client and a credible competitor to our commercial hedging business in Brazil. One of our senior Brazilian brokers, who headed up our cotton business in Brazil, left some years ago to take up a senior leadership position in CDI. And when the founder wanted to retire and exit the business, we were approached.

您可能還看到我們最近宣布收購 CDI，這是一家位於巴西和瑞士的實體棉花企業。這是一家知名且成熟的企業，從巴西和西非的生產商那裡購買棉花，然後通常以背靠背的方式將其銷售給亞洲的買家。他們對沖自己的價格風險，並為生產商客戶提供對沖服務。在這項活動中，他們既是我們在巴西的商業對沖業務的客戶，也是可靠的競爭對手。我們的一位巴西高級經紀人曾負責我們在巴西的棉花業務，幾年前離職前往 CDI 擔任高級領導職務。當創始人想要退休並退出公司時，有人聯繫了我們。

Combining our knowledge of hedging with our understanding of physical markets and supply chains is a compelling and differentiated offering, which we have leveraged in certain other commodity verticals in the U.S. and elsewhere, including renewable fuels and grains. This acquisition will allow us to make significant inroads in the cotton industry, especially in Brazil, which is growing fast. The transaction will be immediately accretive to earnings and does not require significant balance sheet usage.

將我們對套期保值的知識與我們對實物市場和供應鏈的理解相結合，是一種引人注目的差異化產品，我們已經在美國和其他地方的某些其他商品垂直領域中加以利用，包括可再生燃料和穀物。此次收購將使我們能夠在棉花行業取得重大進展，尤其是在發展迅速的巴西。該交易將立即增加收益，並且不需要大量使用資產負債表。

Turning now to Slide 17. As a client-driven organization, our long-term revenue growth is critically dependent on broadening and deepening all of -- and all of our strategy objectives are focused on this single objective to broaden and deepen our client base. In this slide, you can see our client numbers. While these clients may not all be active at every point in time, it does show that we are getting active and meaningful engagements from new clients, and we are expanding our market share. Each of our segments have shown a better than 50% increase in client acquisition over the last 2 years. This number is also reflected in our client float, which is up over 92% over the same period.

現在轉到幻燈片 17。作為一個以客戶為導向的組織，我們的長期收入增長在很大程度上取決於擴大和深化所有 - 我們所有的戰略目標都集中在擴大和深化我們的客戶群這一單一目標上。在這張幻燈片中，您可以看到我們的客戶數量。雖然這些客戶可能並非在每個時間點都活躍，但這確實表明我們正在從新客戶那裡獲得積極而有意義的參與，並且我們正在擴大我們的市場份額。在過去的 2 年中，我們每個細分市場的客戶獲取量都增長了 50% 以上。這個數字也反映在我們的客戶浮動中，同期增加了 92% 以上。

Let's move to the final slide, Slide 18. This was another strong quarter for us with good market condition and excellent results across all products and client segments. We achieved earnings of $52.3 million and diluted EPS of $2.49 and an ROE on stated book of 19.8%. The (inaudible) court had capped the best fiscal year in StoneX history, with earnings of $207.1 million, a diluted EPS of $10.01 and an ROE of 21% and 23.2% on a tangible equity basis. When our performance is viewed through a slightly longer-term lens such as trailing 12 months, over the last 2 years, which even our quarterly anomalies, our results continue to show a strong upward trajectory, growing our revenues at a 27% CAGR and our adjusted earnings at a 42% CAGR.

讓我們轉到最後一張幻燈片，幻燈片 18。這對我們來說又是一個強勁的季度，市場狀況良好，所有產品和客戶群都取得了優異的成績。我們實現了 5230 萬美元的收益和 2.49 美元的攤薄每股收益，以及 19.8% 的淨資產收益率。 （聽不清）法院結束了 StoneX 歷史上最好的財政年度，收益為 2.071 億美元，攤薄後每股收益為 10.01 美元，有形股本基礎上的淨資產收益率分別為 21% 和 23.2%。當我們從一個稍微長期的角度來看我們的表現時，例如過去 2 年的尾隨 12 個月，甚至我們的季度異常，我們的結果繼續顯示出強勁的上升軌跡，我們的收入以 27% 的複合年增長率增長，我們的調整後收益複合年增長率為 42%。

We continue to see strong growth in client trading volumes and client assets across all products and all client segments, which speaks to growth in our underlying client base and client engagement. We believe that this growth, combined with the outlook for heightened general market volatility and increasing interest rates puts a real tailwind behind our business for the next year or two. In fiscal 2023, we'll see a number of our digital platforms being launched, which will more tightly integrate our offerings by client type and make it more engaging for clients to interact with our financial ecosystem. While we have seen the increased costs associated with developing and launching these platforms, as we actively start to market them, we should further accelerate our growth and scalability that technology provides to increase margins and overall profitability.

我們繼續看到所有產品和所有客戶群的客戶交易量和客戶資產強勁增長，這說明我們的基礎客戶群和客戶參與度在增長。我們相信，這種增長，加上總體市場波動加劇和利率上升的前景，將為我們未來一兩年的業務帶來真正的推動力。在 2023 財年，我們將推出一些數字平台，這些平台將按客戶類型更緊密地整合我們的產品，並使客戶與我們的金融生態系統互動時更具吸引力。雖然我們已經看到與開發和啟動這些平台相關的成本增加，但隨著我們積極開始將它們推向市場，我們應該進一步加速我們的增長和可擴展性，該技術提供了提高利潤率和整體盈利能力的方法。

We continue to invest in our financial ecosystem, expanding our products, capabilities and talent. We have a unique and comprehensive financial ecosystem with a very large addressable market in front of us. While we have good market share in certain niche segments of the market, lots of white space remains in areas where we already have client relationships and demonstrated capabilities and now need to monetize these opportunities. One thing we'll always remain constant for the StoneX team, we will continue to dedicate ourselves to better serve our growing client footprint around the world by providing them with the best financial ecosystem and client service to access the global financial markets. The executive team and I are very proud of the talented StoneX team, we continue to propel us to new heights.

我們繼續投資我們的金融生態系統，擴大我們的產品、能力和人才。我們有一個獨特而全面的金融生態系統，我們面前有一個非常大的潛在市場。雖然我們在某些細分市場中擁有良好的市場份額，但在我們已經擁有客戶關係和展示能力的領域仍然存在大量空白，現在需要利用這些機會獲利。對於 StoneX 團隊，我們將始終保持不變的一件事是，我們將繼續致力於通過為他們提供最好的金融生態系統和客戶服務來進入全球金融市場，更好地服務我們在全球不斷增長的客戶足跡。執行團隊和我為才華橫溢的 StoneX 團隊感到非常自豪，我們將繼續推動我們達到新的高度。

On a final note, I would just like to wish all of those in the U.S., a happy Thanksgiving and to everyone else a great holiday season.

最後一點，我只想祝所有在美國的人感恩節快樂，並祝其他所有人節日快樂。

So with that, operator, let's see if we have any questions.

那麼，運營商，讓我們看看是否有任何問題。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question will come from Dan Fannon of Jefferies.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題將來自 Jefferies 的 Dan Fannon。

I wanted to just follow-up on the comments or just around the interest rate sensitivity and clearly seeing it flow through the income statement. I think the comment, Sean, you made is that 60% of the benefit is, I think, in the fiscal fourth quarter was realized. So I just want to think about from here prospectively, just kind of the flow through, the 45-day average thinking about incremental upside from what rates have done. And then, I guess, as you think about the sensitivity charts, we see that. But at what point -- I guess, is where you think we are in terms of the realization of based on current balances and current rates?

我只想跟進評論或圍繞利率敏感度，並清楚地看到它在損益表中的流動。我認為，肖恩，你發表的評論是，我認為 60% 的收益是在第四財季實現的。所以我只想從這裡前瞻性地思考，只是一種流動，45 天的平均思考利率所做的增量上行。然後，我想，當您考慮敏感度圖表時，我們會看到這一點。但在什麼時候 - 我想，你認為我們在實現基於當前餘額和當前利率方面處於什麼位置？

So I would say if you look at that interest rate slide that we provide to you, you get what number it was... If you look at that Slide 15, you can actually see on the actually the average yield per quarter. And you can see it was 193 basis points for the last quarter. Q3 was 69 basis points. So a massive increase and then it was sort of 28 basis points. So I think we all forget how quickly and steeply interest rates kind of jacked up, and it was all sort of in the summer, right? So it's happened fairly recently. And because we sort of lagged by about 45 days because normally most of our investments are 90-day T-bills, and we roll them, we sort of ladder them up. But it takes a little while for that to roll out. We're sort of always a little bit behind the current interest rate curve. So I guess, if you looked at, I don't have the number to hand. But if you look at what the average sort of 3-month T-bill rate was in the last quarter, that was probably closer to 4%, frankly.

所以我想說，如果你看一下我們提供給你的利率幻燈片，你就會知道它是多少……如果你看一下幻燈片 15，你實際上可以看到每季度的平均收益率。你可以看到上個季度是 193 個基點。第三季度為 69 個基點。所以大幅增加，然後是 28 個基點。所以我想我們都忘記了利率是如何快速和陡峭地上漲的，而且都是在夏天，對吧？所以這是最近發生的。而且因為我們有點滯後了大約 45 天，因為通常我們的大部分投資都是 90 天的國庫券，我們滾動它們，我們有點像梯子一樣。但這需要一段時間才能推出。我們總是有點落後於當前的利率曲線。所以我想，如果你看過，我手上沒有號碼。但如果你看看上個季度平均 3 個月期國庫券利率是多少，坦率地說，這可能接近 4%。

So we're still a long way behind where current interest rates are. Now we'll start catching up, particularly if the interest rate increase or slow down a little bit, we'll start catching up. But we still got a bit of (inaudible) behind us, which will start to show up in upcoming quarters. So I don't know if that explains it, Dan. I'm sure Bill has more granular detail. The other thing I would just also throw out there is it's a little bit of an unknown for us. So we're making our best guess here. But as we start to get to these levels of interest rates, clients obviously want to start participating in interest. So every interest rate increase is incremental, but it's sort of less incremental than the prior one was because we have to pay some portion of that away.

所以我們仍然遠遠落後於當前的利率水平。現在我們將開始迎頭趕上，特別是如果利率上升或稍微放緩，我們將開始迎頭趕上。但我們仍然有一些（聽不清）落後於我們，這將在接下來的幾個季度開始出現。所以我不知道這是否可以解釋，丹。我相信 Bill 有更詳細的信息。另一件我也想扔掉的事情是它對我們來說有點未知。所以我們在這裡做出最好的猜測。但隨著我們開始達到這些利率水平，客戶顯然希望開始參與利息。所以每次加息都是增量的，但它的增量比之前的要小，因為我們必須支付其中的一部分。

So those are sort of the dynamics we're dealing with. We've got sort of a bowed away where we're still catching up to current market rates. And we've also got to recognize we're going to start paying some of that incremental interest away. So anything else to add, Bill?

所以這些就是我們正在處理的動態。在我們仍在追趕當前市場利率的地方，我們有點鞠躬。我們還必須認識到，我們將開始支付部分增量利息。那麼還有什麼要補充的嗎，比爾？

No, I think that's right, Sean. I mean, I think the average T-bill rate was probably something in the 2.25, 2.5 range for the fourth quarter and I would anticipate for the fourth quarter as being somewhere in the 3%-plus range for the fourth quarter as we kind of -- as Sean said, catch up with where T-bill rates are going and overnight rates are going I mean, given no other market events occur that change anything. But as Sean touched on, they've been rapidly increasing.

不，我認為這是對的，肖恩。我的意思是，我認為第四季度的平均國庫券利率可能在 2.25、2.5 的範圍內，我預計第四季度將在 3% 以上的範圍內，因為我們有點- 正如肖恩所說，趕上國庫券利率和隔夜利率的走勢我的意思是，鑑於沒有其他市場事件發生改變任何東西。但正如肖恩所說，它們一直在迅速增加。

And so just to clarify because I look at the Institutional segment, the $30.1 million in interest and fees on client balances that you -- that was reported. There's also in that -- in the Institutional segment, there was some consulting and management account fees that also jumped a lot to 14.4%. So I just want to make sure the $30.1 million is a good jumping off point to what you just said in terms of incremental the rate upside respectively?

因此，我想澄清一下，因為我看的是機構部門，您報告的客戶餘額利息和費用為 3010 萬美元。還有一點——在機構部門，一些諮詢和管理賬戶費用也大幅上漲至 14.4%。所以我只是想確保 3010 萬美元是一個很好的起點，分別是你剛才所說的增量利率上升？

So I mean, the interest and fee income we earn on client balances is split between those 2 lines, Dan, so that all the T-bills and overnight balances that we hold probably going through the interest line, but the FDIC suite, right, which is based on that $1 billion -- roughly (inaudible) $9 billion that we have, that all mostly flows through the fee income line, so consulting and fee revenue as you touched on. So that's the reason, the primary reason for the big jump you saw in consulting and fee income just because that comes through as a fee as opposed to interest. That's all aggregated down below where we kind of break out and give you the aggregated interest and fee income on client balances figure.

所以我的意思是，我們從客戶餘額中賺取的利息和費用收入在這兩條線之間分配，丹，所以我們持有的所有國庫券和隔夜餘額可能都通過利息線，但是 FDIC 套件，對，這是基於我們擁有的 10 億美元 - 大約（聽不清）90 億美元，所有這些都主要流經費用收入線，因此您提到的諮詢和費用收入。所以這就是原因，您看到諮詢和費用收入大幅增長的主要原因只是因為這是一種費用而不是利息。這一切都匯總在我們突破的地方，並為您提供客戶餘額數字的匯總利息和費用收入。

We think about that as a run ratable number from here? Or like that consulting thing or line item is it a onetime component?

我們認為這是一個可運行的數字嗎？或者像那個諮詢的東西或行項目是一次性的組件嗎？

No, no. I'd anticipate both the interest line and the fee income line to both go up as interest rates go during the fourth quarter.

不，不。我預計利息線和費用收入線都會隨著第四季度利率的上升而上升。

It's generically bundled into consulting and fee income, but it's really that the interest split we get on the FDIC suite is paid to us as a fee, not as interesting. So we have to put it in that line.

它通常捆綁在諮詢和費用收入中，但實際上我們在 FDIC 套件上獲得的利息分成是作為費用支付給我們的，而不是那麼有趣。所以我們必須把它放在那一行。

And then just on in the securities business, you've been showing that you talked about kind of the expansion in the fixed income, which is going to take the ag higher and the fee (inaudible) lower. But this quarter, it was kind of a dynamic, the opposite, right, where the fee per million went up a lot and ADV went down. Can you talk to that and obviously, the longer-term trend?

然後就在證券業務中，你一直在表明你談到了固定收益的某種擴張，這將使 ag 更高，費用（聽不清）更低。但是這個季度，它是一種動態的，相反的，對，每百萬的費用上升了很多，而 ADV 下降了。你能談談那個，顯然，長期趨勢嗎？

Well, I think the first thing to recognize is -- and we sort of said this a year ago, I guess, if you want to go back and open. But the fourth quarter last year was a pretty crappy quarter for us on the security side. So we are comping to a weak quarter in all of those stuff. So I think you should look at it sort of just stacking up the quarters, I think the trend will look a little bit different than just the quarterly comparisons [indiscernible

好吧，我認為首先要認識到的是——我們一年前就說過了，我想，如果你想回去打開。但去年第四季度在安全方面對我們來說是一個相當糟糕的季度。因此，我們在所有這些方面都處於疲軟的季度。所以我認為你應該把它看成只是疊加季度，我認為趨勢看起來與季度比較有點不同 [音頻不清晰

I would also say since that -- I mean, yes, the ADV had trended down kind of in the securities just with getting into some of those other products that Sean touched on. But I tried to point out in my portion of the script that as interest rates go up when you're trading in fixed income securities, the revenue side goes up because there's just an interest component in the revenues, but you also saw the interest expense for that business going up quite a bit in the quarter as well. So we don't show a net RPM because it's kind of hard to do that across all of our businesses. So we're showing you growth. But the -- some of that RPM expansion you saw in the fourth quarter is just because the interest rates going up, if that makes sense.

我還要說，從那以後——我的意思是，是的，ADV 在進入肖恩提到的其他一些產品時，在證券中呈下降趨勢。但我試圖在我的腳本部分指出，當你交易固定收益證券時，隨著利率上升，收入方面也會上升，因為收入中只有利息部分，但你也看到了利息支出該業務在本季度也有相當大的增長。所以我們沒有顯示淨 RPM，因為在我們所有的業務中都很難做到這一點。所以我們向你展示了成長。但是 - 你在第四季度看到的一些 RPM 擴張只是因為利率上升，如果這是有道理的話。

But we obviously didn't see that in last quarter. So just to—

但我們顯然在上個季度沒有看到這一點。所以只是為了——

Yes. I think it's because that you saw the fourth quarter, you saw the rates going up quite precipitously in the fourth quarter more so than you saw in the third quarter. And also, you'll note -- we put a note in the slide deck, you could take a look at, Dan. There was ADV for the third quarter was higher than it should be. We had some double counting of transactions. So we gave you an adjusted figure here. And that obviously affects RPM, had no effect on revenues itself, but kind of adjusted that figure to where Q3 RPM should have been $512 for the third quarter with that adjusted volume. And still, the fourth quarter is up precipitously because of the interest.

是的。我認為這是因為你看到了第四季度，你看到第四季度的利率比第三季度急劇上升。而且，你會注意到——我們在幻燈片中放了一張紙條，你可以看一下，Dan。第三季度的 ADV 高於應有的水平。我們對交易進行了一些重複計算。所以我們在這裡給了你一個調整後的數字。這顯然會影響 RPM，對收入本身沒有影響，但會將該數字調整為調整後的第三季度第三季度 RPM 應為 512 美元的位置。而且，由於興趣，第四季度仍然急劇上升。

And then just in the context of what you guys have been talking about in terms of the new investment, digitizing the platform and then margin expansion potential and operating leverage as a result. So I guess, as you budgeted and think about next year, fixed expenses and kind of -- is there a inflation plus growth investment number we should be thinking about for fixed rate expenses, and obviously, the revenues will be what they are. But in the hopes of driving margin expansion, I get the longer-term goals of this, but just trying to get a sense from a dollar perspective or how the budget looks as you think about from expenses for next year?

然後就你們一直在談論的新投資而言，將平台數字化，然後是利潤擴張潛力和經營槓桿。所以我想，當你預算和考慮明年的時候，固定費用和某種 - 我們應該考慮固定利率費用的通貨膨脹加上增長投資數字，顯然，收入將是他們的樣子。但為了推動利潤率擴張，我得到了這個的長期目標，但只是想從美元的角度或你從明年的支出中考慮的預算情況來了解一下？

Well, Bill can give you the exact number that we're thinking about, I guess, but I would say the good and the bad news, we spent that money and have been spending it for the better part of 2 years. So these platforms don't just get stood up overnight, right? There's a long lead time. So a lot of that cost is already in our cost structure. So you shouldn't see a big ramp-up just for that, right? And as I said, we're going to start rolling these out and have started rolling out some of these initiatives slowly and incrementally. And obviously, that will show some incremental revenue and obviously, we'll be positive against that cost base. I think we've got to assume -- I was kind of pleased to see that our fixed costs have sort of flattened out. I mean, a year ago, we were talking about pretty big fixed compensation cost increases and it was largely because of the GAIN acquisition. But you always worry that when you get through that cycle, where we really see these numbers plateau and they did. I mean, we're up 3% or something sort of quarter-on-quarter in fixed compensation expense. I expect that to stay in a pretty modest range, but we obviously have to take account sort of higher inflation.

好吧，比爾可以給你我們正在考慮的確切數字，我想，但我會說好消息和壞消息，我們花了那筆錢，並且已經花了 2 年的大部分時間。所以這些平台不會一夜之間站起來，對吧？有很長的準備時間。所以很多成本已經在我們的成本結構中。所以你不應該為此看到一個大的增長，對吧？正如我所說，我們將開始推出這些舉措，並且已經開始緩慢而漸進地推出其中一些舉措。顯然，這將顯示一些增量收入，而且顯然，我們將對該成本基礎持積極態度。我認為我們必須假設——我很高興看到我們的固定成本已經趨於平穩。我的意思是，一年前，我們談論的是相當大的固定薪酬成本增加，這主要是因為 GAIN 的收購。但是你總是擔心，當你度過那個週期時，我們真正看到這些數字停滯不前，而他們確實做到了。我的意思是，我們的固定薪酬支出環比增長了 3% 或某種程度。我預計它會保持在一個相當適度的範圍內，但我們顯然必須考慮到某種程度的更高通脹。

So we're just going through our annual increase process now, and it's going to be larger than it was a year ago, right? So that is something to be taken into account. But I don't know what your overall sort of view on that would be, but I would say it's going to be inflationary largely, right?

所以我們現在只是在經歷我們的年度增長過程，它會比一年前更大，對吧？所以這是需要考慮的事情。但我不知道你對此的總體看法是什麼，但我會說這主要是通貨膨脹，對吧？

No, I would agree with you, Sean. I think a lot of that has come through so far. But I think inflationary, right, we have to be realist here with the environment that we're seeing. So I think that 7% to 8% growth is probably likely given just the inflationary pressures that we're seeing on a go-forward basis, Dan.

不，我同意你的看法，肖恩。我認為到目前為止已經實現了很多。但我認為通貨膨脹，對，我們必須對我們所看到的環境保持現實。因此，丹，鑑於我們在前進的基礎上看到的通脹壓力，我認為 7% 到 8% 的增長率可能很可能。

Dan, I don't know if you picked up. I think we chatted about it in the last quarter, and I didn't chat about it now, but the strong dollar has been a net benefit for us on our cost base, right? Almost all of our revenues are in dollars. So we don't have any impact on the revenue side with a strong dollar -- but -- and all our bonuses are linked to the dollar. But our fixed costs in places like London and Europe and Poland and so on, have all got cheaper, right? So we've seen some benefit on the cost structure through that. And indeed, we've put on FX hedges to try and lock that in and we sort of have a rolling to sort of hedge in place to try and hold on to that benefit for as long as we can. So about 20% of those costs are down. I mean, that's been the movement in sterling and (inaudible) and in euros. So also something to bear in mind, we've had a little bit of help on the cost side then.

丹，我不知道你有沒有接電話。我想我們在上個季度談過這個問題，我現在沒有談過，但強勢美元對我們的成本基礎來說是一個淨收益，對吧？我們幾乎所有的收入都是美元。因此，美元走強對收入方面沒有任何影響——但是——我們所有的獎金都與美元掛鉤。但是我們在倫敦、歐洲和波蘭等地的固定成本都變得更便宜了，對吧？因此，我們已經看到了成本結構的一些好處。事實上，我們已經進行了外匯對沖以試圖鎖定它，並且我們有點滾動到某種對沖以嘗試盡可能長時間地保持這種好處。因此，這些成本中約有 20% 下降了。我的意思是，這是英鎊和（聽不清）和歐元的走勢。所以還要記住一些事情，那時我們在成本方面得到了一些幫助。

And then, as you think of -- I mean, obviously, we're -- I know you are focused more longer term, but we're halfway through the quarter. The environment, as you look past over the last 12 months has been very strong in terms of client engagement activity levels, all the things you guys highlighted in terms of your results. As you look forward and what you've seen thus far, is there any -- from a customer market perspective, geography, anything really changing? Or is it still relatively constructive based on kind of how you exited the quarter and where things sit now?

然後，正如你所想的那樣——我的意思是，很明顯，我們——我知道你更關注長期，但我們已經過了本季度的一半。在過去的 12 個月裡，環境在客戶參與活動水平方面非常強勁，你們在結果中強調的所有事情。正如您展望未來以及到目前為止所看到的那樣，從客戶市場的角度來看，地理上是否有任何真正的變化？還是根據您退出該季度的方式以及現在的情況，它是否仍然相對具有建設性？

Honestly, if you -- I don't want to cut this yet, but if you just look at our set of results, I mean, I think it's just a fantastic result across the board. I mean, every one of our products is up double digits. Every one of our statements. I mean, we're really firing on all cylinders here. So nothing stays the same way forever, but I can't really see anything sort of in the immediate future that is going to materially change what we see now. So we just wanted to continue as long as possible, I guess, which we know it won't. But -- so no, there's nothing really I can speak to. I think Q4 was a pretty straightforward sort of vanilla quarter. There wasn't any sort of exceptional items or exceptionally crazy market conditions that was just to look at business as usual, I think. Bill, do you agree?

老實說，如果你 - 我不想削減這個，但如果你只看我們的結果集，我的意思是，我認為這只是一個非常棒的結果。我的意思是，我們的每一種產品都增長了兩位數。我們的每一個陳述。我的意思是，我們真的在這裡全力以赴。所以沒有什麼是永遠不變的，但我真的看不到在不久的將來有什麼事情會實質性地改變我們現在所看到的。所以我們只是想盡可能長時間地繼續，我猜，我們知道它不會。但是——所以不，我真的無話可說。我認為第四季度是一個非常簡單的普通季度。我認為，沒有任何特殊的項目或異常瘋狂的市場條件只是為了照常營業。比爾，你同意嗎？

No, I’d agree, I'd agree.

不，我同意，我同意。

And then just in terms of the current backdrop for M&A, you announced is kind of a recent smaller acquisition, as you said, but would be immediately accretive. And then the context of the backdrop, given valuations have come in markets or maybe good for some businesses, maybe not for others. Is there more opportunity today for you to deploy capital inorganically or similar to -- or no real change?

然後就當前的併購背景而言，正如你所說，你宣布的是最近的一次規模較小的收購，但會立即增加。然後是背景背景，考慮到估值已經進入市場，或者可能對某些企業有利，但對其他企業可能不利。您今天是否有更多機會以無機方式或類似方式部署資本——或者沒有真正的變化？

Well, firstly, we're pretty excited about the organic trajectory that we on. I mean, if you just look at the graph of sort of new clients and changes, I mean, our client base is up 50%, 100% over the last 2 years, and that run rate seems to be continuing, and that will take capital, right? So our base case is we're sort of pretty happy with the organic track we are. In terms of acquisition opportunities, I think we're now starting to see sort of early days of opportunities starting to come to the table. There are a couple of things we've had a look at, a couple of things we're looking at. Nothing that I think is close to the (inaudible) point. But it's definitely a change from what's happened in the last 2 years. There's more change but a change on the list.

好吧，首先，我們對我們所走的有機軌跡感到非常興奮。我的意思是，如果你只看一下新客戶和變化的圖表，我的意思是，我們的客戶群在過去 2 年中增長了 50%、100%，而且這種增長速度似乎還在繼續，這將需要資本，對吧？所以我們的基本情況是我們對我們的有機軌道非常滿意。在收購機會方面，我認為我們現在開始看到早期的機會開始出現在談判桌上。我們已經看過一些東西，我們正在研究一些東西。我認為沒有什麼接近（聽不清）點。但這絕對是過去兩年發生的變化。還有更多變化，但列表中有變化。

And I see no further questions in the queue. I would now like to turn the conference back to the CEO, Sean O'Connor for closing remarks.

我看隊列中沒有其他問題了。我現在想把會議轉回首席執行官肖恩奧康納的閉幕詞。

Okay. Well, thanks, everyone. We will speak to you again pretty soon here in the new year. And once again, Happy Thanksgiving to all the U.S. colleagues and friends and also for everyone else enjoy the holidays, and we'll speak to you soon. Thank you.

好的。嗯，謝謝大家。我們很快就會在新的一年在這裡再次與您交談。再次祝所有美國同事和朋友感恩節快樂，也祝所有其他人享受假期，我們很快就會與您交談。謝謝你。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect. Have a pleasant day.

今天的電話會議到此結束。謝謝大家的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。度過愉快的一天。