標普全球 (SPGI) 2019 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to S&P Global's Third Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. I'd like to inform you that this call is being recorded for broadcast. (Operator Instructions) To access the webcast and slides, go to investor.spglobal.com. (Operator Instructions)

早安，歡迎參加 S&P Global 2019 年第三季財報電話會議。我想提醒各位，本次電話會議將被錄音以供播出。(接線員指示) 如需收看網路直播與投影片，請至 investor.spglobal.com。(接線員指示)

I would now like to introduce Mr. Chip Merritt, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations for S&P Global. Sir, you may begin.

現在我想介紹 S&P Global 投資人關係資深副總裁 Chip Merritt 先生。先生，您可以開始了。

Thank you, and good morning. Welcome to S&P Global's third quarter earnings call. Presenting on this morning's call are Doug Peterson, President and CEO; and Ewout Steenbergen, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. This morning, we issued a news release with our third quarter 2019 results. If you need a copy of the release and financial schedules, they can be downloaded at investor.spglobal.com.

謝謝，各位早安。歡迎參加 S&P Global 第三季財報電話會議。今天早上的電話會議由總裁暨執行長 Doug Peterson，以及執行副總裁兼財務長 Ewout Steenbergen 出席簡報。今天早上，我們已發布 2019 年第三季業績新聞稿。如需新聞稿與財務附表副本，可至 investor.spglobal.com 下載。

In today's earnings release and during the conference call, we're providing adjusted financial information. This information is provided to enable investors to make meaningful comparisons of the corporation's operating performance between periods and to view the corporation's business from the same perspective as management's. The earnings release contains exhibits that reconcile the difference between non-GAAP measures and the comparable financial measures calculated in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

在今日的財報新聞稿以及本次電話會議中，我們將提供調整後的財務資訊。提供此資訊是為了讓投資人能在不同期間之間對本公司營運表現進行有意義的比較，並以與管理階層相同的視角檢視本公司的業務。財報新聞稿包含附表，用以調節非 GAAP 指標與依美國 GAAP 計算之可比財務指標之間的差異。

Before we begin, I need to provide certain cautionary remarks about forward-looking statements. Except for historical information, the matters discussed in the teleconference may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including projections, estimates and descriptions of future events. Any such statements are based on current expectations and current economic conditions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from results anticipated in these forward-looking statements. In this regard, we direct listeners to our cautionary statement contained in our Form 10-Ks, 10-Qs and other periodic reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

在開始之前，我需要就前瞻性陳述提供若干警示性說明。除歷史資訊外，本次電話會議所討論事項可能包含《1995 年私人證券訴訟改革法》所定義之前瞻性陳述，包括對未來事件的預測、估計與描述。任何此類陳述均基於目前的預期與當前經濟狀況，並受各項風險與不確定性影響，可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述所預期者有重大差異。就此，我們請聽眾參閱我們在 Form 10-K、10-Q 及其他向美國證券交易委員會提交之定期報告中所載的警示性聲明。

I would also like to call your attention to European regulation. Any investor who has or expects to obtain ownership of 5% or more of S&P Global should give me a call to better understand the impact of this legislation on the investor and potentially, the company.

我也想提醒各位注意歐洲法規。任何已持有或預期取得 S&P Global 5% 或以上持股的投資人，請致電與我聯繫，以更了解該立法對投資人以及可能對本公司造成的影響。

We're aware that we do have some media representatives with us on the call. However, this call is intended for investors, and we'd ask that questions from the media be directed to Jason Feuchtwanger at (212) 438-1247.

我們知道本次電話會議中也有一些媒體代表與會。不過，本次電話會議主要是為投資人而設，我們也請媒體的提問改向 Jason Feuchtwanger 洽詢，電話 (212) 438-1247。

At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Doug Peterson. Doug?

此刻，我想把電話會議交給 Doug Peterson。Doug？

Thank you, Chip. Good morning, and welcome to today's earnings call. We are pleased to report very strong third quarter financial results with all 4 divisions delivering revenue growth. We continue to generate significant margin improvement due to top line growth and ongoing execution of our productivity programs, and this margin improvement is occurring despite the increase in investment spending.

謝謝你，Chip。各位早安，歡迎參加今天的財報電話會議。我們很高興報告第三季財務表現非常強勁，四大事業部門皆實現營收成長。在營收成長與持續推動生產力計畫的執行下，我們持續帶來顯著的利潤率改善；即使投資支出增加，利潤率仍在提升。

During the third quarter, we delivered a 16% increase in adjusted diluted EPS. Based on this performance and our expectations for the rest of the year, we're raising our 2019 adjusted EPS guidance, which Ewout will discuss in a moment. Share repurchase is an important component of capital return, and we recently completed our $500 million ASR initiated in August.

第三季，我們的調整後稀釋每股盈餘（EPS）成長 16%。基於此表現以及我們對今年剩餘期間的預期，我們上調 2019 年調整後 EPS 指引，Ewout 稍後會進一步說明。庫藏股回購是資本回饋的重要組成部分，我們最近已完成 8 月啟動的 5 億美元加速股票回購（ASR）。

And of course, we're always excited to talk about our new products. We recently launched unique technology innovations including Textual Data Analytics, Kensho's Scribe and several ESG-related offerings. I'll cover these in more detail in a moment.

當然，我們也總是很期待談談新產品。我們近期推出多項獨特的科技創新，包括 Textual Data Analytics、Kensho 的 Scribe，以及數項與 ESG 相關的產品。我稍後會更詳細說明。

To recap the financial results for the third quarter, revenue increased 9% to almost $1.7 billion. Organic revenue excluding revenue from the divestment of SPIAS and RigData increased 10%. Our adjusted operating profit increased 14%, and our adjusted operating profit margin increased 230 basis points to 51.9%. As you know, we measure and track adjusted margin on a trailing 4-quarter basis, which increased 200 basis points to 50.1%. In addition, we reduced shares outstanding by 3%, which contributed to the 16% increase in adjusted diluted EPS.

回顧第三季財務結果，營收成長 9%，接近 17 億美元。扣除出售 SPIAS 與 RigData 所帶來的營收後，有機營收成長 10%。我們的調整後營業利益成長 14%，調整後營業利益率提升 230 個基點至 51.9%。如各位所知，我們以過去 4 季（rolling 4-quarter）的基礎衡量並追蹤調整後利潤率，該指標提升 200 個基點至 50.1%。此外，我們將流通在外股數降低 3%，也促成調整後稀釋 EPS 成長 16%。

Each quarter, we highlight the key drivers to our business and important projects underway. This quarter, let's start with ratings issuance trends. During the third quarter, global bond issuance increased 12%, with mixed performance in various geographies and asset classes. If we also include bank loan ratings volume, total global issuance increased 14%. The U.S. bond issuances in aggregate increased 16% as investment-grade increased 33%, high-yield vaulted 43%, public finance increased 15% while structured finance decreased 11% with a large decline in CLOs partially offset by gains in RMBS and ABS.

每一季，我們都會重點說明業務的關鍵驅動因素以及正在推進的重要專案。本季先從評等發行趨勢談起。第三季全球債券發行量成長 12%，不同地區與資產類別表現不一。若同時納入銀行貸款評等量，全球總發行量成長 14%。美國債券發行總量成長 16%；其中投資級成長 33%，高收益大增 43%，公共財政成長 15%；而結構性融資下降 11%，主要因 CLO 大幅下滑，但 RMBS 與 ABS 的成長部分抵銷了跌幅。

Investors frequently assume that lower interest rates drive increased issuance. That certainly was not the case in Europe this quarter. Despite historically low rates, European bond issuance decreased 7% as investment-grade decreased 10%, high-yield soared 61% and structured finance decreased 20% due to declines in CLOs, covered bonds and RMBS, partially offset by gains in ABS and CMBS. In Asia, bond issuance increased 24% overall.

投資人常假設利率下降會帶動發行量增加。但歐洲本季顯然並非如此。儘管利率處於歷史低點，歐洲債券發行量仍下降 7%；其中投資級下降 10%，高收益飆升 61%，結構性融資下降 20%，原因在於 CLO、擔保債券與 RMBS 下滑，但 ABS 與 CMBS 的成長部分抵銷了跌幅。亞洲方面，債券發行量整體成長 24%。

On the fourth quarter 2018 earnings call, we introduced this chart to track debt issuance and global cash balances of the 50 companies with the most overseas cash at the end of 2017. As you see on this slide, the cash balances of these companies has stabilized while bond issuance among these companies is rebounding compared to an anemic 2018. There have been 15 unique issuers that have come to market this year so far, even Apple returned to the market, issuing $7 billion of bonds in September.

在 2018 年第四季財報電話會議上，我們介紹了這張圖表，用以追蹤截至 2017 年底海外現金最多的 50 家公司之債務發行與全球現金餘額。如投影片所示，這些公司的現金餘額已趨於穩定，而相較於 2018 年的低迷，這些公司的債券發行正在回升。截至目前，今年已有 15 家不同的發行人進入市場，甚至 Apple 也重返市場，於 9 月發行 70 億美元債券。

Our latest global bond issuance forecast includes an update for 2019 and the initial 2020 forecast. Excluding international public finance, which has minimal impact on our financial results, we now forecast 2019 issuance to increase 9%. This is up from our previous forecast of a 1% increase. This change was driven primarily by an increase in corporate issuance. On that same basis, 2020 issuance is expected to increase 5% with growth in each issuance category. After year-over-year declines in bank loan rating activity in the first half of 2019, bank loan rating revenue increased in the third quarter to $80 million from $73 million in the third quarter of 2018.

我們最新的全球債券發行預測包含對 2019 年的更新以及 2020 年的初步預測。排除對我們財務結果影響極小的國際公共財政後，我們目前預估 2019 年發行量將成長 9%。這高於我們先前預估的成長 1%。此一變動主要由公司債發行增加所帶動。在相同基礎下，預期 2020 年發行量將成長 5%，各發行類別皆有成長。在 2019 年上半年銀行貸款評等活動年減之後，第三季銀行貸款評等營收由 2018 年第三季的 7,300 萬美元增至 8,000 萬美元。

We're frequently asked by investors if maturities have lengthened as corporate treasurers seek to stretch low interest rates further into the future. This chart depicts average U.S. bond maturities for the past 19 years. While investment-grade maturities have lengthened slightly in the past year, both investment-grade and high-yield average maturities have been virtually unchanged since 2010.

投資人經常問我們，企業財務主管是否為了把低利率延伸到更久的未來而拉長到期年限。這張圖表呈現過去 19 年美國債券的平均到期年限。雖然投資級債券的到期年限在過去一年略有拉長，但投資級與高收益債券的平均到期年限自 2010 年以來幾乎沒有變化。

During our 2018 Investor Day, we introduced the framework Powering the Markets of the Future, including 6 foundational capabilities. We use this framework to set our goals and allocate resources. I'm pleased to share great progress in a number of the new initiatives in our areas of global, customer orientation, innovation and technology.

在 2018 年投資人日上，我們提出「驅動未來市場（Powering the Markets of the Future）」的架構，其中包含 6 項基礎能力。我們運用此架構來設定目標並分配資源。我很高興分享，我們在全球化、以客戶為導向、創新與科技等領域的多項新計畫都取得了顯著進展。

Kensho has created a new product called Scribe. It's a speech recognition solution that transcribes earnings conference calls. Using deep learning techniques, Scribe parsed thousands of hours of audio files from Market Intelligence's archives to develop its capabilities. It essentially teaches itself to become more accurate. Scribe's capabilities enable complexities like enumeration, capitalization and identification of sentences. Market Intelligence produces approximately 33,000 conference call transcripts each year. We recently put Scribe into production. It produced more than 2,000 calls in the third quarter, and we're ramping it up to transform our transcription business.

Kensho 已推出一項名為 Scribe 的新產品。這是一套語音辨識解決方案，可將財報電話會議轉錄成文字。Scribe 運用深度學習技術，解析 Market Intelligence 檔案庫中數千小時的音訊檔案，以發展其能力。它基本上會自我學習以提升準確度。Scribe 的能力可處理如條列編號、大寫與句子辨識等複雜需求。Market Intelligence 每年製作約 33,000 份電話會議逐字稿。我們近期已將 Scribe 投入正式生產。它在第三季產出超過 2,000 通電話會議逐字稿，我們正加速擴大規模，以改造我們的轉錄業務。

Scribe is capable of handling 100 concurrent conference calls without any degradation in quality. There are several benefits to Scribe. First is productivity, with an average time savings of 1.25 hours per call. Second is improved accuracy. Scribe is considerably more accurate than the leading transcription services that we have tested, and third is reduction in turnaround time of approximately 15 minutes per 1-hour call. This means that the complete conference call is available to our Market Intelligence clients sooner, 83 minutes versus 97 minutes.

Scribe 能同時處理 100 場並行的電話會議，且不會降低品質。Scribe 有數項優勢。第一是生產力提升，平均每通電話可節省 1.25 小時。第二是準確度提升。相較於我們測試過的領先轉錄服務，Scribe 的準確度顯著更高；第三是縮短交付時間，每 1 小時通話約可縮短 15 分鐘。這表示完整電話會議內容能更快提供給我們的 Market Intelligence 客戶：83 分鐘對比 97 分鐘。

While investors have used earnings call transcripts as a reference for many years, Market Intelligence has launched a new product to glean additional insights from conference calls. The product is called Textual Data Analytics or TDA. We published 2 papers which provide empirical evidence that the stock price of companies whose executives exhibited the most positive sentiment or provided the most transparency during their earnings calls outperform the broad U.S. equity market by at least 2% per year between 2010 and 2017. Our analysis shows that the textual analytics derived from earnings calls such as positive versus negative words, language complexity, analyst selected for Q&A, et cetera, provide additional stock selection power.

投資人多年來一直將財報電話會議逐字稿作為參考，而 Market Intelligence 已推出一項新產品，以從電話會議中擷取更多洞見。該產品名為 Textual Data Analytics（文字資料分析，TDA）。我們發表了 2 篇論文，提供實證證據顯示：在 2010 至 2017 年間，若公司高階主管在財報電話會議中展現最正向的情緒或提供最高透明度，其股價表現每年至少可超越美國整體股票市場 2%。我們的分析顯示，從財報電話會議衍生的文字分析（例如正向與負向詞彙、語言複雜度、被挑選進入問答的分析師等）可提供額外的選股能力。

TDA provides intraday delivery, covering more than 9,000 companies with 40 different metrics on each call. We've included an example of Textual Data Analytics for a major U.S. bank versus its peers on their third quarter earnings call held early this month. This slide depicts the scores for 5 of the 40 metrics. Net positivity calculates the difference between positive and negative words. Here, the bank scored worse than its peers. Numerical transparency evaluates the proportion of numbers versus words. The bank provided a higher level of transparency by using more numbers than its peers to show rather than use words to tell.

TDA 提供盤中交付，涵蓋超過 9,000 家公司，並針對每通電話會議提供 40 項不同指標。我們納入一個範例：某美國大型銀行在本月初舉行的第三季財報電話會議，相較同業的文字資料分析結果。此投影片呈現 40 項指標中的 5 項分數。淨正向度（net positivity）計算正向詞與負向詞之差。在此，該銀行的分數較同業差。數值透明度（numerical transparency）評估數字相對於文字的比例。該銀行使用較同業更多的數字，以「用數字呈現」而非「用文字描述」，因此提供了更高程度的透明度。

Language complexity was lower for the bank. Conference calls with more complex language are generally associated with either poor results or other negative issues. Analyst favoritism assesses which analyst had buy, hold or sell ratings and which were selected to ask questions. The bank here showed less favoritism than its peers by including more analysts who were bearish. Sentiment differential analyzes the difference between the net positivity score in the prepared remarks versus the Q&A session. Here, the bank's sentiment differential was more negative during the Q&A responses relative to the prepared remarks than its peers.

該銀行的語言複雜度較低。語言更複雜的電話會議通常與較差的結果或其他負面議題相關。分析師偏好（analyst favoritism）評估哪些分析師給予買進、持有或賣出評等，以及哪些分析師被挑選提問。此處該銀行相較同業展現較少偏好，因為納入了更多看空的分析師。情緒差異（sentiment differential）分析事先準備的發言與問答環節之間，淨正向度分數的差異。在此，該銀行在問答回覆中的情緒差異相較同業更為負向（相對於其事先準備的發言）。

There are other -- there are several other interesting new product launches underway. Over the past 5 years, Platts has seen significant expansion of our coverage of seaborne freight rates. The team covers tanker, dry bulk and container freight markets, which are used in physical contracts and as a settlement basis for forward freight agreement derivative contracts. The latest addition is the CapeT4 index for dry freight rates. The Platts CapeT4 index is based on trade flow volume and captures the movement of widely consumed commodities such as iron ore and coal to highlight physical spot market trading activity.

另外——還有數項其他有趣的新產品正在推出中。過去 5 年，Platts 在海運運費費率的覆蓋範圍上顯著擴張。團隊涵蓋油輪、乾散貨與貨櫃運費市場，這些費率用於實體合約，並作為遠期運費協議（FFA）衍生性合約的結算基準。最新加入的是乾散貨運費的 CapeT4 指數。Platts CapeT4 指數以貿易流量為基礎，捕捉鐵礦砂與煤炭等廣泛消費的大宗商品運輸動向，以凸顯實體現貨市場的交易活動。

Next, in advance of the implementation of the 0.5% sulphur cap by the International Maritime Organization or IMO in January 2020, the ICE and CME exchanges launched a total of more than a dozen new marine fuel 0.5% futures contracts that settle against price assessments recently launched by Platts. Trucost has launched climate and physical risk analytics. A combination of voluntary initiatives such as TCFD and regulations in certain countries are driving investor demand for increasingly sophisticated portfolio-level climate analytics covering all asset classes. Climate risk analytics adds new scenario analysis around 2 principal areas. The first is carbon, where Trucost data helps evaluate the earnings at risk from future carbon pricing scenarios. The second is a 2-degree alignment assessment. Since portfolios are not homogeneously exposed to carbon price risk, it's necessary to better understand the individual portfolio variations from a 2-degree scenario.

接著，為因應國際海事組織（IMO）於 2020 年 1 月實施 0.5% 硫含量上限，ICE 與 CME 交易所合計推出十多項新的 0.5% 船用燃料期貨合約，並以 Platts 近期推出的價格評估作為結算依據。Trucost 已推出氣候與實體風險分析。自願性倡議（如 TCFD）與部分國家的法規共同推動投資人需求，要求更精密的投資組合層級氣候分析，涵蓋所有資產類別。氣候風險分析新增了圍繞兩大主要領域的情境分析。第一是碳排：Trucost 數據可協助評估未來碳定價情境下的獲利風險。第二是 2 度情境的一致性評估。由於投資組合對碳價風險的曝險並非同質，因此有必要更深入了解各個投資組合相對於 2 度情境的個別差異。

In addition, Trucost climate change physical risk data set helps companies and investors understand their exposure to physical risk and report in line with TCFD recommendations. Our coverage extends to more than 15,000 companies and includes 6 climate change physical risk indicators, including heat waves, cold waves, droughts, hurricanes, wildfires and river and coastal flooding.

此外，Trucost 的氣候變遷實體風險資料集可協助企業與投資人了解其對實體風險的曝險，並依循 TCFD 建議進行揭露。我們的覆蓋範圍延伸至超過 15,000 家公司，並包含 6 項氣候變遷實體風險指標，包括熱浪、寒流、乾旱、颶風、野火，以及河川與沿海洪水。

And last is the upcoming launch of E-mini S&P 500 ESG Futures at CME. We highlighted the creation of this index on our first quarter earnings call. It's great to see that so soon after its introduction a new futures contract is already being launched utilizing the S&P 500 ESG Index as its benchmark.

最後是 CME 即將推出的 E-mini S&P 500 ESG 期貨。我們在第一季財報電話會議中曾強調該指數的建立。很高興看到在推出後不久，就已經有新的期貨合約以 S&P 500 ESG 指數作為其基準而發行。

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Ewout Steenbergen, who is going to provide additional insights into our financial performance and our outlook. Ewout?

現在我想把電話會議交給 Ewout Steenbergen，他將就我們的財務表現與展望提供更多洞見。Ewout？

Thank you, Doug, and good morning to all of you on the call. Let me start with our third quarter financial results. Doug covered the highlights of strong revenue and adjusted earnings per share growth. I will take a moment to cover a few other items.

謝謝你，Doug，也向各位與會者道早安。我先從我們第三季的財務結果談起。Doug 已說明營收強勁以及調整後每股盈餘的成長重點。我將花點時間補充幾個其他項目。

While reported revenue increased 9%, organic revenue increased 10%. Adjusted operating profit margin improved 230 basis points based on strong revenue growth and ongoing productivity programs, partially offset by the impact of increased investments in growth initiatives. Interest expense decreased 16% due to a reduction of FIN 48 interest accruals associated with tax audits and increased foreign interest income. Share repurchases continue to be an important element of our capital return program.

在申報口徑下，營收成長 9%；以有機口徑計算，營收成長 10%。在強勁營收成長與持續的生產力計畫帶動下，調整後營業利益率提升 230 個基點，但部分被加大成長投資計畫的影響所抵銷。由於與稅務稽核相關的 FIN 48 利息應計減少，以及海外利息收入增加，利息費用下降 16%。股票回購仍是我們資本回饋計畫的重要一環。

These actions resulted in a 3% decline in our diluted weighted average shares outstanding. We recently completed our August $500 million ASR, and in October, we have been repurchasing shares in the open market through a 10b5-1 program. We expect to continue to repurchase shares through this 10b5-1 during the fourth quarter.

這些行動使我們的稀釋加權平均流通股數下降 3%。我們近期完成了 8 月的 5 億美元 ASR（加速股票回購），並於 10 月透過 10b5-1 計畫在公開市場回購股票。我們預期在第四季將持續透過此 10b5-1 計畫回購股票。

Stock options associated with 125,000 shares were exercised during the third quarter. This resulted in a stock-based compensation tax benefit on EPS of $0.02. Year-to-date, stock option activity is running well ahead of last year. However, as the number of employee stock options continues to decline, we expect a reduction in the tax benefit generated by stock option exercises.

第三季期間，與 125,000 股相關的股票選擇權被行使。這使每股盈餘（EPS）產生 0.02 美元的以股票為基礎之薪酬稅務利益。年初至今，股票選擇權活動明顯高於去年。然而，隨著員工股票選擇權數量持續下降，我們預期由股票選擇權行使所產生的稅務利益將減少。

During the quarter, changes in foreign exchange rates had a negligible impact on adjusted EPS. The only meaningful impact was on Ratings revenue, primarily due to the weakening of the euro and the British pound. There were 3 non-GAAP adjustments this quarter that collectively generated a pretax gain: $49 million from gains on divestments of RigData and SPIAS, $6 million in Kensho retention-related expenses and $29 million in deal-related amortization.

本季期間，外匯匯率變動對調整後每股盈餘（adjusted EPS）的影響可忽略不計。唯一較具意義的影響出現在評級（Ratings）營收，主要因歐元與英鎊走弱所致。本季共有 3 項非 GAAP 調整，合計帶來稅前收益：出售 RigData 與 SPIAS 的處分收益 4,900 萬美元、Kensho 留任相關費用 600 萬美元，以及交易相關攤銷 2,900 萬美元。

This is a slide that we shared at our Investor Day in May 2018. It depicts a framework that we outlined to show the areas where we most impact shareholder value. The first 2 require investments. We need to continue to invest to fuel revenue momentum with product innovations, new technology, new data sets and outreach to new customers in new geographies. We have made great progress delivering EBITDA enhancements, and we continue to fund new organic opportunities to drive additional productivity gains.

這張投影片是我們在 2018 年 5 月投資人日（Investor Day）分享過的。它呈現了我們所提出的一個架構，用以說明我們對股東價值影響最大的領域。前兩項需要投資。我們需要持續投資，透過產品創新、新技術、新資料集，以及拓展至新地理區域的新客戶，來推動營收動能。我們在提升 EBITDA 方面已取得重大進展，並持續投入新的內生成長機會，以帶動進一步的生產力提升。

Driving financial leverage involves optimizing interest costs, reducing shares outstanding and optimizing the tax rate. And finally, we want to return capital to shareholders while maintaining flexible debt capacity. We are committed to returning at least 75% of annual free cash flow to shareholders each year.

推動財務槓桿包括最佳化利息成本、減少流通在外股數，以及最佳化稅率。最後，我們希望在維持彈性的負債承擔能力（debt capacity）的同時，將資本回饋給股東。我們承諾每年將至少 75% 的年度自由現金流回饋給股東。

This quarter, all 4 divisions delivered revenue growth with Ratings and Indices delivering double-digit gains. On a trailing 4-quarter basis, adjusted operating profit margin increased for all 4 divisions. However, during the third quarter, Market Intelligence did not improve this metric with investment spending increasing year-over-year as planned. I'll provide color on the individual business results in a moment.

本季四大事業部門皆實現營收成長，其中評級（Ratings）與指數（Indices）均達到雙位數增幅。以過去 4 季（trailing 4-quarter）為基礎，四大事業部門的調整後營業利益率皆有所提升。然而在第三季，市場情報（Market Intelligence）由於依計畫增加投資支出，該指標未見改善，且投資支出年增。稍後我會就各項業務結果提供更多說明。

Now turning to the balance sheet. Cash and cash equivalents increased slightly to $2 billion versus the end of 2018. Our adjusted gross leverage to adjusted EBITDA was 1.9x, remaining within our targeted range of 1.75 to 2.25x. On an unadjusted basis, our gross debt to EBITDA leverage multiple decreased to 1.1x based on EBITDA growth in the first 9 months of 2019.

接著看資產負債表。截至 2018 年底相比，現金及約當現金小幅增加至 20 億美元。我們的調整後總槓桿（adjusted gross leverage）對調整後 EBITDA 為 1.9 倍，仍維持在目標區間 1.75 至 2.25 倍之內。以未調整口徑計算，總負債對 EBITDA 的槓桿倍數因 2019 年前 9 個月 EBITDA 成長而降至 1.1 倍。

Free cash flow excluding certain items increased $243 million to $1.647 billion in the first 9 months of this year. Share repurchases totaled $500 million in the third quarter through an ASR that was initiated in August. In addition, $140 million of dividends were paid during the quarter.

今年前 9 個月，剔除特定項目的自由現金流增加 2.43 億美元至 16.47 億美元。第三季透過 8 月啟動的加速股票回購（ASR）回購股票合計 5 億美元。此外，本季支付股利 1.40 億美元。

Now let's turn to the division results, starting with Ratings. Ratings revenue increased 13% and excluding the impact of ForEx was up 14%, consistent with the increase in issuance that Doug already discussed. Adjusted expenses increased 4% resulting in a 19% increase in adjusted segment operating profit and a 340 basis point increase in adjusted segment operating profit margin. On a trailing 4-quarter basis, adjusted segment operating profit margin increased 80 basis points to 56.7%.

現在我們來看各事業部門的表現，先從評級（Ratings）開始。評級營收成長 13%，若排除外匯（ForEx）影響則成長 14%，與 Doug 先前提到的發行量增幅一致。調整後費用增加 4%，使調整後部門營業利益成長 19%，調整後部門營業利益率提升 340 個基點。以過去 4 季為基礎，調整後部門營業利益率增加 80 個基點至 56.7%。

Non-transaction revenue increased 2% primarily due to fees associated with surveillance and new entity ratings, partially offset by Rating Evaluation Service and changes in foreign exchange rates. Excluding the impact of ForEx, non-transaction revenue grew 3%. Transaction revenue increased 25% due to very strong debt rating activity, particularly in high-yield and increased bank loan rating activity.

非交易型營收成長 2%，主要來自監測（surveillance）與新實體評級相關費用，部分被評級評估服務（Rating Evaluation Service）及外匯匯率變動所抵銷。若排除外匯（ForEx）影響，非交易型營收成長 3%。交易型營收成長 25%，受惠於非常強勁的債務評級活動，尤其是高收益（high-yield）領域，以及銀行貸款評級活動增加。

This slide depicts Ratings revenue by its end markets. The largest contributor to the increase in Ratings revenue was the 22% increase in corporates. In addition, financial services revenue was unchanged, structured finance declined 8%, government increased 25% and the CRISIL and other category increased 5%. This includes an increase in intersegment royalties from Market Intelligence and an increase in CRISIL's dollar-denominated revenue. In addition, we have added a new disclosure this quarter with a revenue breakdown of the individual products within structured. SC stands for structured credit and is primarily made up of CLOs. ABS and structured credit are the largest revenue categories.

本投影片按終端市場呈現評級（Ratings）營收。推動評級營收增加的最大貢獻來自企業（corporates）成長 22%。此外，金融服務營收持平，結構性金融（structured finance）下滑 8%，政府（government）成長 25%，CRISIL 與其他類別成長 5%。其中包含來自市場情報（Market Intelligence）的跨部門權利金（intersegment royalties）增加，以及 CRISIL 以美元計價營收增加。另外，我們本季新增揭露：將結構性（structured）內各個產品的營收進一步拆分。SC 代表結構性信用（structured credit），主要由 CLO 組成。ABS 與結構性信用是最大的營收類別。

Turning to S&P Dow Jones Indices. The segment delivered 14% revenue growth with gains in each category. In the third quarter, we reported 5% adjusted expense growth; 19% adjusted segment operating profit growth; and an adjusted segment operating profit margin of 70.1%, an increase of 280 basis points. On a trailing 4-quarter basis, the adjusted segment operating profit margin increased 160 basis points to 69.1%.

接著看 S&P 道瓊指數（S&P Dow Jones Indices）。該部門營收成長 14%，各類別皆有增長。第三季，我們報告調整後費用成長 5%；調整後部門營業利益成長 19%；調整後部門營業利益率為 70.1%，提升 280 個基點。以過去 4 季為基礎，調整後部門營業利益率增加 160 個基點至 69.1%。

Revenue in the various categories was up during the quarter. Asset-linked fees increased 17% due primarily to AUM growth in ETFs and strong growth in mutual funds as well as the purchase of certain intellectual property rights. Exchange-traded derivative revenue increased 12% on an increase in exchange-traded derivative activity. Data & Custom subscriptions increased 9%, but recall that a year ago, we reported a catch-up in real-time reporting that caused a difficult comparison.

本季各項類別營收均有所上升。資產連結費用（asset-linked fees）成長 17%，主要因 ETF 資產管理規模（AUM）成長、共同基金強勁成長，以及購買部分智慧財產權所致。交易所交易衍生品（exchange-traded derivative）營收成長 12%，反映交易所交易衍生品活動增加。資料與客製化訂閱（Data & Custom subscriptions）成長 9%，但請記得一年前我們曾因即時報價（real-time reporting）的追溯補收（catch-up）而使比較基期較為不利。

For our Indices division, over the past year, ETF net inflows were $47 billion and market appreciation was $3 billion. This resulted in quarter-ending ETF AUM of $1.55 trillion, which is 3% higher compared to 1 year ago.

就我們的指數（Indices）部門而言，過去一年 ETF 淨流入為 470 億美元，市場增值為 30 億美元。因此，季末 ETF AUM 達 1.55 兆美元，較一年前高出 3%。

I want to make a clear distinction between average AUM and quarter-ending AUM. Our revenue is based on average AUM, which increased 5% year-over-year. We disclose quarter-ending figures because flows and market gains and losses are best depicted using quarter-end figures, as shown in the waterfall chart on the right.

我想清楚區分平均 AUM 與季末 AUM。我們的營收是以平均 AUM 為基礎計算，年增 5%。我們揭露季末數字，是因為資金流向以及市場漲跌最適合用季末數字呈現，如右側瀑布圖所示。

Sequentially, versus the second quarter of 2019, ETF net inflows associated with our indices totaled $23 billion while market appreciation totaled $12 billion. Industry inflows into exchange-traded funds were $106 billion in the third quarter with the majority going into fixed income and global equity products. Flows into U.S. equity funds were $34 billion.

按季比較（相較 2019 年第二季），與我們指數相關的 ETF 淨流入合計 230 億美元，而市場增值合計 120 億美元。第三季全產業流入交易所交易基金（ETF）的資金為 1,060 億美元，其中大多流向固定收益與全球股票產品。流入美國股票基金的資金為 340 億美元。

This was an excellent quarter for exchange-traded derivative volume, with key indicators generally exhibiting large increases in volume. S&P 500 Index options activity increased 6%, VIX futures and options activity increased 22%, and activity at the CME equity complex increased 47%.

本季交易所交易衍生品成交量表現極佳，關鍵指標普遍呈現大幅放量。S&P 500 指數選擇權交易活動成長 6%，VIX 期貨與選擇權交易活動成長 22%，CME 股票複合產品（equity complex）交易活動成長 47%。

Market Intelligence delivered 5% revenue growth both on a reported and organic basis as the revenue impact from the divestment of SPIAS was not material. Also, I want to call your attention to some recent success at Panjiva. We have recently signed several new customers, among the largest new sales transactions since Panjiva was founded. We are creating value for our customers by adding Panjiva's unique data sets to a commercial operation with a much larger footprint in an environment where global trade data is increasingly important.

市場情報（Market Intelligence）營收成長 5%，無論按揭露口徑或有機口徑皆相同，因出售 SPIAS 對營收的影響並不重大。此外，我想請各位注意 Panjiva 近期的一些成功進展。我們最近簽下數個新客戶，為 Panjiva 成立以來規模最大的幾筆新銷售交易之一。在全球貿易資料日益重要的環境下，我們將 Panjiva 獨特的資料集納入一個版圖更大的商業營運體系，為客戶創造價值。

Adjusted expenses increased 7% due to increased investment spending. Adjusted segment operating profit declined slightly, and the adjusted segment operating profit margin decreased 160 basis points to 34.3%. More importantly, on a trailing 4-quarter basis, the division delivered a solid adjusted segment operating profit margin increase of 250 basis points to 35.2%.

調整後費用因投資支出增加而成長 7%。調整後部門營業利益小幅下滑，調整後部門營業利益率下降 160 個基點至 34.3%。更重要的是，以過去 4 季為基礎，該部門的調整後部門營業利益率穩健提升 250 個基點至 35.2%。

We have noted on the past few earnings calls that we planned on increasing investment spending in Market Intelligence in the second half of the year to support their expansion efforts in China, data marketplace, SME, ESG and cloud. This increase in investment spending has impacted operating profit margins throughout 2019.

我們在過去幾次財報電話會議中已提到，我們計劃在今年下半年增加對市場情報（Market Intelligence）的投資支出，以支持其在中國、資料市集（data marketplace）、中小企業（SME）、ESG 與雲端等領域的擴張工作。這項投資支出的增加已在 2019 年期間對營業利潤率造成影響。

Desktop revenue grew 5% excluding acquisitions and divestment while active desktop users grew 11%. While an improvement over last quarter, growth in this category has been slowing for the past few quarters due to several industry trends: lower industry growth in the Desktop category, a continued competitive environment and evolving customer preference for Desktop and data feeds. Data Management Solutions continued to exhibit strong growth with a gain of 8%. Credit Risk Solutions grew 5%, facing a difficult comparison as the prior period included a timing benefit associated with a contract renewal that we noted on the third quarter conference call last year.

Desktop 收入在排除併購與處分影響後成長 5%，而活躍 Desktop 使用者成長 11%。儘管較上季有所改善，但由於數項產業趨勢，該類別的成長在過去幾季已放緩：Desktop 類別的產業成長趨緩、競爭環境持續，以及客戶對 Desktop 與資料饋送（data feeds）的偏好正在演變。資料管理解決方案（Data Management Solutions）持續展現強勁成長，增幅達 8%。信用風險解決方案（Credit Risk Solutions）成長 5%，但面臨較高的比較基期，因為前期包含我們在去年第三季電話會議中提到、與合約續約相關的時點性利多。

And now turning to Platts. Steady revenue growth continued at Platts, increasing 4%. On an organic basis, adjusting for the sale of RigData in July, organic revenue increased 5%. Platts delivered a 4% increase in core subscriptions and a 16% increase in Global Trading Services with increased trading volumes of fuel oil, gas oil, LNG and iron ore. U.S. sanctions on Iran and Venezuela have had a modest impact on Platts revenue to date.

接下來談 Platts。Platts 的穩健營收成長延續，增加 4%。以有機基礎計算，並就 7 月出售 RigData 進行調整後，有機營收增加 5%。Platts 核心訂閱收入增加 4%，全球交易服務（Global Trading Services）增加 16%，主要受燃料油、柴油（gas oil）、LNG 與鐵礦石交易量上升帶動。截至目前，美國對伊朗與委內瑞拉的制裁對 Platts 營收的影響不大。

Adjusted expenses increased 3%, leading to an adjusted segment operating profit margin of 50.7%, an improvement of 40 basis points. The trailing 4-quarter adjusted segment operating profit margin increased 160 basis points to 49.6%. Power and gas delivered the largest rate of growth at 11%, primarily the result of increased adoption of our LNG benchmark, the JKM marker. Petrochemicals grew 8% due mostly to growth in subscriptions. Metals and ag grew 7%, thanks to increased iron ore derivative trading activity. Petroleum revenue increased 3%.

調整後費用增加 3%，使調整後分部營業利潤率達 50.7%，提升 40 個基點。過去 4 季的調整後分部營業利潤率增加 160 個基點至 49.6%。電力與天然氣（Power and gas）以 11% 的增幅成為成長最快的品類，主要來自市場對我們 LNG 基準——JKM 指標——採用度提高。石化（Petrochemicals）成長 8%，多數來自訂閱成長。金屬與農產品（Metals and ag）成長 7%，受鐵礦石衍生品交易活動增加帶動。石油（Petroleum）營收增加 3%。

Now lastly, I would like to discuss our 2019 guidance. This slide depicts our GAAP guidance. Those items that changed are highlighted. Please keep in mind that our guidance reflects current spot market ForEx rates.

最後，我想討論我們對 2019 年的指引。這張投影片呈現我們的 GAAP 指引。有變動的項目已特別標示。請記得，我們的指引反映目前即期市場外匯（ForEx）匯率。

Now let me review the changes to our adjusted guidance. While we are not changing our revenue guidance of a mid-single-digit increase, we are expecting higher revenue. Corporate unallocated expense has been reduced by $10 million due to a reduction in professional fees. Operating profit margin has been increased by 50 basis points due to slightly higher revenue and better-than-anticipated expenses. The tax rate has been reduced by 0.5 percent point with higher levels of stock option activity than initially anticipated. These items result in a $0.15 to $0.20 increase to our adjusted diluted EPS guidance range.

接著我來說明調整後指引的變動。雖然我們不調整「中個位數」成長的營收指引，但我們預期營收將更高。由於專業服務費用下降，公司未分攤費用（Corporate unallocated expense）已減少 1,000 萬美元。由於營收略高且費用優於預期，營業利潤率上調 50 個基點。由於股票選擇權活動水準高於原先預期，稅率下調 0.5 個百分點。上述因素使我們的調整後稀釋每股盈餘（EPS）指引區間上調 0.15 至 0.20 美元。

Our expectations for free cash flow are approximately $2.3 billion, which is at the high end of the previous range. We continue to execute upon our enterprise initiatives, including our stepped-up investments in growth opportunities and our $100 million cost-reduction program. An update will be provided on all of these programs during our fourth quarter earnings call.

我們對自由現金流的預期約為 23 億美元，位於先前區間的高端。我們持續推動企業層級的各項計畫，包括加碼投資成長機會，以及 1 億美元的成本削減計畫。我們將在第四季財報電話會議中就上述所有計畫提供最新進度。

In conclusion, we expect 2019 to be another very successful year for the company as we continue to deliver excellent near-term results while simultaneously building for the future. With that, let me turn the call back over to Chip for your questions.

總結而言，我們預期 2019 年將是公司另一個非常成功的年度：在持續交出優異的短期成果的同時，也同步為未來奠基。接下來我把電話交回給 Chip 來回答各位的提問。

Thank you, Ewout. (Operator Instructions) Operator, we'd now take our first question.

謝謝你，Ewout。（接線員指示）接線員，現在請讓我們進行第一個問題。

This question comes from Manav Patnaik with Barclays.

這個問題來自 Barclays 的 Manav Patnaik。

My first question is just broadly around issuance. Obviously, some -- 5% forecast next year is good. But I was hoping you could address a little bit the recent press around inflated bond ratings. And maybe the question is around your expectations for default rates and so forth next year.

我的第一個問題是比較廣泛地關於發行（issuance）。顯然，明年 5% 的預測不錯。但我希望你們能稍微談談近期媒體對債券評等被高估的報導。也許問題在於你們對明年違約率等指標的預期。

Great. Thanks, Manav. This is Doug. Well, first of all, just to talk a second about ratings issuance in the last quarter, it was incredibly volatile across different asset classes. As you might have seen in the numbers we prepared, you can see that the corporates in the U.S. was up 66%, but financial services was down 2.3%. Financial services in Europe was down 17%. Structured finance was mixed also around the globe. You had -- like ABS was up 6.6% while structured credit was down 4.6%.

好的。謝謝你，Manav。我是 Doug。首先，談一下上一季的評等發行（ratings issuance），不同資產類別之間的波動非常大。如你在我們準備的數據中可能看到，美國企業（corporates）上升 66%，但金融服務（financial services）下降 2.3%。歐洲金融服務下降 17%。結構性金融（structured finance）在全球也呈現分化。例如，ABS 上升 6.6%，而結構性信用（structured credit）下降 4.6%。

So some of those trends -- as we look into 2020, as you see, we've estimated about -- issuance is going to be up about 4.7%, 4.8%. That's being driven by a combination of factors, including the pipeline of maturities that's coming out. So we see that there's going to be maturity schedule of debt. We always look carefully at that. Zero interest rates, overall economic growth we're looking at to see how that's going to factor in. We are also seeing that there are a lot of M&A activity that's going to be coming through. There's been structured credit which is going to get refinanced, et cetera. So we put all of those into place to analyze what we're going to look at for 2020 issuance.

因此，針對這些趨勢——展望 2020 年，如你所見，我們估計發行量將上升約 4.7%、4.8%。這是由多項因素共同推動，包括即將到期的到期量（maturities）管線。因此我們看到將有一個債務到期時程。我們一向會仔細檢視這一點。我們也會觀察零利率、整體經濟成長，看看這些因素將如何影響。我們也看到將有大量併購（M&A）活動出現。此外，還有結構性信用將進行再融資等。因此我們把所有這些因素納入，來分析 2020 年的發行展望。

But let me address some of the concerns that you raised as well about the debt markets overall. First of all, let me just say that we stand behind our credit ratings. We have been making changes since 2010, 2011. We have become regulated around the world. There's actually 24 different jurisdictions we're regulated, and that includes -- one of those jurisdictions covers 28 countries, soon to be 27, and it's a very robust regulatory system around the globe. It's based on a set of principles that eliminate conflict of interest, minimize conflict of interest, there's segregation of duties. We have an independent oversight. We have independent Boards around the world overseeing, working with us to ensure that we are meeting the requirements of the different regulatory areas. There's also inspections, enforcement actions.

不過我也想回應你提出的、對整體債務市場的疑慮。首先我要說，我們對我們的信用評等負責並予以支持。自 2010、2011 年以來，我們一直在進行改革。我們已在全球受到監管。實際上我們在 24 個不同的司法管轄區受監管，其中一個管轄區涵蓋 28 個國家、很快將變成 27 個；而這是一套在全球相當健全的監管體系。它基於一套原則，用以消除利益衝突、將利益衝突降至最低，並且有職責分離。我們有獨立監督機制。我們在全球各地也有獨立董事會進行監督，與我們合作以確保我們符合不同監管區域的要求。此外也有檢查與執法行動。

So we've seen a very robust regulatory system put in place around the world. And since the financial crisis, at S&P, we've systematically reviewed and tested all of our criteria, at least updated many of those, including financial institutions, structured finance, corporates. Most of those have increased levels of the amount of collateral or the approach to how we think about the coverage ratios and things like that. And so throughout that period, we've done a lot of a very, very heavy lifting along with the regulators themselves to ensure that the ratings system overall globally is very robust and has really strong independent oversight.

因此我們看到全球已建立起一套非常健全的監管體系。而自金融危機以來，在標普（S&P），我們已系統性地檢視並測試我們所有的評等準則（criteria），至少也更新了其中許多，包括金融機構、結構性金融、企業等。其中多數準則提高了抵押品要求，或調整了我們看待覆蓋率（coverage ratios）等指標的方法。因此在那段期間，我們與監管機構一起做了大量、非常艱鉅的工作，以確保全球整體評等體系非常健全，並且具有非常強的獨立監督。

But let me talk a little bit about the current situation of the global debt markets. I would say that we're concerned but not alarmed. I don't know if that distinction makes sense to you. We now have a decade of very low interest rates and in Europe, even 0 interest rates with expectations that demographics and other factors are going to keep interest rates very low for a long time. And so that's led to a lot of issuance of debt around the world.

不過我也想談談目前全球債務市場的現況。我會說我們感到擔憂，但尚未到警戒的程度。我不確定這樣的區分你是否能理解。我們現在已經歷長達十年的超低利率，而在歐洲甚至是零利率；市場預期人口結構與其他因素將使利率在很長一段時間內維持在非常低的水準。因此，這也導致全球出現大量的債務發行。

So the debt levels have actually increased. And you can see that in the -- from the evidence of some of our ratings themselves, there's fewer AAA sovereigns around the world. There's only 2 corporate AAAs left. The overall distribution of ratings across the entire rating scale, the distribution is changed a lot. There is much, much higher percentage of BBB ratings than there were in the past. In fact, it's almost about 40% of the corporate ratings are now BBB as opposed to center of gravity that used to be a little bit more towards the A level. In addition, there's been a lot of increase in the B- rating category, which, as you know, that's a very speculative grade, and there's been a very large increase in that. In fact, the number of B- credits is back up to the same level around 2009.

因此，債務水準其實已經上升了。而你可以從——從我們部分評級本身的證據看出來，全球的 AAA 主權發行人變少了。目前只剩下 2 家企業 AAA。整體而言，跨越整個評級尺度的評級分布已經改變很多。BBB 評級的占比比過去高出許多、許多。事實上，現在企業評級中幾乎約 40% 是 BBB，相較於過去的重心更偏向 A 等級。此外，B- 評級類別也大幅增加；如你所知，那是非常投機等級，而其增幅非常大。事實上，B- 信用品質的數量已回升到約 2009 年的同一水準。

So as I said, we're seeing a lot of issues that we would consider to create what I'd call some concern in the markets, and we've been raising those concerns through research we've been publishing. Last year, at the end of the year, we published a paper about when the credit cycle turns BBB downgrade risks may be overstated. It's a very thorough review of the overall BBB market. Again, in May, we looked at a whole new study of the BBB market. That was on May 29. And then, recently, we looked at what are the -- why are companies moving to the BBB level. Was that something that management decided themselves? Or was this spurred by the downgrades themselves? And it's interesting because about 2/3 of people that moved from a A range to the BBB range are actually management actions themselves, whether it's a M&A transaction or it's some kind of a reason that management is going to take on additional debt for investment and lower their overall debt levels.

所以如我所說，我們看到許多我們認為會在市場上造成、我稱之為某種擔憂的議題，而我們也透過已發布的研究報告提出這些疑慮。去年年底，我們發表了一篇報告，討論當信用循環反轉時，BBB 降評風險可能被高估。那是一份對整體 BBB 市場非常全面的檢視。同樣地，在 5 月，我們又做了一份全新的 BBB 市場研究。那是在 5 月 29 日。然後最近，我們探討的是——為什麼公司會移動到 BBB 等級。這是管理層自己做的決定嗎？還是由降評本身所促發？而有趣的是，從 A 區間移到 BBB 區間的人當中，大約有 2/3 其實是管理層行動所致，不論是併購（M&A）交易，或是某種原因使管理層要為投資承擔額外債務，並降低其整體債務水準。

Anyway, we're watching this very carefully. We're aware that there's a lot of discussion going on in the markets around the ratings industry. And we're very confident that we have put in place an excellent system of controls across the company, high-quality criteria, high-quality people, and we're also watching very carefully as the credit markets start seeing changes.

總之，我們正非常仔細地觀察這件事。我們也知道市場上對評級產業有很多討論。我們非常有信心，我們已在公司內部建立了優秀的控管系統、高品質的準則、高品質的人才；同時，當信用市場開始出現變化時，我們也會非常密切地關注。

Got it. That's super helpful. And then just for my second question, Ewout. For the moderating Desktop growth, I think you called out one of the reasons as the preference of Desktop plus data feeds. And I was hoping you could just elaborate a little bit on that in terms of if anything has markedly changed or is the competitive environment just more challenging there.

了解。這非常有幫助。那接著是我的第二個問題，Ewout。關於 Desktop 成長放緩，我想你提到其中一個原因是客戶偏好 Desktop 加上資料饋送（data feeds）。我希望你能就這點再多說一點：是否有任何顯著改變，或是那裡的競爭環境只是變得更具挑戰？

Manav, if we look at our Desktop, we are still looking at our growth as the fastest growth overall in the desktop industry. We said to you last quarter that we expect mid-single-digit growth in the Desktop for Market Intelligence, and that's still what is our best expectation at this point in time. And then you see that active users of our Desktop products are still increased period-over-period by low teens kind of levels.

Manav，如果我們看我們的 Desktop，我們仍然認為我們的成長是整個桌面端產業中最快的。我們上季就跟你說過，我們預期 Market Intelligence 的 Desktop 將有中個位數成長，而目前這仍是我們在此時點的最佳預期。而你也看到，我們 Desktop 產品的活躍使用者仍然較前期增加，增幅約在低十幾個百分點的水準。

So why do we see this kind of level of growth in the Desktop? I think that has to do with a couple of reasons. It has always been a competitive environment, so to some extent, that's not so much different than what we have seen in the past. But certainly, there are changes in customer preferences in terms of the delivery mechanism of data. So we see more and more customers that want to have certain specific data sets through data feeds, which they can take into their data science groups, combine it with their own data sets and then deliver certain insights and take certain decisions out of that.

那為什麼我們會在 Desktop 看到這樣的成長水準？我想這與幾個原因有關。這一直都是競爭環境，所以在某種程度上，這與我們過去看到的並沒有太大不同。但確實，客戶在資料交付機制方面的偏好正在改變。因此我們看到越來越多客戶希望透過資料饋送取得某些特定資料集，他們可以把這些資料帶入其資料科學團隊，與自有資料集結合，進而產出特定洞見並據以做出決策。

So for us, it doesn't matter so much in which form customers would like to receive our data. In the end -- the Desktop is just, in the end, a delivery mechanism, and we see our data feeds business growing in a very rapid way. So therefore, if we look at our data feeds business, our best expectation of growth in the future will be high single digit to low teens for most of the quarters.

所以對我們而言，客戶希望以何種形式接收我們的資料並不是那麼重要。最終——Desktop 其實只是、最終只是一種交付機制，而我們看到我們的資料饋送業務正以非常快速的方式成長。因此，如果我們看資料饋送業務，我們對未來成長的最佳預期是在多數季度達到高個位數到低十幾個百分點。

The next question comes from Michael Cho with JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通（JPMorgan）的 Michael Cho。

I just want to stay on the Market Intelligence segment for a minute. I appreciate the color on the ongoing investment and the margin puts and takes there. Maybe it's a good time to maybe even provide a reminder or comment about how you think about incremental margins in that segment.

我想先在 Market Intelligence 部門再停留一下。我很感謝你對持續投資以及那裡毛利率（margin）增減因素的補充說明。也許現在是個好時機，請你提醒或評論一下，你們如何看待該部門的增量利潤率（incremental margins）。

Yes, Michael. At the beginning of this year, during our first quarter earnings call, we said that margin expectations for Market Intelligence should be more or less at the level of the reported margins in the first quarter going forward. And that has to do with 2 offsetting developments: on the one hand, the growth of the business through operating leverage which will drive the margins naturally up by itself; and then offset by very specific investments -- investment programs on some of those initiatives that we expect to help future growth of the company.

好的，Michael。今年年初，在我們第一季財報電話會議上，我們說過 Market Intelligence 的毛利率預期，往後應大致維持在第一季所報告的毛利率水準。這與兩個相互抵銷的發展有關：一方面，業務成長帶來營運槓桿，會自然推升毛利率；另一方面，則會被非常具體的投資——針對某些我們預期能支持公司未來成長的計畫與倡議——所抵銷。

And when we speak about the $100 million investment program overall, about half of those investments are going to Market Intelligence. So that is obviously depressing a bit margins at the same time. So the 2 factors are offsetting, and therefore, we said that expect margins to stay more or less at that level of the first quarter. And that is also basically what you have seen during the second and the third quarter. So going forward, we would say that probably, the same expectations should continue, margins in Market Intelligence to stay more or less at this level, maybe slightly creeping up.

而當我們談到整體 1 億美元的投資計畫時，其中約一半的投資會投入到 Market Intelligence。因此這顯然也會在同時對毛利率造成一些壓力。所以這兩個因素彼此抵銷，因此我們說預期毛利率將大致維持在第一季的水準。而這也基本上就是你在第二季與第三季所看到的情況。因此展望未來，我們會說大概同樣的預期應會延續：Market Intelligence 的毛利率大致維持在這個水準，可能略微上升。

I don't want to be too much ahead of ourselves and be too premature with respect to our 2020 guidance, but overall, we expect that we will have several initiatives where it makes sense to put new investments behind because, again, these investments make sense for future growth and value creation for our shareholders. So therefore, a similar trend to what you have seen so far this year is probably the best expectation for Market Intelligence in the near future.

我不想太早走在前面、也不想在 2020 年指引方面說得太早，但整體而言，我們預期會有數個倡議值得投入新的投資，因為同樣地，這些投資對未來成長以及為股東創造價值是合理的。因此，就 Market Intelligence 在短期內而言，與你今年迄今所看到的類似趨勢，可能是最佳預期。

Okay. Understood. Just on -- staying with Market Intelligence. Just you talked about the Desktop business and kind of mid-single-digit growth in the medium term, and then I think you heard -- I heard you referenced that the Desktop is a delivery mechanism of data a couple of times now. I mean if I think about the mid-single-digit growth, I mean, how should we frame or think about the components of that mid-single digit?

好的。了解。就——繼續談 Market Intelligence。你剛談到 Desktop 業務在中期是中個位數成長，然後我想我也聽到你提到好幾次，Desktop 是資料的交付機制。我的意思是，如果我想到中個位數成長，我們應該如何拆解或理解這個中個位數的組成？

Yes. I think the components is -- a bit tricky to give you all the details because we have never been speaking so much about that so far. But let me help you with a couple of pieces of information that is hopefully useful for you. So when we look at our overall strategy for Market Intelligence and the Desktop, our strategy is focused about delivering better content, more data, higher-quality data, alternative data, better linking, better search engine and then we have our enterprise approach, which is the enterprise-wide contracts, where we want to stimulate as much users to go on our platform. So there is a fixed price per customer, and they can have as many users on the platform as they want. Therefore, seeing more active users, and therefore, we see that going up, as we reported this quarter, 11%. But it has been more or less in the low double digit for the last multiple quarters.

是的。我認為要把組成——要給你所有細節有點棘手，因為到目前為止我們從未對此談得那麼多。但我可以提供你幾點資訊，希望對你有幫助。當我們看 Market Intelligence 與 Desktop 的整體策略時，我們的策略聚焦在提供更好的內容、更多資料、更高品質的資料、替代性資料、更好的連結、更好的搜尋引擎；此外我們也有企業方案（enterprise approach），也就是企業級合約，我們希望促使盡可能多的使用者上到我們的平台。因此每位客戶是固定價格，他們可以在平台上擁有想要的任意數量使用者。因此我們看到更多活躍使用者，也因此我們看到活躍使用者上升，如我們本季所報告的 11%。但在過去多個季度，這大致都維持在低雙位數的水準。

So if you take that into account, we get a better product period-after-period. And the combination of that strategy, if you look at the annualized contract value of our customers, we see a healthy growth, and that gives us the confidence that we would be able to grow our Desktop revenue in the future at the mid-single-digit level. The other point that I would like to highlight is our aspirational margin guidance for Market Intelligence. We have said that it's mid- to high 30s, so that is the guidance that we want to provide over time, where we think the margins will go for Market Intelligence.

因此，如果把這點納入考量，我們就能在每一期都打造出更好的產品。而這項策略的組合效果，如果你看我們客戶的年化合約價值（annualized contract value），我們看到健康的成長，這也讓我們有信心，未來我們能以中個位數的水準成長我們的 Desktop 營收。我還想強調的另一點是，我們對 Market Intelligence 的理想（aspirational）利潤率指引。我們曾表示是 30% 中段到高段，因此這就是我們希望隨時間提供的指引，也就是我們認為 Market Intelligence 的利潤率將會走向的水準。

The next question comes from Toni Kaplan for Morgan Stanley.

下一個問題來自 Morgan Stanley 的 Toni Kaplan。

Could you talk a little bit more about the strong Ratings margin expansion in the quarter? Was it driven by a greater mix of higher-margin products? Or did you take more price than normal? And how sustainable is the level of margin going forward in Ratings? Would you consider raising your medium-term Ratings margin target from the high 50s?

你能否再多談一些本季 Ratings 利潤率大幅擴張的原因？這是由於高利潤率產品的組合占比提高所帶動嗎？還是你們提價幅度高於正常水準？以及 Ratings 未來的利潤率水準有多可持續？你們會考慮把中期 Ratings 利潤率目標從 50% 高段上調嗎？

Toni, this is Ewout. Thank you for recognizing the strong results in Ratings. Obviously, we are also very pleased with the progress we are making. The improvement in margins in Ratings has been basically a continued trend over the last periods. And we have in fact seen that in periods where the debt issuance market was a bit weaker at the end of last year, the beginning of this year, our margins were still developing in a favorable way, and now we can continue on that also when the issuance markets look more favorable.

Toni，我是 Ewout。謝謝你注意到 Ratings 的強勁表現。顯然，我們也對目前取得的進展感到非常滿意。Ratings 的利潤率改善，基本上是過去幾個期間延續下來的趨勢。事實上，我們也看到，在去年底到今年初債務發行市場稍微疲弱的期間，我們的利潤率仍以有利的方式發展；而現在當發行市場看起來更有利時，我們也能在此基礎上持續推進。

Overall, Ratings margins on a trailing 4 quarter basis were at the level of 56.7%. So according to our standards, we are not really at the level of our aspirational margin targets of high 50s, so I have a bit of room still there to grow. And how do we expect that growth to happen in the future? Continued revenue growth, which is a combination of new issuance, refinancings, of course commercial contract changes, new initiatives that we put in place in Ratings, think about the ESG Evaluations, think about our launch of Ratings activities in other countries around the world. And then there is also continued work around making the Ratings organization more effective, taking complexity out, taking layers of the organization out and making it more an effective organization. So overall, expenses going up 4% this quarter, and the top line going up 13% I think is clearly a very good combination, and that is helping margins. But you should expect basically the same trends, the same activities, the same management actions to continue in the future.

整體而言，以過去 4 個季度（trailing 4 quarter）為基礎計算，Ratings 的利潤率為 56.7%。因此，依照我們的標準，我們其實還沒有達到我們理想利潤率目標的 50% 高段水準，所以仍有一些成長空間。那我們預期未來這個成長會如何發生？持續的營收成長，這是新發行、再融資，當然也包括商業合約變更，以及我們在 Ratings 推出的新計畫所共同構成；例如 ESG Evaluations，例如我們在全球其他國家推出 Ratings 業務活動。此外，我們也會持續推動讓 Ratings 組織更有效率的工作，降低複雜度、減少組織層級，讓組織更精實、更有效。因此，整體來看，本季費用增加 4%，而營收增加 13%，我認為這顯然是非常好的組合，並且正在推升利潤率。但你應該預期，基本上相同的趨勢、相同的活動、相同的管理作為，未來仍會持續。

Great. And then international index revenue was very strong in the quarter. I guess what are the largest drivers there? And can you provide any additional color on the international opportunity and the potential to make some inroads versus your largest competitor in that market?

很好。另外，本季國際指數營收非常強勁。我想問最大的驅動因素是什麼？以及你能否就國際機會、以及相較於該市場最大競爭對手取得更多進展（inroads）的潛力，提供更多說明？

Sorry, Toni. Which -- I missed which segment were you referring to.

抱歉，Toni。你指的是哪一個——我漏聽了你提到的是哪個部門。

Index but specifically with regard to international.

指數（Index），但特別是就國際而言。

Yes. The international strategy for index is not so much changed what we have said in the past. As you know, our business is largely tailored around U.S. equities, where we hold some of the largest benchmarks. But then we are growing our international business in many different ways, mostly through relationships with exchanges around the world, and there are several of those in Canada, in Australia and in many other markets. That's the way how we're trying to grow our international business. So there's nothing particular here to call out with respect to what was the driver. This is the same strategy that we have been applying over the last period.

是的。指數的國際策略，並沒有太大改變我們過去所說的內容。如你所知，我們的業務主要是圍繞美國股票，我們擁有一些最大的基準指數。但同時，我們也透過許多不同方式擴展國際業務，主要是透過與全球各地交易所的合作關係，其中包括加拿大、澳洲以及許多其他市場。這就是我們試圖擴大國際業務的方式。因此，就驅動因素而言，沒有特別需要點出的地方。這是我們在過去一段時間一直採行的相同策略。

The next question comes from Alex Kramm from UBS.

下一個問題來自 UBS 的 Alex Kramm。

Just coming back to the issuance forecast for 2020. Thanks for including that again. I know it's an early look, but 2 quick ones here. One, could you actually break it down by buckets what the different growth rates are for corporate versus structured, et cetera? I don't think you mentioned that. And then more importantly, if I look at mid-single-digits or 5% growth for next year in issuance, considering some of the pricing that you typically pick up, that would probably push Ratings revenue growth in the high single digits. I know this is not a guidance call, and you usually don't talk about Ratings guidance specifically, but anything where that may not be the case that plays out? What would be the other factors to think about?

回到你們對 2020 年發行量（issuance）的預測。謝謝你們再次把這部分納入。我知道現在還很早，但我這裡有兩個簡短問題。第一，你能否按類別拆分一下不同的成長率，例如公司債（corporate）相對於結構性產品（structured）等等？我想你剛才沒有提到。第二、更重要的是，如果我看明年發行量中個位數或 5% 的成長，考量你們通常能取得的一些定價（pricing），那可能會把 Ratings 的營收成長推到高個位數。我知道這不是指引電話會議，你們通常也不會特別談 Ratings 的指引，但是否有任何原因可能導致結果不會如此發展？還有哪些其他因素需要考量？

Yes. So the second part of your question, we're going to address in our next earnings call. So the full year fourth quarter call, we're going to talk about -- give some outlook for 2020.

是的。你問題的第二部分，我們會在下一次財報電話會議中回應。也就是全年第四季的電話會議，我們會談到——並提供一些對 2020 年的展望。

But going back to the first part of your question, which relates to our issuance, let me give you some of the numbers then. So for -- I'm going to give you 2019 and 2020. So for corporate, we see that by the end of the year, the corporate issuance should have gone up by about 17%; and then in 2020, up 6%; financial services, up 6% this year, and our forecast for 2020 is up 3.5%. Structured finance will end this year at about 2% up and next year, we're looking at 5% up. And then U.S. public finance is 6.2% for this year and 2% for next year. And that gives you total numbers of about 9.4% for 2019 and 4.7% for 2020.

但回到你問題的第一部分，也就是關於我們的發行量，我來提供一些數字。我會提供 2019 年與 2020 年的數字。公司債方面，我們看到到今年年底，公司債發行量應該約成長 17%；而 2020 年成長 6%；金融服務（financial services）今年成長 6%，我們對 2020 年的預測是成長 3.5%。結構性融資（structured finance）今年年底約成長 2%，明年我們預期成長 5%。美國公共融資（U.S. public finance）今年為 6.2%，明年為 2%。合計起來，2019 年約為 9.4%，2020 年為 4.7%。

And as I said before, this is based on a deep review and research by our credit research team in Ratings that look across many different factors. They look at all the different markets, they look at interest rates, they look at maturities coming up, they look at the M&A market, they look at what's out in bridge loans, et cetera, et cetera. So this is right now their best forecast at this point in time.

如我先前所說，這是基於我們 Ratings 的信用研究團隊所做的深入檢視與研究，他們會從許多不同因素進行評估。他們會看所有不同市場、利率、即將到期的期限結構（maturities）、併購（M&A）市場、橋貸（bridge loans）的存量等等。因此，這是他們在目前時間點所能提出的最佳預測。

All right. Fair enough. And then just secondly, quick one, you were pretty quiet on China in your prepared remarks in terms of the domestic opportunity. I think last time, you talked about how active you were over the summer, engaging with potential new corporates to get a listing. I guess I would have expected a little bit more action heading into the fall. So just curious what's been happening over there.

好。可以理解。另外第二個簡短問題，你在事先準備的發言中，對中國的國內機會相對比較低調。我記得上次你提到，夏天你們非常積極，與潛在的新企業客戶互動以取得掛牌（listing）。我想我原本會預期進入秋季會有更多動作。所以只是好奇那邊目前的進展如何。

Yes. So China is still a super-high priority for us, very exciting. We still have a lot of people visiting, and our launch has been going very, very well. And -- but because building a market like this from scratch, it's going to take time. And as you've heard us say in the past call, this is a 3- to 5- to 10-year kind of initiative. We are in this for the long run. And so since last quarter, we've been holding hundreds of meetings, educating market participants. We've been calling on all types of market participants to discuss ratings or methodologies or criteria, and we do see a very active pipeline building.

是的。因此，中國對我們而言仍然是超高優先事項，非常令人振奮。我們仍然有很多人來訪，而我們的推出進展非常、非常順利。但是——由於要從零開始建立這樣一個市場，這需要時間。正如你們在過去的電話會議中聽我們說過，這是一項為期3年到5年到10年的倡議。我們是著眼於長期。因此，自上個季度以來，我們已經舉行了數百場會議，向市場參與者進行教育。我們拜訪了各類市場參與者，討論評級、方法論或標準，我們確實看到一個非常活躍的案源管道正在建立。

In addition to that, we've also launched our Market Intelligence business, and we've added full coverage of the Chinese public and private bond issuers with profiles and financials. This market has actually noticed that we've begun to add new customers in China for credit solutions, and so we're very pleased with the overall results.

除此之外，我們也推出了我們的市場情報（Market Intelligence）業務，並新增了對中國公募與私募債券發行人的完整覆蓋，包含公司檔案與財務資訊。市場其實已注意到我們開始在中國為信用解決方案新增客戶，因此我們對整體結果非常滿意。

In addition to that, one of the factors which I personally watch very carefully is how are we doing hiring the right people. And we now have in place a new Chief Financial Officer for our Chinese operations, a CTO. We've got a Head of People, and so we've got the infrastructure in place now with really highly qualified people who are helping us build out the team and make sure we have the right kind of functionality in place. So more to come on China. We'll obviously keep reporting on it as it progresses, but the progress in the third quarter was excellent, and I'm really, really pleased with the team we've built on ground and the market response that we've been getting.

此外，我個人非常密切關注的一個因素是：我們在招募合適人才方面做得如何。我們現在已為中國營運配置了一位新的首席財務官（CFO）以及一位首席技術官（CTO）。我們也有一位人力資源主管，因此我們現在已具備基礎架構，並由真正高素質的人才協助我們擴建團隊，確保具備正確的功能配置。關於中國還會有更多進展。我們當然會隨著進展持續回報，但第三季的進展非常出色，我對我們在當地建立的團隊以及市場給予的回應感到非常、非常滿意。

The next question comes from Andrew Nicholas from William Blair.

下一個問題來自 William Blair 的 Andrew Nicholas。

Looks like Data Management Solutions slowed a bit. I think you called out a onetime item in the year-ago period. But is there any additional color you could provide there? And then sticking with Data Management Solutions, could you deconstruct the growth in the segment over the past couple of quarters? How much is coming from selling your data feed to existing clients? How much is coming from existing clients maybe interested in data feeds for the first time? And then I guess that would leave how much is coming from new clients altogether?

看起來資料管理解決方案（Data Management Solutions）放緩了一些。我想你們提到去年同期有一個一次性項目。但你們能否提供更多說明？另外，延續資料管理解決方案的話題，你們能否拆解一下該分部在過去幾個季度的成長來源？有多少來自向既有客戶銷售你們的資料饋送（data feed）？有多少來自既有客戶可能首次對資料饋送感興趣？那麼剩下的有多少是來自全新的客戶？

When we look at Data Management Solutions, there is nothing particular to call out with respect to the growth this quarter. It was 8% growth as you have seen. This is always dancing around a little bit quarter-by-quarter based on specific transactions and deals that happened during the quarter itself, but we would look at this as normal volatility. As I said before the expectation should be for the data feeds business growth over the next period, high single digit to low teens during most quarters.

當我們看資料管理解決方案時，本季的成長沒有什麼特別需要指出的。如你所見，成長為8%。這一塊一向會因為當季發生的特定交易與案子而在季度間略有波動，但我們會把這視為正常的波動。如我先前所說，對資料饋送業務在接下來一段期間的成長預期，應是在多數季度落在高個位數到低十位數百分比。

With respect to customers, that is a whole mix of new customers, existing customers, new data feeds. We're putting more and more data on our Xpressfeed platform. You have seen some of that, for example, with respect to our transcript business, which used to be a static product and has become now a data feed product where it's in machine-readable format. It has the links there. It has been tacked to certain key words, for example, the analysts and then the analyst models or key individuals that are speaking to the call. We have Panjiva data on our feeds business, the SNL data on our feeds business. Doug was speaking in his prepared remarks about the sentiment scores around this, so we're adding more and more content on our data feeds business, and that is ultimately driving growth, both from existing customers and new customers.

就客戶而言，這是新客戶、既有客戶以及新的資料饋送需求的綜合組合。我們正在我們的 Xpressfeed 平台上放入越來越多的資料。你們已經看到其中一些例子，例如我們的逐字稿（transcript）業務，過去是靜態產品，現在已變成資料饋送產品，採用機器可讀格式。它包含連結。它也會標註某些關鍵字，例如分析師，以及分析師模型或在電話會議中發言的關鍵人士。我們的饋送業務中也有 Panjiva 資料、SNL 資料。Doug 在其事先準備的發言中談到了相關的情緒分數（sentiment scores），因此我們正在為資料饋送業務加入越來越多內容，而這最終正推動成長，來源同時包括既有客戶與新客戶。

Great. And then sticking in Market Intelligence, international revenue has been growing quite fast and faster than U.S. revenue, and I think that dynamic was a bit pronounced this quarter. So I was hoping you could speak to what's driving that. And then maybe which regions you're seeing the strongest growth in.

很好。接著回到市場情報（Market Intelligence），國際收入成長相當快，而且快於美國收入，我認為這一季這個動態更為明顯。所以我想請你談談是什麼在驅動這點。另外，你們看到成長最強勁的是哪些地區？

Yes, that's a correct observation. We are growing internationally. We are doing that by growing our sales force around the world, and we see particular growth in the EMEA region being very healthy as well as in Asia. That's by the way, not only a trend for Market Intelligence. We see, for example, the same for our Platts business, and we are very pleased with that because that's a result of a very explicit strategy we have as a company to grow faster outside of the U.S. and be able to take our fair share in terms of market position around the world. So yes, this is the result of very specific, strategic actions we have taken in our businesses.

是的，這個觀察正確。我們在國際市場成長。我們透過在全球擴充銷售團隊來做到這點，我們看到 EMEA 地區的成長特別健康，同時亞洲也有成長。順帶一提，這不只是市場情報的趨勢。例如，我們在 Platts 業務也看到同樣情況；我們對此非常滿意，因為這是公司一項非常明確策略的成果：在美國以外更快成長，並在全球市場地位上取得我們應有的份額。所以是的，這是我們在各項業務中採取非常具體、策略性行動的結果。

The next question comes from Christian Bolu with Autonomous.

下一個問題來自 Autonomous 的 Christian Bolu。

Just wanted to dig into monetization and customer demand for your ESG services. I guess now that you have done a number of ESG value -- or assessments, could you give a bit more color on sort of monetization? How are you charging for an assessment? What is the fee based on? And then any sort of color on sort of pipeline or target number of assessments you want to achieve over the next sort of 12 to 24 months?

我想深入了解你們 ESG 服務的變現（monetization）與客戶需求。我想既然你們已經做了多項 ESG 價值——或評估（assessments），你們能否就變現方式提供更多說明？你們如何對一次評估收費？費用是依據什麼來定？另外，能否談談案源管道，或你們希望在未來12到24個月內達成的評估目標數量？

This is Doug. Well, first of all, ESG products across the company are quite varied. As you know, we put in place a framework where last year, I put in place a design team for ESG, cutting across all of the divisions so that we could take advantage of this really big opportunity. By the way, just anecdotally, I was in the IMF meetings in Washington a couple weeks ago, and every single meeting that I had, we talked about ESG. So just -- I know that's anecdotal, but it's a really booming area.

我是 Doug。首先，公司的 ESG 產品相當多元。如你所知，我們建立了一個框架：去年我成立了一個跨所有事業部的 ESG 設計團隊，以便把握這個非常大的機會。順帶一提，僅作為一個軼事，我幾週前在華盛頓參加 IMF 會議，我參加的每一場會議都談到了 ESG。所以——我知道這只是軼事，但這確實是一個非常蓬勃的領域。

And so across the company, we have various ESG products. Today, I talked about a few of those that we have with Trucost, which is part of Market Intelligence. I also talked about one of the specific ESG indices we have with the S&P 500 ESG Index that we now are going to be launching. CME is going to be launching a futures contract traded on that. So across the board, we're seeing a lot of growth in this, and we will give some more information about the overall outlook on our earnings call next quarter.

因此在公司各處，我們有各式各樣的 ESG 產品。今天我談到其中幾項，例如我們透過 Trucost（屬於市場情報的一部分）提供的產品。我也談到我們的一個特定 ESG 指數，也就是我們即將推出的 S&P 500 ESG 指數。CME 將推出以該指數為標的的期貨合約並進行交易。因此整體而言，我們看到這方面有很大的成長，我們會在下季的財報電話會議上提供更多關於整體展望的資訊。

But within the Ratings product, the one you're specifically talking about, we've had 3 ratings -- ESG, sorry, ratings, ESG Evaluations from the Ratings business, which have been published, made public. The introductory pricing there is one that we're using as pilots with the clients that we've been meeting with, and we're going to be rolling out a different pricing schedule over time.

但在評級（Ratings）產品中，也就是你特別提到的那一項，我們已經有3個評級——ESG，抱歉，是評級業務的 ESG 評估（ESG Evaluations）已經發布並公開。目前的入門定價是我們用來與正在會面的客戶進行試點（pilot）的方式，之後我們會隨時間推進推出不同的定價表。

But again, as I mentioned with our China discussion earlier, this is really a great opportunity for us to be rolling out new products and services, which are in demand by the market with a long-term view. We're not just rushing into this in the next quarter, the next 2 quarters. This is a 2- to 3- to 5-year initiative. We want to do it in the right way, and we're very, very pleased with the response that we've been getting and the hundreds of customers that we're meeting with that are asking for follow-up phone calls to learn more about the engagement. So more to come on this, but we're off to what we think is a very good start, and we're very enthusiastic about what we see.

不過再說一次，正如我先前在我們討論中國時提到的，這對我們而言確實是一個很好的機會，讓我們以長期視角推出市場有需求的新產品與服務。我們並不是只想在下一季、接下來兩季就匆忙推進。這是一項為期2到3年、甚至5年的計畫。我們希望以正確的方式來做，而且我們對目前收到的回饋感到非常、非常滿意；我們也正在與數百位客戶會面，他們都在要求後續電話聯繫，以進一步了解合作內容。因此後續還會有更多進展，但我們認為目前的起步非常好，對於我們所看到的情況也感到非常振奮。

For my follow-up, Europe, you mentioned issuance trends remain weak in Europe. That's by low interest rates. Maybe some color on what you think is going on there. And then more importantly, as we look into sort of 2020 and beyond, kind of how do you think trends evolve there?

我追問一下關於歐洲。你提到歐洲的發行趨勢仍然疲弱。這是因為低利率。也許可以補充一些你認為那邊正在發生什麼的看法。更重要的是，當我們展望2020年及以後，你認為那邊的趨勢會如何演變？

Yes. The European markets, there's a couple of big trends going on. One of them obviously is very, very low interest rates. In fact, the rates there are now so low that even Greece had some negative rates in the last quarter where you had the entire yield curve for a few markets, the German market and the French market a few weeks ago, the entire yield curve from overnight to 30 years was negative. And so there's a lot of questions about growth in Europe. There was a change going on in the ECB between Mario Draghi and -- coming in with Christine Lagarde. There's been some discussion that Christine Lagarde, although she's in ECB, is somebody that's trying to talk about more stimulative fiscal policies and structural reform, which would potentially help drive some new growth in the markets.

是的。歐洲市場目前有幾個重大趨勢正在發生。其中之一顯然是利率非常、非常低。事實上，那邊的利率現在低到連希臘在上一季都出現了一些負利率；而在少數市場中，你看到整條殖利率曲線都為負，例如德國市場，以及幾週前的法國市場，從隔夜到30年期的整條殖利率曲線都是負的。因此，市場對歐洲成長前景有很多疑問。歐洲央行（ECB）也正在交接，從馬里奧·德拉吉（Mario Draghi）到——由克里斯蒂娜·拉加德（Christine Lagarde）接任。外界也有一些討論認為，拉加德雖然在ECB，但她傾向倡議更具刺激性的財政政策與結構性改革，這可能有助於帶動市場出現新的成長。

So I think that there's a combination of questions about how long interest rates are going to stay that low. You've got questions about some new policies that are going to be coming to market. You also have the Brexit, which has created some uncertainty. So when we speak with participants in the market, these are the sorts of factors which they will cite as to why issuance has been a little bit weak in Europe.

所以我認為，這裡同時存在幾個因素：大家在問利率會維持這麼低多久。也在關注一些即將推出的新政策。此外還有英國脫歐（Brexit），帶來了一些不確定性。因此當我們與市場參與者交流時，這些就是他們會引用、用來解釋為何歐洲發行量稍顯疲弱的因素。

But overall though, it's still a critical market for us. We're well prepared to respond, no matter what direction it goes, and we've also positioned ourselves for Brexit so that we're able to serve the markets no matter what direction Brexit goes by having opened a Ratings headquarters in Dublin. So overall, we're very well prepared to respond whatever the direction goes. But there's definitely a lot of issues in Europe, which have created some caution in the markets there.

不過整體而言，歐洲對我們仍然是關鍵市場。無論走向如何，我們都已做好回應準備；同時我們也已針對脫歐完成布局，為了能在脫歐結果不論如何的情況下服務市場，我們已在都柏林設立評級業務總部。因此整體來說，無論方向如何，我們都已非常充分地準備好應對。但歐洲確實存在許多議題，讓當地市場更為謹慎。

Next question comes from Bill Warmington from Wells Fargo.

下一個問題來自富國銀行（Wells Fargo）的Bill Warmington。

So first question for you on Platts. The 5% growth, as expected. The question I have is a couple of years ago, it was a high single-digit, low double-digit-type grower, and the nonpetroleum markets are actually growing at that level. You mentioned several new product launches underway. And I wanted to ask whether you thought there had been structural changes to the business with the end markets that are going to keep the business at the mid-single digits or whether there's a possibility with the new product launches and changes in the market that you could see an acceleration of that growth back to the upper single-digit, low double-digit range.

我先問一個關於Platts的問題。5%的成長符合預期。我的問題是，幾年前它還是高個位數、低雙位數的成長型業務，而非石油市場其實仍以那樣的速度在成長。你提到正在推出幾項新產品。我想請問，你是否認為終端市場的變化已對業務造成結構性改變，會讓這項業務維持在中個位數成長；或者隨著新產品推出與市場變化，是否有可能看到成長加速、回到高個位數到低雙位數的區間？

And you're right that Platts is a very steady grower at the mid-single-digit level at this point in time. You see the core subscription business, the price reporting business being very steady, growing every year at that level. That's, of course, the majority of the business, and historically also very much focused around oil, petrochemicals, gas and oil-related products.

你說得沒錯，目前Platts確實是一個在中個位數水準上非常穩健的成長者。你會看到核心的訂閱業務、價格報導業務非常穩定，每年都以那樣的幅度成長。當然，那是業務的大宗，而且歷史上也非常聚焦在石油、石化、天然氣以及與石油相關的產品。

But we are expanding very rapidly to new commodity categories, and we are very pleased with that. Metals, agriculture, we have been speaking about LNG. Also, renewables is of course a very important element there also around the ESG theme. So we're clearly expanding around new commodities, which will help with future growth in Platts.

但我們正在非常快速地擴展到新的大宗商品類別，對此我們非常滿意。金屬、農業，我們也一直在談LNG（液化天然氣）。另外，再生能源當然也是非常重要的一環，也與ESG主題密切相關。因此我們明確地在新商品領域擴張，這將有助於Platts未來的成長。

And then we're very pleased with the growth in Global Trading Services. These are the products that are being developed with some of the exchanges around the world. Think about Singapore Exchange, think about ICE. And the product developments, they are really having some traction and, therefore, good growth in Global Trading Services.

此外，我們也對全球交易服務（Global Trading Services）的成長感到非常滿意。這些產品是與全球一些交易所共同開發的。例如新加坡交易所（Singapore Exchange），例如ICE。這些產品開發確實正在取得進展、帶來動能，因此全球交易服務也有不錯的成長。

One key element that we believe is very relevant with respect to future growth of Platts as well is the fact that commodity trading desk in some of the large investment banks have been reduced heavily over the last few years. So when we will see more of those global trading desks around commodities coming back in some of the investment banking organizations, then we would expect to see a pickup in growth of Platts in the future. But the best expectation for the near future is probably very steady, predictable mid-single-digit-level growth for Platts.

我們認為，另一個與Platts未來成長高度相關的關鍵因素是：過去幾年，一些大型投資銀行的大宗商品交易部門已大幅縮減。因此，當我們看到這些投資銀行機構中的全球大宗商品交易部門回歸時，我們預期Platts未來的成長將會回升。但就近期而言，最合理的預期可能仍是非常穩定、可預測的中個位數成長。

Okay. And then for my second question on Market Intelligence. In the past, you've talked about that business by end market, and I think about half of it was non-Wall Street, buy-side, sell-side related. So historically, that's helped Market Intelligence buffer some -- buffer itself from some of the secular pressures on the sell-side and buy-side. And I just wanted to ask, if we can get a little color in terms of how those 2 segments, the buy-side, sell-side versus the non-Wall Street side did and are doing.

好的。第二個問題關於Market Intelligence。過去你們曾按終端市場來談這項業務，我記得大約有一半不是華爾街相關的買方、賣方業務。因此歷史上，這有助於Market Intelligence在面對賣方與買方的長期結構性壓力時，起到一些緩衝——讓它能自我緩衝。我想請你補充一些色彩：這兩個區塊，也就是買方/賣方相對於非華爾街客群，表現如何、以及目前進展如何？

Yes. We continue to be very pleased that we have such a well-diversified customer base in Market Intelligence and in fact, that's one of the reasons why we believe that we can continue to grow a bit above the industry kind of levels. So we have buy-side, we have sell-side and investment banking. We have a large customer group in corporate banking and insurance. We have general corporates. We have the academic world. So we are seeing still a very well-diversified group of customers. So we expect that to continue and overall, therefore, we feel we are relatively well insulated against some of the specific trends, particularly on the buy-side, as you have highlighted.

是的。我們仍然非常高興Market Intelligence擁有如此多元化的客戶基礎；事實上，這也是我們認為能夠持續以略高於產業水準成長的原因之一。我們有買方，也有賣方與投資銀行。我們在企業銀行與保險也有一大群客戶。我們也有一般企業客戶。我們有學術界。因此我們仍然看到一個非常多元化的客戶群。我們預期這種情況會持續；因此整體而言，我們覺得自己相對能夠抵禦一些特定趨勢的影響，尤其是你所提到、買方那邊的趨勢。

And then a parting comment for Chip. I'm just -- I'm looking forward to how you guys optimize your earnings calls going forward using the Kensho TDA technology.

最後給Chip一個結語。我只是——很期待看到你們未來如何運用Kensho TDA技術來優化你們的財報電話會議。

Next question comes from Joseph Foresi from Cantor Fitzgerald.

下一個問題來自Cantor Fitzgerald的Joseph Foresi。

This is Drew Kootman on for Joe. I know you mentioned Scribe and TDA. I was just wondering if you can talk about some other areas where Kensho is contributing.

我是代替Joe的Drew Kootman。我知道你提到了Scribe和TDA。我想請問，你能否談談Kensho還在哪些其他領域有所貢獻？

Absolutely. And we continue to be extremely excited about Kensho. Actually we feel this year we have found a good operating mode, a good group so to say in the collaboration between the businesses and Kensho. And are many initiatives that are going on and overall with a lot of enthusiasm within the organization.

當然可以。而且我們對Kensho仍然感到極度振奮。其實我們覺得今年我們已經找到一個良好的運作模式，也就是各業務與Kensho之間協作的一個良好團隊與方式。目前有許多計畫正在推進，整體而言，組織內部也充滿熱情。

So just to mention a few, we have an initiative about completely revamping the market on close process in Platts, which is being done with help of Kensho. We have the continued work that's going on about data extraction and entity linking. There is work continuing around Omnisearch and improving of Omnisearch on the Market Intelligence platform. We have a product that is called Codex, which is able to analyze very large sets of written materials, documents and being able to pull out the most important elements to analysts, which could be analyst in any industry and in any kind of job profile. We have work that's going on about what is called data operations as a service, more fundamental data architectural work that is happening within the company. And there are many other examples as well.

簡單舉幾個例子，我們有一項計畫，要在 Platts 端徹底改造收盤（market on close）流程，這項工作是在 Kensho 的協助下進行的。我們也持續推進資料擷取與實體連結（entity linking）的相關工作。在 Market Intelligence 平台上，圍繞 Omnisearch 的工作也在持續進行，並持續改善 Omnisearch。我們有一個名為 Codex 的產品，能夠分析非常大量的書面材料與文件，並把對分析師最重要的要素萃取出來；這些分析師可能來自任何產業、任何類型的職務。我們也在推進所謂「資料營運即服務」（data operations as a service）的工作，也就是公司內部更基礎的資料架構層面的工作。另外也還有許多其他例子。

So we feel there is good progress with Kensho. And at the end of this year, during our fourth quarter earnings call, we will give you an update, particularly with respect to the value creation around Kensho as we did also a year ago.

因此我們認為與 Kensho 的合作進展良好。而在今年年底、我們第四季財報電話會議時，我們會向各位提供最新進展，特別是關於 Kensho 的價值創造，就像我們一年前也曾做過的更新一樣。

Great. And then just curious how the M&A pipeline looks.

很好。另外也想請教一下，併購（M&A）案源管線目前看起來如何？

Well, we are always looking at M&A. As you know, that is an additional opportunity to grow our top line. We are always very busy looking at many opportunities in the markets. But we have a very clear framework. We first look at those areas that we have predefined as strategically important for the company, so we're not looking at everything that's under the sun or that is brought forward by a banker.

嗯，我們一直都在看併購。如各位所知，這是讓我們營收成長的另一個機會。我們一直都很忙，在市場上評估許多機會。但我們有非常清楚的框架。我們會先看那些我們事先界定為對公司具有策略重要性的領域，因此我們不會去看所有天底下的案子，也不會什麼投行帶來的案子都看。

And then secondly, we have a very clear framework with respect to our capital approach and valuation metrics. So there's always multiple projects going on at the same time. This quarter, we had 2 very small acquisitions in Platts, which was the Live Rice Index and a Canadian energy business, but we will continue to look at opportunities. But of course, you may expect us to continue to be very disciplined, both on the strategic angle as well as from the financial angle.

第二，我們在資本配置方式與估值指標方面也有非常清楚的框架。因此同一時間通常會有多個專案在進行。本季我們在 Platts 做了兩筆非常小的收購，分別是 Live Rice Index，以及一家加拿大能源業務，但我們會持續尋找機會。當然，各位也可以預期我們會持續保持高度紀律，不論是在策略面或財務面都是如此。

The next question comes from Craig Huber from Huber Research Partners.

下一個問題來自 Huber Research Partners 的 Craig Huber。

I have 2 questions. The first one, can you just sort of bridge for us the strong 25% transaction Ratings revenue growth you had versus I think you said 12% or so debt issuance growth globally? Just what the gap there. It's obviously, more than 3% to 4% pricing. Just the mix issues, et cetera, you could talk about. And I have a follow-up.

我有兩個問題。第一個，能否幫我們串一下你們交易型 Ratings（評級）收入強勁的 25% 成長，對比我記得你們提到全球債券發行量大約成長 12% 左右之間的差異？這中間的落差是什麼？顯然不只是 3% 到 4% 的定價因素。像是組合（mix）等因素，你們可以談談。我還有一個追問。

Great. The main reason here was that in high yield, we saw very large growth. Most of those issuers in high yield are not on frequent issuer programs, and that is driving the transaction revenue more up than the overall issuance levels in the market. So that is the main reason why you see a discrepancy at this particular item.

好的。主要原因是我們在高收益（high yield）看到非常大的成長。高收益的大多數發行人並不在常態發行人方案（frequent issuer programs）之下，這使得交易型收入的增幅高於市場整體的發行量水準。因此，這就是你在這個項目上看到差異的主要原因。

Just to add one thing. The high yield overall globally was up almost 70%.

補充一點：全球高收益整體成長接近 70%。

And then secondly, just staying with the Ratings area. Obviously for a number of years, you guys have been very, very tight with cost there. This quarter, I think it was only up about 4%, maybe up low single digits through the 9 months here versus obviously like 12% or so revenue growth. Can you just talk about what you're able to do there on the cost front that's able to drive the margins so much here? And how much more is this sustainable going forward? Obviously, I guess IT is a good chunk of it. But if you could just touch on that?

第二個問題，還是關於 Ratings。顯然多年來你們在那邊的成本控管一直非常、非常嚴格。本季我想成本只增加了大約 4%，而前九個月可能也只是低個位數成長，但收入成長顯然大約有 12% 左右。能否談談你們在成本端做了哪些事，能把利潤率推升這麼多？以及往後這樣的狀況還能維持多久？顯然 IT 可能是其中一大塊。如果可以的話請談一下？

John Berisford and his team are continuing to look at opportunities to simplify the organization, make it more effective, introduce new technology tools to make sure that our credit rating analysts have to spend less time on data aggregation, updating their models and spreadsheets and look more at the higher value-added part of their job, so more just mental parts that is part of the credit risk assessment. So that is helping the Ratings business.

John Berisford 和他的團隊持續在尋找機會，簡化組織、提升效率，並導入新的科技工具，確保我們的信用評級分析師能把更少時間花在資料彙整、更新模型與試算表上，而把更多時間放在工作中更高附加價值的部分，也就是信用風險評估中更偏思考判斷的部分。這些都在幫助 Ratings 業務。

At the same time, if you look at the expense growth this quarter versus last year third quarter, it was up $20 million mostly related to small movements here and there. Particularly, incentive compensation was a bit higher this quarter based on the strong performance. And then there were several elements that went in different directions, so nothing else, particularly to call out. So we will just continue with the progress we're making, the same strategy, the same approach and taking benefit of the operating leverage we have in our Ratings business.

同時，如果你看本季費用成長相較去年第三季，增加了 2,000 萬美元，主要是一些零星的小幅變動所致。尤其是因為表現強勁，本季的激勵性薪酬（incentive compensation）略高一些。另外還有幾個要素朝不同方向變動，因此沒有其他特別需要點出的。所以我們會持續推進目前的進展，維持相同策略、相同做法，並持續受益於 Ratings 業務的營運槓桿。

The next question comes from George Tong from Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題來自 Goldman Sachs 的 George Tong。

I'm going to ask a question on your Ratings business to follow up on the prior question. Your Ratings revenue increased 13%, which was relatively in line with broader issuance volume growth. Can you discuss why Ratings revenue didn't outperform broader issuance volumes given the benefits from pricing, high yield and infrequent issuers at S&P?

我想就你們的 Ratings 業務提問，延續上一題。你們的 Ratings 收入成長 13%，相對而言與更廣泛的發行量成長大致一致。考量到定價、高收益以及 S&P 的非頻繁發行人（infrequent issuers）帶來的好處，能否談談為什麼 Ratings 收入沒有跑贏整體發行量？

George, that's a bit of the opposite question that was just asked because again, you have to look at the differential between transaction and non-transaction revenue. And non-transaction revenue contains the surveillance fees. These are the issuers that are on frequent issuer programs. These are new entity ratings. This is some of the CRISIL and other category. This is Rating Evaluation Service. So this is a very steady part of the overall Ratings revenue, and you saw that going up 2 percent points in this particular period.

George，這其實有點像剛才那題的反向問題，因為你必須看交易型與非交易型收入之間的差異。非交易型收入包含存續監控費（surveillance fees）。這些是納入常態發行人方案的發行人。也包含新的實體評級（new entity ratings）。也包含 CRISIL 以及其他類別。也包含 Rating Evaluation Service（評級評估服務）。因此這是 Ratings 總收入中非常穩定的一部分，而在這段期間你看到它上升了 2 個百分點。

And then if you look up the transaction revenue, which is really driven by transactions that are happening in the market, there we saw this very healthy growth of 25%, and that was in fact higher than the issuance in the market, and that was driven by what I just explained, that most of the high-yield issuers are not on frequent issuer program. So you have to go 1 or 2 layers deeper in terms of granularity to really look at the underlying dynamics and drivers and see what are all the different components of our Ratings revenue.

而如果你看交易型收入，它主要是由市場上發生的交易所驅動；在那裡我們看到非常健康的 25% 成長，而且確實高於市場發行量的成長，原因就是我剛才解釋的：大多數高收益發行人並不在常態發行人方案之下。所以你必須在細分層級上再往下看一到兩層，才能真正理解底層的動態與驅動因素，並看清楚我們 Ratings 收入的所有不同組成。

Got it. The operating margins in the index business are continuing to go higher on a year-over-year basis. Given the high flow-through of pricing the margins, can you discuss the pricing and competitive environment here? And if you see any changes to your long-term view or targets on margins for the index business?

了解。指數業務的營業利潤率持續在年對年基礎上走高。考量到定價對利潤率的高流入（flow-through），能否談談這裡的定價與競爭環境？以及你們對指數業務長期利潤率展望或目標是否有任何改變？

George, I'll take this questions. First of all, in the competitive landscape, you've seen a lot of big developments that we're watching very closely right now as we think about our strategic plan for the long run. You saw -- seen a couple of companies have come out on the retail sector to eliminate fees for stock trading. That -- one of the effects of that is it seems that a -- there's a lot more volumes going into ETFs. And when things go into ETFs and they go into passive structures, a lot of times we benefit from that. So we look structurally at the market overall, and we see some big shifts continuing to go on in pricing overall all the way from the retail level to the institutional level. And the big flow overall of assets into passive is something that we're benefiting from.

George，這題我來回答。首先，在競爭格局方面，你已經看到一些重大的發展，我們目前正非常密切地關注，並在思考長期策略規劃時納入考量。你看到——也看到有幾家公司在零售端推出措施，取消股票交易手續費。那——其中一個影響似乎是——有更多的交易量流入 ETF。而當資金流入 ETF、流入被動式架構時，很多時候我們會從中受益。因此我們從結構性角度觀察整體市場，看到從零售端到機構端，在整體定價上仍持續出現一些重大轉變。而資產大量流向被動式投資的整體趨勢，是我們正在受益的部分。

Now to get a little bit more specifically to your question, we don't see any specific pressure on our fees ourselves directly. We have very long-term contracts with the people that we deal with. We work with them in a way that we know in the long run what our pricing is probably going to be and how it's going to end up. And so we continue to see a similar structure to our own revenues and expense base that we've had in the past.

現在更具體地回到您的問題，我們自身並未看到費用方面有任何特定的壓力直接作用在我們身上。我們與合作對象簽有非常長期的合約。我們與他們合作的方式，使我們能在長期內大致掌握我們的定價可能會是什麼，以及最終會如何落地。因此，我們仍然看到與過去相同的結構，體現在我們自身的收入以及費用基礎上。

We saw a very large increase in overall volumes this quarter. You saw that Ewout talked earlier in his section about this. And so from that increase across the board of our revenue from Indices, it flowed through to improve our margin. But we don't see any overall change in the structure of the market or our own business model that we're going to see any significant change in the index margins. We will provide more update on that at the next earnings call.

本季我們看到整體交易量大幅增加。您也看到 Ewout 先前在他的部分談到了這一點。因此，指數業務收入全面增加，進而帶動我們的利潤率改善。但我們並未看到市場結構或我們自身商業模式有任何整體性的改變，會使指數利潤率出現顯著變化。我們會在下一次財報電話會議上提供更多更新。

Next question comes from Henry Chien from BMO Capital Markets.

下一個問題來自 BMO Capital Markets 的 Henry Chien。

Just -- I had a follow-up question on some of the new products that you mentioned, including Kensho and some of the ones on Platts. Just in context of I guess some of the pressures on -- in I guess on the sell-side and in the entity space, I'm curious if you could add some color on like what's driving the product demand. Where is the sort of value created or sort of needs being met for some of these new products?

我想——我有一個關於您提到的一些新產品的追問，包括 Kensho 以及 Platts 上的一些產品。在我想是賣方以及機構端面臨一些壓力的背景下，我很好奇您是否能補充一些細節，說明是什麼在驅動產品需求。這些新產品在哪裡創造價值，或是滿足了哪些需求？

Yes. So overall across the entire company, we spend as much time as possible listening to customers to understand what are going to be the biggest trends that are driving the need for new analytical and benchmarks from S&P Global. When we listen to the markets, there's a lot of change going on, technology that -- thus driving feed products and what we've been calling the marketplace in the Market Intelligence business. When we talk to people, they're looking at major changes in regulation, which for the last few years in the banking sector, helped with a lot of the growth in Risk Services at Market Intelligence. It's our business at CRISIL.

是的。整體而言，在全公司範圍內，我們盡可能花最多時間傾聽客戶，以了解哪些將是推動對 S&P Global 新分析工具與基準需求的最大趨勢。當我們傾聽市場時，會發現有很多變化正在發生，技術——因此推動了資料饋送產品，以及我們在 Market Intelligence 業務中所稱的「市場平台」。當我們與人交流時，他們關注監管的重大變化；在過去幾年，這在銀行業領域推動了 Market Intelligence 之下 Risk Services 的大量成長。這也是我們在 CRISIL 的業務。

And specifically with the energy transition that's going on related to climate change, there's an increasing interest in a combination of ESG products as well as products like the 0.5% IMO sulfur product, which is now moving to the CME and ICE exchanges as futures. And so we try to look out in the -- forward, what are the things, the biggest trends that are going to be impacting people's needs to make financial decisions and market decisions. And how can we serve those? And some of the products that we've talked about many, many years ago start showing up over time in our revenues.

此外，隨著與氣候變遷相關的能源轉型正在進行，市場對 ESG 產品的組合以及像 0.5% IMO 船用燃油硫含量產品等的興趣日益增加；該產品目前正移轉至 CME 與 ICE 交易所作為期貨交易。因此，我們試著向前看，哪些是將影響人們做出金融決策與市場決策需求的最大趨勢。以及我們如何為這些需求提供服務。而我們多年前談到的一些產品，會隨著時間推移逐步反映在我們的營收中。

As an example in Platts, we've been responding to the market changes that are going on in the structured energy industries. And one of the products that we featured frequently over many years was the JKM Marker, which was the Japan/Korea Marker for LNG in Japan, which has now become the Asia price, which is now on the exchanges as a futures contract.

以 Platts 為例，我們一直在回應結構性能源產業正在發生的市場變化。而我們多年來經常重點介紹的產品之一是 JKM Marker，也就是日本/韓國的 LNG（液化天然氣）指標，最初用於日本，現在已成為亞洲價格基準，並且已在交易所作為期貨合約交易。

So we like to give you updates. These are -- some of these products start out small, but they help show what do we think are the biggest trends in the markets, and how are we going to be addressing those trends. And as I said, there are technology, there are risk management, there are ESG trends that are changing people's needs to have more and more data about the markets. And so we're trying to show you how we're addressing those going forward. And I appreciate your questions.

所以我們希望向各位提供最新進展。其中一些產品起初規模不大，但它們有助於展現我們認為市場上最大的趨勢是什麼，以及我們將如何因應這些趨勢。正如我所說，技術、風險管理以及 ESG 趨勢正在改變人們對更多市場數據的需求。因此，我們試著向各位說明我們未來將如何因應這些需求。也感謝您的提問。

The next question is from Gary Bisbee from Bank of America Securities.

下一個問題來自 Bank of America Securities 的 Gary Bisbee。

I guess just one question. Given the margin strength that you've delivered in recent quarters and certainly over the last several years, how do you think about weighing stepped up -- potential for stepped-up investments to drive the top line versus letting so much of the incremental profitability of your business just flow to the bottom line? Are there opportunities in some of the businesses to accelerate [phased] investment? Or are you comfortable the level you're investing is the appropriate level that the organization can handle?

我想只有一個問題。鑑於你們近幾季、以及過去幾年所展現的強勁利潤率，你們如何權衡：一方面加大——可能加大投資以推動營收成長；另一方面讓業務增量獲利更多地直接流向最終盈餘？在某些業務中是否存在加速（分階段）投資的機會？或者你們是否認為目前的投資水準就是組織所能承受、且適當的水準？

Gary, yes, that's a great question. And we have, as you understand, a lot of management discussions around this topic because our philosophy is that top line growth, in the end, generates the highest level of value creation for our shareholders, particularly at the levels of margins that we can report at this point in time. So that's why we have very explicit investment programs in place. That's the $100 million investment program that we have been talking about in the past. And what we are saying today is that we expect that those investment programs to continue because we will identify new opportunities to invest in the future. And those will help with future growth of the company, which we think is the most attractive for us going forward.

Gary，是的，這是一個很好的問題。如您所理解，我們管理層就這個議題進行了大量討論，因為我們的理念是：從長期來看，營收成長最終能為股東創造最高水準的價值，特別是在我們目前能夠呈現的利潤率水準之下。因此，我們才會制定非常明確的投資計畫。這就是我們過去一直在談的 1 億美元投資計畫。而我們今天要表達的是，我們預期這些投資計畫會持續，因為我們將在未來識別新的投資機會。這些將有助於公司未來的成長，而我們認為這是我們往前看最具吸引力的方向。

At the same time, the benefit is that we still have a lot of efficiency and productivity opportunities as well as a company. So we are able to self-fund some of those investment programs at this moment, and we believe that there are still new efficiency opportunities as well going forward. So therefore, in fact, if you look at our expense growth year-to-date, the expenses are up just under 2% year-to-date. And that means that we have been able to absorb acquisitions like Panjiva, RateWatch, Kensho, have been able to make new investments in those large initiatives at that $100 million level that we expect still for the full year this year and just growing the expenses under 2%. So that is showing how we are working on both sides here in order to make very explicit investments, but also be able to self-fund. And I would expect that to continue and that we can do still both at the same time in the future as well.

同時，我們作為一家公司仍然有許多效率與生產力提升的機會。因此，目前我們能夠以自有資金為部分投資計畫提供資金，我們也相信未來仍會有新的效率機會。因此，事實上，如果您看我們年初至今的費用成長，費用年初至今僅上升不到 2%。這意味著我們能夠消化像 Panjiva、RateWatch、Kensho 這些收購，同時也能在那些大型計畫上進行新的投資，投資規模維持在我們預期今年全年仍為 1 億美元的水準，而費用增幅仍控制在 2% 以下。這顯示我們如何在兩端同時推進：一方面進行非常明確的投資，另一方面也能自我籌資。我預期這種情況會持續，未來我們也仍能同時做到這兩點。

The next question is from Shlomo Rosenbaum with Stifel, Nicolaus.

下一個問題來自 Stifel, Nicolaus 的 Shlomo Rosenbaum。

Doug, can you talk a little bit about just the Market Intelligence with enterprise-wide contracts? Are you seeing any major displacements of competitors because of that in terms of your ability to offer more so that they don't need to run so many systems? Or do you think that the head count growth that you're seeing is somewhat duplicative as they're handling multiple systems?

Doug，你能否談談 Market Intelligence 的企業級合約（enterprise-wide contracts）？就你們提供更多服務、讓客戶不需要運行那麼多系統而言，你們是否看到因此而對競爭對手造成任何重大替代？或者你認為你們看到的人員數成長，在某種程度上是因為他們在處理多套系統而產生的重複配置？

Shlomo, thanks for the question. I don't -- I can't tell you specifically if we're displacing people. I know that sometimes I hear that anecdotally. But what I do hear, what I do see is that when we move people onto the enterprise contract, that users go up. And it's a combination of people before that were not necessarily users because they were guarding the number of seats very jealously as to who would actually have access to the per seat pricing. And so there's people that in the past wanted to use it or needed to use it that now get access to it, and then there's other people that become more light users.

Shlomo，謝謝你的問題。我——我無法具體告訴你我們是否正在取代其他人。我知道有時候我會從一些軼聞中聽到這樣的說法。但我確實聽到、也確實看到的是：當我們把客戶轉到企業級合約時，使用者數量會上升。這是多種因素的組合：先前有些人未必是使用者，因為他們非常謹慎地控制席位數，對於誰能取得按席位計價的存取權非常在意。因此，過去想用或需要用的人現在能取得存取權；同時也有其他人變成較輕度的使用者。

And so you get -- you see a huge advantage as it starts getting built into the workflow of an institution because you have people that are not the hard-core power users. They're light users who are helping print out reports, they are helping download information, they're helping look at new research that's coming out. And that actually helps us embed the overall MI platform across the entire architecture of a firm. So does that then end up displacing other people? We think it does, but I don't want to give you anecdotes. I'd rather come back at some time in the future and give you more facts around that.

因此，當它開始被納入一家機構的工作流程時，你會看到巨大的優勢，因為使用者不只是那些硬核的高階使用者。他們是輕度使用者，協助列印報告、協助下載資訊、協助查看最新發布的研究。而這實際上有助於我們將整體 MI 平台嵌入到公司整個架構之中。那麼，這是否最終會取代其他人？我們認為會，但我不想給你軼事。我寧願在未來某個時間再回來，提供更多相關事實。

Okay. And then just one other follow-up. How's the SNL-Cap IQ integration going from the product side and your ability to migrate the clients to the new platform? It just seems that when you're able to get that done, there probably is an opportunity to improve the growth rate in Market Intelligence on the Desktop side.

好的。另外再追問一點。從產品端來看，SNL 與 Cap IQ 的整合進展如何？以及你們將客戶遷移到新平台的能力如何？看起來一旦你們能把這件事完成，Market Intelligence 在桌面端的成長率可能就有機會提升。

Yes. What is our strategy with respect to the migration of the platforms? As you probably know, the whole SNL platform has already migrated to the new Market Intelligence platform. And then the next phase -- and that is a phase that will take quite some time, will be the movement of the Cap IQ customers to the new platform. We expect next year that we will create a situation with dual access for almost all of our customers so that the Cap IQ customers will get some familiarity with the Market Intelligence platform. And then slowly, step by step, with a lot of handholding, we will move customers over, and that will probably be a process that will take quite some time, so mostly will go beyond 2020.

是的。我們在平台遷移方面的策略是什麼？如你可能知道，整個 SNL 平台已經遷移到新的 Market Intelligence 平台。接下來的階段——而且這個階段會花相當長的時間——將是把 Cap IQ 客戶移轉到新平台。我們預期明年會為幾乎所有客戶建立雙重存取的情境，讓 Cap IQ 客戶能對 Market Intelligence 平台有一些熟悉度。然後我們會慢慢地、一步一步地，在大量手把手協助下，把客戶移轉過去；這很可能會是一個需要相當長時間的流程，因此多半會延續到 2020 年之後。

And that's important because we can't lose customers along the way. Customers have embedded some of those desktops in their workflows, have embedded it in their mobiles with automatic links. We have to make sure that all the data is available, all the features are available. So there is a lot of handholding that is needed in order to make sure that customers are comfortable to move over. So we're continuing to make progress there. We have very specific actions planned for the next period, and particularly to make sure that all of our customers have access to both platforms, when they are today only on Cap IQ, is going to be an important step for next year.

而這很重要，因為我們不能在過程中流失客戶。客戶已把其中一些桌面端工具嵌入他們的工作流程，也透過自動連結嵌入到他們的行動裝置中。我們必須確保所有資料都可用、所有功能都可用。因此需要大量的手把手協助，才能確保客戶願意且安心地移轉。所以我們在這方面持續取得進展。我們已為下一階段規劃了非常具體的行動，特別是要確保目前只使用 Cap IQ 的所有客戶，也能同時存取兩個平台，這將是明年一個重要步驟。

We will now take our final question from Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Raymond James.

現在我們將進行最後一個提問，來自 Raymond James 的 Patrick O'Shaughnessy。

Just one question for me. So there's obviously a renewed effort underway to vilify the rating agencies. To what extent is there concern on your part that the SEC might feel pressured to reexamine the issuer pays model or otherwise take steps to mitigate perceived conflicts of interest?

我這邊只有一個問題。顯然目前又出現一股重新妖魔化評級機構的力道。你們在多大程度上擔心 SEC 可能感受到壓力，進而重新檢視「發行人付費」模式，或採取其他措施以緩解被認為存在的利益衝突？

Patrick, this is Doug. Clearly, we are on top of this. We're watching this very closely to see what kind of initiatives could be underway. The SEC already has been doing work for the last few years, looking at different business models. They've got a couple of different groups that have been formed to take a look at the ratings industry.

Patrick，我是 Doug。很明顯，我們已密切掌握這件事。我們正非常仔細地觀察，看看可能會有哪些倡議正在推動。SEC 過去幾年已經在做相關工作，研究不同的商業模式。他們也成立了幾個不同的團體來檢視評級產業。

But very importantly, inside of the SEC is a group called the CRA. It's a credit rating agency group that has been -- now had almost 10 years of work overseeing the rating agency industry. They've got the data, they have the facts, and we're engaging very closely across the board with the regulators of the SEC itself, with the CRA group. Anybody who would like to talk to us, we have no problem sharing all the data we have about how we run the business. As I said earlier, we stand by our ratings, we stand by our processes and our procedures, the controls we put in place, the quality of our ratings, the quality of our processes, et cetera.

但非常重要的是，SEC 內部有一個名為 CRA 的團體。這是一個信用評級機構（CRA）團體，至今已經有將近 10 年的工作經驗，負責監督評級機構產業。他們有資料、也有事實；我們也在各層面與監管單位保持非常密切的互動，包括 SEC 本身的監管人員以及 CRA 團體。任何想與我們交流的人，我們都很樂意分享我們掌握的所有資料，說明我們如何經營這項業務。如我先前所說，我們支持我們的評級，支持我們的流程與程序、我們所設置的控制措施、我們評級的品質、我們流程的品質等等。

So as you know, this is something that we will be watching very, very closely. We'll be actively participating in any dialogue that comes up around the business model for rating agencies, and we're ready to have a very professional dialogue about this. Appreciate your question.

因此，如你所知，這是我們會非常、非常密切關注的事情。我們會積極參與任何關於評級機構商業模式的對話，我們也已準備好就此進行非常專業的討論。感謝你的提問。

Let me just wrap up and tell you again that we're very pleased with the results that we had today, and we're able to talk about all 4 divisions and our significant margin improvement and the productivity programs. It's also encouraging that as a company, we have the capacity and ability to invest in some of the new products that we featured today. But very importantly, we appreciate all the interest from the analysts who asked questions today, and we always appreciate your questions, the easy ones and the tough ones, so keep them coming. Thanks a lot.

最後我簡單總結一下，再次告訴各位，我們對今天取得的成果感到非常滿意，而且我們能夠談到四個事業部門、顯著的利潤率改善以及生產力提升計畫。同時也令人鼓舞的是，作為一家公司，我們具備能力與資源去投資於今天展示的一些新產品。但更重要的是，我們感謝今天提問的分析師所展現的高度關注；我們一向感謝你們的問題，無論是簡單的還是棘手的，所以請繼續提問。非常感謝。

That concludes this morning's call. A PDF version of the presenter's slide is available now for downloading from investor.spglobal.com. A replay of this call, including the Q&A session, will be available in about 2 hours. The replay will be maintained on S&P Global's website for 12 months from today and by telephone for 1 month from today. On behalf of S&P Global, we thank you for participating, and we wish you a good day.

今天上午的電話會議到此結束。簡報投影片的 PDF 版本現已可於 investor.spglobal.com 下載。本次電話會議的重播（包含問答環節）將於約 2 小時後提供。重播將自今日起在 S&P Global 網站保留 12 個月，並透過電話保留 1 個月。我謹代表 S&P Global 感謝各位參與，並祝各位有美好的一天。