標普全球 (SPGI) 2020 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to S&P Global's First Quarter and Full 2020 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 2020 年第一季及全年財報電話會議。我想提醒各位，本次通話將被錄音以供播出。（接線員指示）如需收看網路直播並取得簡報投影片，請前往 investor.spglobal.com。（接線員指示）

I'd 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 for joining today's S&P Global Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2020 Earnings Call. Presenting on today's call are Doug Peterson, President and CEO; and Ewout Steenbergen, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

感謝各位參加今天的 S&P Global 2020 年第四季及全年財報電話會議。今天出席並發言的有總裁兼執行長 Doug Peterson，以及執行副總裁兼財務長 Ewout Steenbergen。

We issued a news release with our results earlier today. If you need a copy of the release and financial schedules, they can be downloaded at investor.spglobal.com.

我們已於今日稍早發布新聞稿公布業績結果。如需新聞稿與財務附表，可至 investor.spglobal.com 下載。

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 the cautionary statements 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，本次電話會議中討論的事項可能包含《1995 年私人證券訴訟改革法》所定義的前瞻性陳述，包括預測、估計及對未來事件的描述。任何此類陳述均以目前預期及當前經濟狀況為基礎，並受可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述所預期結果出現重大差異的風險與不確定性影響。就此，我們請聽眾參閱我們向美國證券交易委員會提交之 Form 10-K、10-Q 及其他定期報告中所載的警示性陳述。

In addition, as announced on November 30, S&P Global and IHS Markit entered into a definitive merger agreement. This call will touch on the transaction. Please note, this call does not constitute an offer to sell or buy or the solicitation of any offer to buy or sell any securities nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities law of any such jurisdiction. No offering of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933.

此外，如同 11 月 30 日所宣布，S&P Global 與 IHS Markit 已簽訂具約束力的最終合併協議。本次電話會議將提及該交易。請注意，本次通話不構成出售或購買之要約，亦不構成徵求任何購買或出售任何證券之要約；且在任何司法管轄區，如於依該司法管轄區證券法完成註冊或資格認定前進行該等要約、徵求或出售屬違法者，亦不得在該等司法管轄區出售任何證券。除非以符合《1933 年證券法》第 10 條規定之招股說明書（prospectus）方式，否則不得進行任何證券發行。

In connection with the proposed transaction, S&P Global and IHS Markit have filed a registration statement on Form S-4 with the SEC, which will include a joint proxy statement and a prospectus. S&P Global and IHS Markit will file other documents regarding the proposed transaction with the SEC. Before making any voting or investment decisions, investors and security holders of S&P Global or IHS Markit stock are encouraged to carefully read this entire registration statement and proxy statement prospectus, which is available on our website and sec.gov.

就擬議交易而言，S&P Global 與 IHS Markit 已向 SEC 提交 Form S-4 註冊聲明，其中將包含聯合委託書聲明（joint proxy statement）及招股說明書（prospectus）。S&P Global 與 IHS Markit 亦將就擬議交易向 SEC 提交其他文件。在做出任何表決或投資決策之前，建議 S&P Global 或 IHS Markit 股票之投資人及證券持有人仔細閱讀完整的註冊聲明及委託書聲明／招股說明書；該文件可於我們的網站及 sec.gov 取得。

In today's earnings release and during the conference call, we'll provide an 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 the non-GAAP measures and the comparable financial measures calculated in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

在今日的財報新聞稿及本次電話會議中，我們將提供經調整的財務資訊。提供此資訊旨在使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差異。

This call, especially the discussion of our outlook, contains statements about expected future events that are forward-looking and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations can be found in our filings with the SEC and on our website.

本次通話，特別是對我們展望的討論，包含對預期未來事件的陳述，屬前瞻性陳述，並受風險與不確定性影響。可能導致實際結果與預期出現重大差異的因素，可見於我們向 SEC 提交的文件及我們的網站。

I would also like to call your attention to a 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一項歐洲法規。任何已持有或預期取得 S&P Global 5% 或以上所有權的投資人，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 would ask that questions from the media be directed to Dave Guarino at (212) 438-1471.

我們知道本次通話中也有一些媒體代表。不過，本次通話主要面向投資人，我們請媒體的提問改向 Dave Guarino 聯繫，電話為 (212) 438-1471。

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

此刻，我想把電話交給 Doug Peterson。Doug？

Thank you, Chip. Welcome to all of you joining today's earnings call. The first thing I'd like to do is thank our people at S&P Global for their dedication and commitment throughout 2020. As the pandemic continues to take its toll across the globe, our people remain focused on supporting each other, our customers and our communities. Together, they continue to provide relevant and timely benchmarks, data and research to help our clients navigate through this turbulent economy. So to all 23,000 of you, let me say thank you.

謝謝你，Chip。歡迎各位參加今天的財報電話會議。我首先要感謝 S&P Global 的同仁在 2020 年全年的投入與承諾。隨著疫情持續在全球造成衝擊，我們的同仁仍專注於彼此支持、支持客戶與社區。他們持續提供相關且即時的基準、數據與研究，協助客戶在這個動盪的經濟環境中前行。因此，對所有 23,000 位同仁，我想說聲謝謝。

Now let me turn to the key financial achievements in 2020. S&P Global delivered 10% organic revenue growth and 23% adjusted diluted earnings per share growth. All 4 businesses contributed with growth in both revenue and adjusted operating profit. We generated $3.3 billion of free cash flow, excluding certain items, and returned $1.8 billion through share repurchases and dividends.

接著我談談 2020 年的主要財務成果。S&P Global 實現 10% 的有機營收成長，以及 23% 的經調整稀釋每股盈餘成長。四大業務皆有貢獻，營收與經調整營業利益均成長。我們產生了 33 億美元的自由現金流（不含特定項目），並透過庫藏股回購與股利返還 18 億美元。

In addition to the very strong financial results, we made significant progress on our key initiatives as well. The expertise in technology that we've developed over a number of years enabled the creation of new products, product enhancements and productivity improvements. By funding growth investments to leverage our technology, we were able to deliver the largest collection of new product launches I can remember. We also continued to expand our ESG and climate product offerings, including the new S&P Global ESG Scores. I'll share more about all of these new products in a moment.

除了非常強勁的財務表現外，我們在關鍵策略計畫上也取得重大進展。我們多年來累積的技術專長，使我們得以推出新產品、進行產品強化並提升生產力。透過投入成長型投資以發揮技術槓桿，我們推出了我所記得規模最大的一波新產品上市。我們也持續擴充 ESG 與氣候相關產品供給，包括全新的 S&P Global ESG Scores。我稍後會分享更多關於這些新產品的內容。

Another highlight was the completion of our Investor Day productivity target as we surpassed the target and achieved $120 million of annual savings. Upon completion, we then initiated a new $120 million program in October, which is targeted to be completed in 2 to 3 years.

另一項亮點是完成我們投資人日所設定的生產力目標：我們不僅超越目標，並達成每年 1.2 億美元的節省。完成後，我們於 10 月啟動新的 1.2 億美元計畫，目標在 2 至 3 年內完成。

There are 2 common questions that investors have been asking for years: What will your results look like in a recession? And do you really have any more opportunities to improve margins? I think 2020 went a long way in answering both of those questions.

多年來投資人常問兩個問題：在景氣衰退時，你們的業績會是什麼樣子？以及，你們真的還有進一步提升利潤率的機會嗎？我認為 2020 年在很大程度上回答了這兩個問題。

To recap the financial results for the full year, organic revenue increased 10% to $7.4 billion. Our adjusted operating profit increased 18%, and our adjusted operating profit margin increased 310 basis points to 53.3%. In addition, shares outstanding decreased 2% over the past year, contributing to the 23% increase in adjusted diluted EPS. Ewout will review our fourth quarter financial performance in a moment.

回顧全年財務結果，有機營收成長 10%，達 74 億美元。我們的經調整營業利益成長 18%，經調整營業利益率提升 310 個基點至 53.3%。此外，過去一年流通在外股數下降 2%，也促成經調整稀釋 EPS 成長 23%。Ewout 稍後將回顧我們第四季的財務表現。

I'm particularly pleased that all 4 businesses contributed to the company's overall revenue growth and adjusted operating profit improvement. Ratings led the way with organic revenue up 15% and its adjusted operating profit margin of 460 basis points to 62.4%. The only business with a decline in its adjusted operating profit margin was S&P Dow Jones Indices at 69.1%. This was primarily due to higher legal expenses, ESG expansion and incentives.

我特別高興的是，四大業務皆對公司整體營收成長與經調整營業利益改善有所貢獻。Ratings 表現領先，有機營收成長 15%，其經調整營業利益率提升 460 個基點至 62.4%。唯一經調整營業利益率下滑的業務是 S&P Dow Jones Indices，為 69.1%。這主要是因法律費用增加、ESG 擴張以及獎酬支出所致。

It's important to remember that our 2020 financial results are part of a solid track record of performance. Over the past 4 years, we've posted a compound annual growth rate of 7% for revenue, and we have averaged more than 250 basis points per year of adjusted operating profit margin expansion. And this has resulted in more than doubling of our adjusted diluted EPS over that time frame.

重要的是要記得，我們 2020 年的財務成果是穩健績效紀錄的一部分。過去 4 年，我們的營收複合年成長率為 7%，且經調整營業利益率平均每年擴張超過 250 個基點。這也使得我們在該期間的經調整稀釋 EPS 以上翻倍。

We also made large strides in nonfinancial metrics in 2020 by enhancing the company's environmental performance and improving our social outreach. We issued our second annual TCFD report featuring 2019 carbon-adjusted EPS. We secured approval from the Science Based Targets Initiative for a new target to reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions 25% by 2025. This is from a 2019 base. We are targeting to achieve net 0 by 2040.

2020 年我們在非財務指標方面也大幅精進，透過提升公司的環境績效並改善社會參與。我們發布第二份年度 TCFD 報告，內容包含 2019 年的碳調整 EPS。我們也獲得科學基礎減量目標倡議（Science Based Targets Initiative）核准新的目標：以 2019 年為基準，至 2025 年將範疇 1 與範疇 2 的絕對溫室氣體排放量降低 25%。我們的目標是在 2040 年達成淨零（net 0）。

We supported work-from-home arrangements with flexibility for those simultaneously caring for children or elderly family. We enhanced benefits for sick leave, global care leave and days off for volunteering efforts and wellness. And the contributions by the S&P Global Foundation increased 170% to $11 million. These donations support COVID-19 relief, racial equity social justice, economic inclusion, environmental sustainability and gender equality.

我們以彈性方式支持居家辦公安排，特別是同時需要照顧孩童或年長家人的同仁。我們強化了病假、全球照護假，以及用於志工服務與身心健康的休假福利。同時，S&P Global Foundation 的捐助金額增加 170%，達 1,100 萬美元。這些捐款用於支持 COVID-19 紓困、種族平權與社會正義、經濟共融、環境永續以及性別平等。

We've also made substantial progress on our external ESG initiatives. ESG revenue reached $65 million in 2020, a 40% increase over 2019. The new product launches in Ratings are all gaining momentum with a number of ESG evaluations, Green Evaluations and SAM benchmarks shown here. We also saw an increase of 220 companies completing the Corporate Sustainability Assessment. These assessments are integral to much of our ESG effort.

我們在對外 ESG 計畫方面也取得實質進展。2020 年 ESG 營收達 6,500 萬美元，較 2019 年成長 40%。Ratings 的新產品上市皆持續累積動能，包括此處所示的多項 ESG 評估、Green Evaluations 以及 SAM 基準。我們也看到完成企業永續評估（Corporate Sustainability Assessment）的公司增加了 220 家。這些評估是我們多數 ESG 工作的重要基礎。

Market Intelligence launched numerous products, including S&P Global ESG Scores covering 7,300 companies and Trucost climate analytics and environmental data that contain environmental data on 15,000 companies. These are both available on the Market Intelligence platform or as a data feed.

Market Intelligence 推出了眾多產品，包括涵蓋 7,300 家公司的 S&P Global ESG Scores，以及 Trucost 氣候分析與環境資料（包含 15,000 家公司的環境資料）。這兩者皆可於 Market Intelligence 平台上取得，或以資料饋送（data feed）方式提供。

In indices, ESG exchange-traded funds assets under management increased by more than 200% to $20 billion. And the year was filled with new ESG indices being introduced and our customers creating new ETFs and options.

在指數方面，ESG 交易所交易基金（ETF）的資產管理規模（AUM）增加逾 200%，達到 200 億美元。而這一年也推出了許多新的 ESG 指數，客戶亦創建了新的 ETF 與選擇權。

In Platts, the energy transition is becoming increasingly important. We continue to support the markets with new price assessments for commodities like battery metals and hydrogen. Last year, we told you about the shipping industry moving to low-sulfur fuel and our launch of new low-sulfur marine fuel price assessments. There are now a range of related future contracts based on our prices with open interest growing steadily.

在 Platts 方面，能源轉型的重要性日益提升。我們持續以新的價格評估支持市場，涵蓋電池金屬、氫等商品。去年我們曾向各位提到航運業轉向低硫燃料，以及我們推出新的低硫船用燃料價格評估。目前已有一系列以我們價格為基礎的相關期貨合約，未平倉量持續穩定成長。

We also continued to advance our China initiatives in 2020. We introduced Mandarin language versions of both Ratings360 and the Market Intelligence platform. We released a beta version of the China Credit Analytics platform. This is an integrated desktop solution that generates credit insights on public and private companies using unique content and localized analytics aligned with the S&P Global standards.

我們也在 2020 年持續推進中國相關計畫。我們推出了 Ratings360 與 Market Intelligence 平台的中文（普通話）版本。我們發布了 China Credit Analytics 平台的 beta 版本。這是一套整合式桌面解決方案，運用獨特內容與在地化分析（並與 S&P Global 標準一致），為上市與非上市公司產生信用洞察。

We completed 9 public ratings in the fourth quarter, including the first nonbank corporate rating, bringing the 2020 total to 22 ratings. We completed our registration-enabling ratings in the exchange bond market, which accounts for approximately 40% of the total number of bond issuance in China.

我們在第四季完成 9 項公開評等，其中包括首宗非銀行企業評等，使 2020 年總數達到 22 項評等。我們也在交易所債券市場完成可支援註冊所需的評等；該市場約占中國債券發行總量的 40%。

It is also encouraging that the Chinese bond market continues to develop. We continued to see positive signs from the Chinese regulators who are driving change in the local credit ratings markets. In addition, following several recent high-profile defaults, there's an increased sensitivity and awareness among local market participants to the quality of credit ratings.

同時也令人鼓舞的是，中國債券市場持續發展。我們持續看到中國監管機構釋出正面訊號，推動本地信用評等市場的變革。此外，繼近期數起備受關注的違約事件後，本地市場參與者對信用評等品質的敏感度與認知均有所提升。

Internally, 2020 has been dubbed the year of new product launches. I can't remember a year with so many launches. This was a direct result of the increase in investment spending over the past 2 years, combined with our exceptional technology expertise. The launches included Marketplace, the Snowflake partnership, RiskGauge, ProSpread and the Platts Platform, all of which we have discussed on previous earnings calls.

在內部，2020 年被稱為新產品發布之年。我不記得有哪一年推出過這麼多產品。這是過去兩年投資支出增加，加上我們卓越的技術專長所直接帶來的成果。這些發布包括 Marketplace、與 Snowflake 的合作、RiskGauge、ProSpread 以及 Platts Platform；我們在先前的財報電話會議中都曾討論過。

There are 2 new items we haven't discussed yet. The first is the launch of S&P Riskcasting Indices, which use artificial intelligence to adjust the weighting of equity and fixed income positions in response to market signals. The second is the S&P Kensho Moonshots Index, which measures a company's propensity to innovate. The index excludes the mega-cap technology names, instead focusing on the next generation of innovative companies. In addition, Ratings360 launched comprehensive data, models and tools for the CLO user base and enhanced content for international and U.S. public finance.

另外還有兩項我們尚未討論的新內容。第一是推出 S&P Riskcasting Indices，運用人工智慧依據市場訊號調整股票與固定收益部位的權重。第二是 S&P Kensho Moonshots Index，用以衡量企業的創新傾向。該指數排除超大型市值科技股，轉而聚焦於下一代創新公司。此外，Ratings360 也為 CLO 使用者族群推出全面性的資料、模型與工具，並強化國際與美國公共財政（public finance）內容。

While we included the S&P Kensho Moonshots Index on the last slide, we needed a separate slide to cover all of the new products, product enhancements and productivity improvements Kensho developed in 2020. These include: Omnisearch on the Market Intelligence platform, a high-speed revamp of the Platts Market-on-Close process. Utilizing AI, publication times for assessments were reduced by an average of 80%. We've converted 66 markets to the Kensho MOC process already, and we will continue to migrate additional markets in 2021. Kensho Extract, which enables information to be replicated exactly as found in the original document. Kensho's indices have also made great progress with the SPDR S&P Kensho New Economies Composite ETF, ending 2020 with over $2.3 billion in AUM, a tenfold increase this year. And we've made several Kensho solutions available in our recently launched Marketplace.

雖然我們在上一張投影片已納入 S&P Kensho Moonshots Index，但仍需要另一張投影片來涵蓋 Kensho 在 2020 年開發的所有新產品、產品強化與生產力提升。包括：Market Intelligence 平台上的 Omnisearch；對 Platts Market-on-Close（MOC）流程的高速改造。透過 AI，評估發布時間平均縮短 80%。我們已將 66 個市場轉換至 Kensho MOC 流程，並將在 2021 年持續遷移更多市場。Kensho Extract，可讓資訊以與原始文件完全一致的方式被複製。Kensho 的指數也在 SPDR S&P Kensho New Economies Composite ETF 上取得重大進展，2020 年底 AUM 超過 23 億美元，較今年增加 10 倍。此外，我們也已在近期推出的 Marketplace 中提供多項 Kensho 解決方案。

The first is Kensho Scribe, a tool that enabled us to create 36,000 transcripts last year while expanding our corporate coverage by 1,500 companies. This tool is now available for our clients to convert speech to text. The second is Kensho Link, a tool that enabled us to have data sets on 11 million entities from Creditsafe, Preqin and IPqwery. This tool is also available to our clients to help link data sets. Taken together, cognitive automation from Kensho Link, Kensho Scribe and several other machine learning tools have delivered an estimated 700,000 hours of savings.

第一項是 Kensho Scribe，該工具使我們去年得以製作 36,000 份逐字稿，同時將企業覆蓋範圍擴大 1,500 家公司。此工具現已提供客戶使用，以將語音轉換為文字。第二項是 Kensho Link，該工具使我們能取得來自 Creditsafe、Preqin 與 IPqwery 的 1,100 萬個實體（entities）資料集。此工具也提供客戶使用，以協助連結資料集。綜合而言，Kensho Link、Kensho Scribe 以及其他多項機器學習工具所帶來的認知自動化，估計節省了 700,000 小時。

While we have developed exceptional technology capabilities among our IT community, we have also made great strides to expand technological skills of all employees. A great example is robotic process automation or RPA. Employees from around the company have embraced RPA, taken internal classes and created their own bots generating an estimated savings of 300,000 hours in 2020.

除了在 IT 社群中建立卓越的技術能力外，我們也大幅推進全體員工的技術技能提升。一個很好的例子是機器人流程自動化（RPA）。公司各部門員工都積極採用 RPA、參加內部課程並建立自己的機器人（bots），在 2020 年估計節省 300,000 小時。

While all of the work that we do internally is what drives much of our success, key industry trends also help. The shift into passive investing continues. This chart shows the cumulative U.S. equity flows of $1.8 trillion in the past 10 years, and we are a prime beneficiary of this trend. If we look at ETF AUM associated with our indices, there has been an almost 150% increase over the past 5 years to $2 trillion. Over the long run, we believe this trend will continue.

雖然我們內部所做的一切工作推動了多數成功，但關鍵產業趨勢也有所助益。被動式投資的轉移仍在持續。此圖顯示過去 10 年美國股票累計資金流入達 1.8 兆美元，而我們是此趨勢的主要受益者。若觀察與我們指數相關的 ETF AUM，過去 5 年幾乎增加 150%，達到 2 兆美元。長期而言，我們相信此趨勢將持續。

The increase in global issuance has been another positive trend for the company. While 2020 issuance in aggregate increased 13%, as is often the case, there are pockets of strength and pockets of weakness. Global investment grade and high yield were the strongest categories, increasing 26% and 27%, respectively. This is due to incredible activity in the U.S., which increased 53% and 66%, respectively. Meanwhile, both structured and leveraged loans lagged in 2020.

全球發行量增加也是公司另一項正面趨勢。雖然 2020 年整體發行量增加 13%，但如同常見情況，仍有強勢區塊與弱勢區塊。全球投資等級與高收益為最強類別，分別增加 26% 與 27%。這主要來自美國市場的驚人活動，分別增加 53% 與 66%。同時，結構型產品與槓桿貸款在 2020 年表現落後。

The market clearly favored high-yield issuance over leveraged loans in 2020. Besides the decline in leveraged loan issuance in the U.S. and Europe, this slide depicts the percentage of loans that we rated, which was 91% in both the U.S. and Europe.

2020 年市場明顯偏好高收益發行而非槓桿貸款。除了美國與歐洲槓桿貸款發行量下滑外，本投影片也呈現我們評等的貸款占比：美國與歐洲皆為 91%。

I'd now like to shift the presentation to our outlook for 2021. Let's start with the latest view from our economists. They are forecasting global GDP growth of 5% in 2021, with growth accelerating during the year as vaccinations proceed and lockdowns recede. They believe fiscal and monetary policy will remain very accommodative and flexible. While the correlation between GDP and issuance was severed by the pandemic, we expect the long-term correlation to remain intact.

接下來我想將簡報轉向我們對 2021 年的展望。先從經濟學家最新觀點談起。他們預測 2021 年全球 GDP 成長 5%，並隨著疫苗接種推進與封鎖措施退場，全年成長將加速。他們認為財政與貨幣政策將維持高度寬鬆且具彈性。雖然疫情使 GDP 與發行量之間的相關性被切斷，但我們預期長期相關性仍將維持。

The latest global refinancing study was issued earlier this week. The total amount of global debt maturity in this study is $11.3 trillion over the next 5 years. This is up 5% from the $10.8 trillion highlighted in last year's study. The chart on the right depicts the global high-yield debt maturing over the next 5 years. It totals to $3 trillion, up 20% from $2.5 trillion in last year's study. This bodes well for future high-yield issuance.

最新的全球再融資研究於本週稍早發布。該研究顯示，未來 5 年全球到期債務總額為 11.3 兆美元，較去年研究所強調的 10.8 兆美元增加 5%。右側圖表呈現未來 5 年到期的全球高收益債務，合計 3 兆美元，較去年研究的 2.5 兆美元增加 20%。這對未來高收益發行而言是利多。

After issuance growth of 15% in 2019 and 17% in 2020, our Ratings Research group anticipates that issuance will decrease 3% in 2021. The forecast calls for gains in financials and structured to 4% and 3%, respectively, and decreases in nonfinancials and U.S. municipals issuance of 9% and 5%, respectively. Please note that this is an issuance forecast, not a revenue forecast. Despite the forecasted decline, supporting factors in 2021 include favorable financing conditions, increasing amounts of sovereign debt with negative yields and a renewed M&A pipeline for corporations.

在 2019 年發行量成長 15%、2020 年成長 17% 之後，我們的 Ratings Research 團隊預期 2021 年發行量將下降 3%。預測顯示金融與結構型產品分別成長至 4% 與 3%，而非金融與美國市政債發行量則分別下降 9% 與 5%。請注意，這是發行量預測，而非營收預測。儘管預測下滑，2021 年的支撐因素包括有利的融資條件、負殖利率主權債務規模增加，以及企業併購（M&A）管線再度活絡。

On this slide, I want to share some of the key initiatives that we're focused on in 2021. Asia, and China in particular, continue to be attractive markets for new product development and expanded capabilities. We want to continue to provide customers with new offerings, including the S&P Global platform, additional indices solutions, expanded Platts products and broadening Ratings360 coverage to additional issuer categories. We also want to focus on innovation and technology. We will do this by bolstering our data and systems capabilities to support growth while leveraging technology for new products and improve customer experiences. And we will continue to enhance our data extraction and ingestion capabilities. We're especially pleased to integrate our company-wide ESG offerings, creating new ESG products and extending our existing ESG coverage universe.

在這張投影片中，我想分享我們在 2021 年聚焦的一些關鍵計畫。亞洲，尤其是中國，仍是新產品開發與能力擴展的具吸引力市場。我們希望持續為客戶提供新方案，包括 S&P Global 平台、更多指數解決方案、擴充的 Platts 產品，以及將 Ratings360 覆蓋範圍擴展至更多發行人類別。我們也希望聚焦創新與科技；我們將透過強化資料與系統能力以支援成長，同時運用科技開發新產品並改善客戶體驗。我們也將持續提升資料擷取與匯入（ingestion）能力。我們尤其樂見整合公司層級的 ESG 方案，創造新的 ESG 產品，並擴大既有 ESG 覆蓋宇宙。

The most important initiative of the year will be our upcoming merger with IHS Markit. This is an incredibly transformative opportunity for our company and our customers. The combination of S&P Global and IHS Markit creates a strong company. We'll have increased scale and world-class products across numerous core markets, with a track record of deploying cutting-edge technology to accelerate our Powering the Markets of the Future strategy.

今年最重要的計畫將是我們即將與 IHS Markit 合併。這對公司與客戶而言是極具變革性的機會。S&P Global 與 IHS Markit 的結合將打造一家強大的公司。我們將在多個核心市場擁有更大的規模與世界級產品，並延續運用尖端科技的實績，以加速推進我們的「Powering the Markets of the Future」策略。

The pro forma company will serve a global customer base across financial information services, ratings, indices, commodities and energy, and transportation and engineering. Together, we will offer differentiated data, analytics, research and benchmarks important to the workflows of many of the world's leading companies and governments.

備考形式（pro forma）的公司將服務全球客戶群，涵蓋金融資訊服務、評級、指數、大宗商品與能源，以及運輸與工程等領域。我們將共同提供具差異化的數據、分析、研究與基準，這些對於全球眾多領先企業與政府的工作流程至關重要。

We expect the combined company to deliver EBITA synergies of approximately $680 million, resulting in a highly profitable combined company with continued opportunity for margin expansion. The acquisition is expected to generate a return on invested capital in excess of our weighted cost of capital after full synergy realization, consistent with our M&A philosophy.

我們預期合併後公司可實現約 6.8 億美元的 EBITA 協同效益，打造高度獲利的合併公司，並持續具備擴大利潤率的機會。待協同效益完全實現後，本次收購預期將帶來高於我們加權平均資本成本的投資資本報酬率，符合我們的併購理念。

For the employees of both companies, we will combine 2 best-in-class workforces and deep expertise and complementary cultures focused on serving the global needs of our customers. I'm incredibly proud of the team we've built at S&P Global, and I look forward to welcoming the talented IHS Markit employees to S&P Global.

對兩家公司員工而言，我們將整合兩支同級最佳（best-in-class）的團隊、深厚專業能力與互補文化，專注於滿足客戶的全球需求。我對我們在 S&P Global 所打造的團隊深感自豪，也期待歡迎才華洋溢的 IHS Markit 員工加入 S&P Global。

There are 3 parallel paths that are underway to close the transaction and prepare for the combination. The first is shareholder approval. The Form S-4 was filed and became effective last month. This enabled us to establish record dates and schedule shareholder meetings. Both shareholder meetings are scheduled for March 11.

目前有三條並行路徑正在推進，以完成交易並為合併做準備。第一是股東核准。S-4 表格已於上月提交並生效，使我們得以確定股權登記日並安排股東會。兩場股東會皆預定於 3 月 11 日舉行。

The second is regulatory approval. We're working toward regulatory approval in the countries listed. We continue to expect closing in the second half of 2021.

第二是監管核准。我們正朝向所列國家的監管核准推進。我們仍預期將於 2021 年下半年完成交割。

The third is pre-close integration planning. We have created integration teams focused on day-1 readiness. These teams are developing plans that focus on organizational integration, real estate consolidation, technology scale and efficiency, cross-selling and new product development. And we've created a value capture work stream, similar to what we established on our SNL acquisition to pursue and track synergies.

第三是交割前整合規劃。我們已成立整合團隊，聚焦於第 1 天（day-1）就緒。這些團隊正在制定計畫，重點包括組織整合、不動產整併、技術規模化與效率提升、交叉銷售與新產品開發。我們也建立了價值捕捉（value capture）工作流，類似於我們在收購 SNL 時所建立的機制，用以推動並追蹤協同效益。

The new company will have 6 businesses. Martina Cheung will lead Ratings. Martina will also be responsible for leading ESG across the company. Adam Kansler will lead Market Intelligence and financial services. Saugata Saha will lead Platts and resources. Dan Draper will lead indices. Edouard Tavernier will lead Transportation. In addition to being CFO, Ewout Steenbergen will lead Consolidated Markets & Solutions. And after the merger is closed, John Berisford will lead all of our integration efforts together with Ewout. I'm optimistic that S&P Global has a great future as a stand-alone company with exceptional assets, technology and people. Combining our company with IHS Markit makes for an even brighter future.

新公司將擁有 6 個事業群。Martina Cheung 將領導 Ratings（評級）。Martina 也將負責領導全公司 ESG。Adam Kansler 將領導 Market Intelligence 與金融服務。Saugata Saha 將領導 Platts 與資源。Dan Draper 將領導指數。Edouard Tavernier 將領導運輸。除擔任 CFO 外，Ewout Steenbergen 將領導 Consolidated Markets & Solutions。合併完成後，John Berisford 將與 Ewout 一同領導我們所有整合工作。我對 S&P Global 作為獨立公司擁有卓越資產、技術與人才的未來感到樂觀。將我們公司與 IHS Markit 結合，將帶來更光明的未來。

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

接下來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 welcome to all of you on the call. Let me start with our fourth quarter financial results. Organic revenue increased 6%. Adjusted corporate and allocated expense decreased 21%, primarily due to the timing of charitable contributions, lower professional fees and a reduction in the company's real estate footprint. Adjusted total expenses increased 11%, and I will come back to this on the next slide.

謝謝你，Doug，也歡迎各位參與本次電話會議。先從我們第四季財務結果談起。有機營收成長 6%。調整後公司層級與分攤費用下降 21%，主要因慈善捐贈時點、專業服務費降低，以及公司不動產使用面積縮減。調整後總費用增加 11%，我會在下一張投影片再回到這點。

Adjusted operating profit margin decreased 150 basis points due to the increase in total expenses. The decrease in the effective tax rate was primarily due to the successful resolution of various tax audits and a true-up of prior-period taxes. Average diluted shares outstanding declined 2%, and adjusted diluted EPS increased 7%.

由於總費用增加，調整後營業利益率下降 150 個基點。有效稅率下降主要來自多項稅務稽核成功結案，以及前期稅款的追溯調整（true-up）。平均稀釋流通股數下降 2%，調整後稀釋每股盈餘（EPS）成長 7%。

While total adjusted expenses for the full year increased 4%, for the fourth quarter, they increased 11%. This was primarily due to increased incentives as a result of strong 2020 financial performance, expenses related to the acquisitions of Greenwich Associates by CRISIL and the RobecoSAM ESG data and analytics platform and investments in growth initiatives and productivity programs.

雖然全年調整後總費用增加 4%，但第四季增加 11%。主要原因包括：因 2020 年財務表現強勁而增加的獎酬；CRISIL 收購 Greenwich Associates 以及收購 RobecoSAM ESG 數據與分析平台相關費用；以及對成長計畫與生產力方案的投資。

The non-GAAP adjustments this quarter collectively generated a net pretax loss of $247 million. They included $138 million associated with office lease, equipment and software impairments; $55 million in restructurings across the company; $24 million in IHS Markit merger costs; $2 million for Kensho retention-related expenses; and $29 million in deal-related amortization. The termination of office and equipment leases and the restructuring actions will result in annual savings of approximately $70 million. Approximately $20 million of these savings are part of the new $120 million productivity program. The balance is related to separate business efficiency initiatives.

本季非 GAAP 調整項合計產生稅前淨損 2.47 億美元。其中包括：與辦公室租賃、設備與軟體減損相關的 1.38 億美元；全公司重整費用 5,500 萬美元；IHS Markit 合併成本 2,400 萬美元；Kensho 留任相關費用 200 萬美元；以及交易相關攤銷 2,900 萬美元。終止辦公室與設備租賃以及重整措施，預計每年可節省約 7,000 萬美元。其中約 2,000 萬美元的節省屬於新的 1.2 億美元生產力計畫的一部分，其餘則與其他業務效率提升計畫相關。

This quarter, all 4 divisions delivered increased revenue, with indices achieving double-digit growth. As I explained earlier, due to increased cost, adjusted operating profit margins were generally muted. For the full year, Ratings and Platts delivered superior adjusted operating profit margin improvement; Market Intelligence increased slightly with elevated investment spending; and indices decreased slightly, primarily due to higher legal expenses and ESG investments.

本季四大事業部門皆實現營收成長，其中指數業務達到雙位數成長。如先前所述，由於成本上升，調整後營業利益率整體表現普遍較為平淡。就全年而言，Ratings 與 Platts 的調整後營業利益率改善表現優異；Market Intelligence 在投資支出較高的情況下小幅上升；指數業務則小幅下降，主要因法律費用較高及 ESG 投資所致。

Each year, on our fourth quarter earnings call, we share changes in our headcount. In 2020, headcount increased 2%. This year, we separated enterprise technology headcount from corporate headcount. Corporate was the area with the largest headcount increase at 16%. This was the result of insourcing about 130 order-to-cash positions, resulting in annual savings of several million dollars. The only other area that had an outsized increase was Platts, which increased headcount 5%. This was due to investment spending to expand their commercial presence in Asia and fund their benchmark acceleration program as well as insourcing of IT contractors.

每年在第四季財報電話會議上，我們都會分享員工人數的變化。2020 年員工人數增加 2%。今年我們將企業技術（enterprise technology）人力自公司（corporate）人力中分拆揭露。公司部門是人力增幅最大的領域，增加 16%。這是因為我們將約 130 個「接單到收款」（order-to-cash）職位內部化（insourcing），每年可節省數百萬美元。另一個增幅較大的領域是 Platts，人力增加 5%。這主要因投資支出以擴大其在亞洲的商務布局並資助其基準加速計畫（benchmark acceleration program），以及將 IT 承包商內部化。

Last year, we shared this slide and estimated that we would invest $150 million in growth initiatives in 2020. The projects that make up this total are listed on the left. We ended up spending $139 million, which was still an exceptional level of activity for the company. For 2021, we expect investment spending to moderate to $100 million. This activity, coupled with the merger with IHS Markit, should keep the organization fully engaged with exciting new projects and opportunities.

去年我們分享了這張投影片，並估計 2020 年將在成長計畫上投資 1.5 億美元。構成該總額的專案列於左側。最終我們支出 1.39 億美元，對公司而言仍是非常高的活動水準。展望 2021 年，我們預期投資支出將放緩至 1 億美元。這些活動加上與 IHS Markit 的合併，將使組織持續投入於令人振奮的新專案與機會。

On our third quarter earnings call, we introduced a new $120 million productivity program to be completed over the next 2 to 3 years. I'm pleased to report that we're off to a fast start, with $49 million of run rate savings already achieved. These were mainly from reduced real estate and changes to IT contracts as well as investments made to permanently reduce T&E. These run rate savings do not include the $20 million benefit from the impairments and restructuring actions taken at the end of 2020.

在第三季財報電話會議上，我們推出新的 1.2 億美元生產力計畫，預計在未來 2 至 3 年完成。我很高興回報，我們已快速起步，已達成 4,900 萬美元的年度化（run rate）節省。這些節省主要來自不動產縮減與 IT 合約調整，以及為永久降低差旅與娛樂（T&E）所做的投資。上述年度化節省不包含 2020 年底所採取減損與重整措施帶來的 2,000 萬美元效益。

Now turning to the balance sheet. Our balance sheet has low leverage and surplus liquidity. We have cash and cash equivalents of $4.1 billion. This is temporarily higher than necessary and will be reduced when we resume share repurchases. Debt of $4.1 billion; an undrawn revolver capacity of $1.2 billion and no commercial paper outstanding. Our adjusted gross debt-to-adjusted EBITDA is consistent with our current leverage target.

接著看資產負債表。我們的資產負債表槓桿偏低且流動性充裕。我們持有現金及約當現金 41 億美元，這在短期內高於所需，待我們恢復庫藏股回購後將會下降。負債為 41 億美元；未動用循環信貸（revolver）額度 12 億美元，且無商業本票（commercial paper）餘額。我們的調整後總負債／調整後 EBITDA 比率符合目前的槓桿目標。

Free cash flow, excluding certain items, reached $3.3 billion in 2020, an increase of $740 million or 28% over the prior year period. In 2020, the company returned $1.2 billion to repurchase 4 million shares and paid dividends of $645 million. In aggregate, we returned 55% of free cash flow, excluding certain items. This fell short of our target of 75% as we had to curtail share repurchases due to the merger. If there is an open window and we have an opportunity, we will repurchase shares before the merger closes. If not, we anticipate resuming share repurchases after the merger is completed.

2020 年，扣除特定項目後的自由現金流達 33 億美元，較前一年同期增加 7.4 億美元或 28%。2020 年公司投入 12 億美元回購 400 萬股，並支付股利 6.45 億美元。合計而言，我們返還了扣除特定項目後自由現金流的 55%。由於合併因素我們必須縮減回購，因此未達到 75% 的目標。若有開放窗口且有機會，我們將在合併完成前回購股份；若無，我們預期在合併完成後恢復股份回購。

Now let's turn to the division results, starting with S&P Dow Jones Indices. The segment delivered 10% revenue growth, primarily due to gains in AUM linked to our indices and data subscriptions. In the fourth quarter, we reported an 8% increase in adjusted expenses, primarily due to incentive compensation true-ups, increased headcount and application development spending; an 11% increase in adjusted segment operating profit; and an adjusted segment operating profit margin of 68.5%, an increase of 50 basis points. On a trailing 4-quarter basis, the adjusted segment operating profit margin decreased 40 basis points to 69.1%.

接下來看各事業部門表現，先從 S&P Dow Jones Indices 開始。該部門營收成長 10%，主要來自與我們指數連結的資產管理規模（AUM）增加，以及數據訂閱成長。第四季，我們報告調整後費用增加 8%，主要因獎酬補提（true-ups）、人力增加與應用程式開發支出；調整後部門營業利益增加 11%；調整後部門營業利益率為 68.5%，增加 50 個基點。以過去 4 季（trailing 4-quarter）計算，調整後部門營業利益率下降 40 個基點至 69.1%。

S&P Dow Jones Indices delivered growth across all revenue channels this quarter. Asset-linked fees increased 12% with gains in ETFs and mutual funds. Exchange-traded derivative revenue increased 3%. Data and custom subscriptions increased 7% due to an increase in end-of-day ACV.

本季 S&P Dow Jones Indices 在所有營收管道均實現成長。資產連結費用隨 ETF 與共同基金成長而增加 12%。交易所交易衍生品營收增加 3%。數據與客製化訂閱因日終（end-of-day）ACV 增加而成長 7%。

Activity at the CBOE decreased in the fourth quarter with S&P 500 Index options activity decreasing 13% and VIX futures and options activity decreasing 1%. This was in contrast to increased activity at the CME where the equity complex volume increased 58%. Almost all of the gain at the CME was due to the successful launch of the Micro E-mini S&P 500 futures. Excluding this product, the volumes at the CME equity complex were essentially flat.

CBOE 在第四季的活動量下降，其中標普 500 指數期權活動量下降 13%，VIX 期貨與期權活動量下降 1%。這與 CME 活動量增加形成對比，CME 的股票複合產品成交量增加 58%。CME 的增量幾乎全部來自 Micro E-mini S&P 500 期貨的成功推出。若排除此產品，CME 股票複合產品的成交量基本持平。

Market Intelligence delivered organic revenue growth of 7% with strength in both renewals and new business. Usage of our key market platforms increased 13% year-over-year. Adjusted expenses increased 10% due to incentive compensation true-ups and higher commissions and royalties. Adjusted segment operating profit increased 2%, and the adjusted segment operating profit margin decreased 160 basis points to 30.7%. On a trailing 4-quarter basis, adjusted segment operating profit margin increased 30 basis points to 32.4%.

Market Intelligence 實現 7% 的有機營收成長，續約與新業務皆表現強勁。我們主要市場平台的使用量年增 13%。調整後費用增加 10%，主要因獎酬補提（true-ups）以及較高的佣金與權利金。調整後分部營業利益增加 2%，調整後分部營業利益率下降 160 個基點至 30.7%。以最近 4 季為基礎，調整後分部營業利益率增加 30 個基點至 32.4%。

Looking across the Market Intelligence components, Desktop revenue grew 5%, excluding acquisitions and divestments. During 2020, Market Intelligence delivered significant enhancements to the MI platform. These included improved visualization, a customizable dashboard, integration of Kensho Omnisearch, an upgraded mobile experience and a cloud-based infrastructure for better performance. These enhancements help us meet the needs of many platform users and position us well for continued execution against our integrated desktop road map. Data Management Solutions revenue grew 10%, and Credit Risk Solutions revenue grew 8%.

從 Market Intelligence 各組成項目來看，Desktop 營收（不含併購與處分影響）成長 5%。2020 年期間，Market Intelligence 對 MI 平台進行了顯著強化，包括改善視覺化、可自訂儀表板、整合 Kensho Omnisearch、升級行動端體驗，以及採用雲端基礎架構以提升效能。這些強化有助於滿足眾多平台使用者需求，並使我們在持續推進整合式桌面端路線圖的執行上具備良好定位。Data Management Solutions 營收成長 10%，Credit Risk Solutions 營收成長 8%。

Ratings reported revenue increased 7%. Organic revenue increased 5%, excluding the acquisitions of the ESG data and analytics platform from RobecoSAM and CRISIL's acquisition of Greenwich Associates. Adjusted expenses increased 17%, primarily due to incentive true-ups and acquisitions. This resulted in a 1% increase in adjusted segment operating profit and a 370 basis point decrease in adjusted segment operating profit margin. On a trailing 4-quarter basis, adjusted segment operating profit margin increased 460 basis points to 62.4%.

Ratings 公布營收增加 7%。若排除自 RobecoSAM 收購的 ESG 數據與分析平台，以及 CRISIL 收購 Greenwich Associates 的影響，有機營收增加 5%。調整後費用增加 17%，主要因獎酬補提及併購所致。結果使調整後分部營業利益增加 1%，調整後分部營業利益率下降 370 個基點。以最近 4 季為基礎，調整後分部營業利益率增加 460 個基點至 62.4%。

Nontransaction revenue increased 15%. Organic nontransaction revenue increased 11%, primarily due to fees associated with surveillance, frequent issuer programs, rating evaluation service on increased M&A activity and higher new entity credit ratings activity. Transaction revenue was relatively flat as increases in bank loan ratings revenue were offset by a decrease in bond issuance compared to a very strong fourth quarter of 2019.

非交易營收增加 15%。有機非交易營收增加 11%，主要來自監測（surveillance）相關費用、常態發行人計畫（frequent issuer programs）、在併購活動增加下的評等評估服務（rating evaluation service, RES）費用，以及較高的新實體信用評等活動。交易營收大致持平，因銀行貸款評等營收增加被債券發行量下降所抵銷；相較之下，2019 年第四季表現非常強勁。

As we have seen time and time again, the various parts of the Ratings business often move in opposite directions with some up and some down in any given quarter or year. This quarter, nontransaction revenue was strong, while transaction revenue was unchanged.

我們一再看到，Ratings 業務的各個部分往往呈現反向變動，在任何一個季度或年度中，有些上升、有些下降。本季非交易營收強勁，而交易營收則維持不變。

Nontransaction revenue is generally a steady source of growth that are broke out to the upside in the fourth quarter. About 1/3 of the organic growth in the fourth quarter was from surveillance fees and frequent issuer programs that are more recurring in nature. About 1/3 was from large jumps in RES and new entity credit ratings, which we expect to continue to be strong in 2021. And about 1/3 was from other items.

非交易營收通常是穩定的成長來源，而在第四季出現向上突破。第四季有機成長約 1/3 來自監測費用與常態發行人計畫，這些較具經常性。約 1/3 來自 RES 與新實體信用評等的大幅跳升，我們預期 2021 年仍將維持強勁。另約 1/3 來自其他項目。

This slide depicts Ratings revenue by its end markets. The largest contributor to the increase in Ratings revenue was an 8% increase in corporates. In addition, financial services revenue increased 6%, structured finance decreased 6%, governments decreased 3% and the CRISIL and other category increased 8%.

本頁投影片按終端市場呈現 Ratings 營收。Ratings 營收增加的最大貢獻者為企業（corporates）成長 8%。此外，金融服務營收增加 6%，結構性融資下降 6%，政府下降 3%，CRISIL 與其他類別增加 8%。

On the right side of the slide, you can see the changes in revenue within structured products. The largest change was in CMBS, which was due to a 64% decrease in global CMBS issuance.

在投影片右側，您可以看到結構性產品內部的營收變動。其中變動最大的是 CMBS，原因是全球 CMBS 發行量下降 64%。

And now turning to Platts. Reported revenue increased 5%, with core subscriptions increasing 6% and Global Trading Services decreasing 5%. GTS revenue decreased, mainly due to lower natural gas and iron ore volumes, partially offset by increased LNG volumes. Also due to COVID, our conference business revenue was down about $1.5 million in the quarter. Adjusted expenses increased 7% due to incentive true-ups and growth investments. Adjusted segment operating profit margin decreased 100 basis points to 51.7%. The trailing 4-quarter adjusted segment operating profit margin increased 230 basis points to 54.7%.

接著談 Platts。公布營收增加 5%，其中核心訂閱增加 6%，Global Trading Services（GTS）下降 5%。GTS 營收下降主要因天然氣與鐵礦石成交量較低，部分被 LNG 成交量增加所抵銷。另受 COVID 影響，我們的會議業務營收本季約減少 150 萬美元。調整後費用增加 7%，主要因獎酬補提與成長投資。調整後分部營業利益率下降 100 個基點至 51.7%。最近 4 季的調整後分部營業利益率增加 230 個基點至 54.7%。

The fastest-growing categories during the quarter were petrochemicals, up 18%; and power and gas, up 6%. Petrochemicals had a favorable comparison to a weak fourth quarter of 2019.

本季成長最快的類別為石化，上升 18%；以及電力與天然氣，上升 6%。石化的成長部分來自與 2019 年第四季疲弱基期相比的有利比較。

We recently filed the S-4 and received a handful of questions about the document. They were generally related to the 2 topics on this slide. The first question was, if the 2021 stand-alone adjusted diluted EPS in the S-4 was our guidance. It's not. The $12.36 figure in the S-4 assumes that we will continue to repurchase shares in 2021 as a stand-alone company. However, as we have stated, we think that it is unlikely we will resume share repurchases before the merger with IHS Markit closes. Therefore, our 2021 guidance assumes no share repurchases.

我們近期已提交 S-4，並收到一些關於該文件的問題，主要與本頁的兩個主題相關。第一個問題是：S-4 中所列的 2021 年獨立（stand-alone）調整後稀釋 EPS 是否為我們的指引？答案是否定的。S-4 中的 12.36 美元數字假設我們在 2021 年作為獨立公司將持續回購股份。然而，如我們所述，我們認為在與 IHS Markit 的合併完成之前，不太可能恢復股份回購。因此，我們的 2021 年指引假設不進行股份回購。

The second difference is that the S-4 figures were based on our October internal forecast. Our initial 2021 guidance is based on our most recent internal forecast, which has improved outlook primarily due to increased growth in ACV and our subscription businesses and AUM in our indices business.

第二個差異在於，S-4 的數字係基於我們 10 月的內部預測。我們最初的 2021 年指引則基於最新的內部預測；該預測的展望有所改善，主要因 ACV、我們的訂閱型業務，以及指數業務中的 AUM 成長提升。

The second question was why the cash flow figures in the S-4 differ from the figures stated on the merger conference call and our normal free cash flow reporting. These are 2 different views of free cash flow. The S-4 provides an unlevered free cash flow forecast typically utilized to value companies via a discounted cash flow analysis. The difference between the unlevered free cash flow in the S-4 and the free cash flow in our guidance and discussed on our merger call is that the S-4 definition includes stock-based compensation expenses and acquisitions and excludes interest payments.

第二個問題是：為何 S-4 中的現金流數字與合併電話會議所述以及我們一般的自由現金流揭露不同？這是自由現金流的兩種不同觀點。S-4 提供的是無槓桿自由現金流（unlevered free cash flow）預測，通常用於以折現現金流（DCF）分析對公司估值。S-4 的無槓桿自由現金流與我們指引中、以及在合併電話會議上討論的自由現金流之差異在於：S-4 的定義包含以股票為基礎的薪酬費用與併購，並排除利息支付。

We're not providing 2021 GAAP guidance. Because given the inherent uncertainty around the merger, management cannot reliably predict all of the necessary components of GAAP measures.

我們不提供 2021 年 GAAP 指引。因為鑑於合併相關的固有不確定性，管理層無法可靠地預測 GAAP 衡量指標所需的所有必要組成項目。

This slide depicts our adjusted guidance. While we expect that the merger will occur in the second half of this year, we are providing adjusted guidance on a stand-alone basis: revenue increasing mid-single digits; corporate unallocated expense in the range of $140 million to $150 million, an increase over the $128 million in 2020 due to some expected normalization of pandemic-related cost savings; deal-related amortization of $95 million to $100 million, a decrease from the $123 million in 2020 as certain assets have been fully amortized; operating profit margin in a range of 53.8% to 54.3%, which is 50 to 100 basis points higher than in 2020; interest expense net, which includes both interest income and interest expense in the range of $120 million to $125 million. This is lower than the $141 million in 2020 due to the recent refinancing of a large portion of our outstanding debt.

本頁呈現我們的調整後指引。雖然我們預期合併將在今年下半年發生，但我們以獨立（stand-alone）基礎提供調整後指引：營收成長中個位數；公司未分攤費用（corporate unallocated expense）約 1.40 億至 1.50 億美元，較 2020 年的 1.28 億美元增加，原因是部分疫情相關成本節省預期將正常化；交易相關攤銷（deal-related amortization）約 9,500 萬至 1.00 億美元，較 2020 年的 1.23 億美元下降，因部分資產已完全攤銷；營業利益率約 53.8% 至 54.3%，較 2020 年高 50 至 100 個基點；淨利息費用（interest expense net，包含利息收入與利息費用）約 1.20 億至 1.25 億美元。此數字低於 2020 年的 1.41 億美元，主要因近期對我們相當大部分未償債務進行再融資。

A tax rate in the range of 21.5% to 22.5%, which is consistent with the 21.5% reported in 2020; diluted EPS in a range of $12.25 to $12.45, a 5% to 7% increase over 2020. While this growth rate might seem modest, it is 29% to 31% higher than our 2019 EPS. That's an average of about 15% per year. We just happened to achieve most of this increase in 2020. Also, keep in mind that these figures assume no share repurchases in 2021. And finally, free cash flow generation in a range of $3.3 billion to $3.4 billion, which is flat to up $100 million compared to 2020 due to improved business performance, partially offset by normalizing cash collections following a strong year with record low delinquencies in 2020. In addition to the slides that we have reviewed on this call, there is an appendix with additional fourth quarter slides that can be downloaded from the Investor Presentation section of the Investor Relations website.

稅率約 21.5% 至 22.5%，與 2020 年公布的 21.5% 一致；稀釋 EPS 約 12.25 至 12.45 美元，較 2020 年增加 5% 至 7%。雖然此成長率看似不高，但較我們 2019 年 EPS 高出 29% 至 31%，平均每年約 15%。我們只是剛好在 2020 年實現了大部分增幅。此外，請記住這些數字假設 2021 年不進行股份回購。最後，自由現金流產生量約 33 億至 34 億美元，較 2020 年持平至增加 1 億美元；原因是業務表現改善，部分被在 2020 年創下歷史低延滯率、現金回收表現強勁之後，現金回收回歸常態所抵銷。除本次電話會議已檢視的投影片外，另有附錄包含更多第四季投影片，可自投資人關係網站的 Investor Presentation 區下載。

In conclusion, 2020 was a very strong year for S&P Global. Despite the recession, all of our businesses grew revenue, and we improved our adjusted operating margin by 310 basis points. Year after year, we have demonstrated our ability to grow revenue and adjusted operating margin, and we don't believe that we are close to being done. We remain encouraged about our future and have just introduced 2021 adjusted guidance that reflects our optimism.

總結而言，2020 年對 S&P Global 來說是非常強勁的一年。儘管面臨衰退，我們所有業務的營收皆成長，且調整後營業利益率提升 310 個基點。年復一年，我們已展現營收與調整後營業利益率的成長能力，我們不認為距離成長結束已近。我們對未來仍感到振奮，並剛剛提出反映我們樂觀態度的 2021 年調整後指引。

Finally, I wanted to echo Doug's comments about our employees. They continue to perform at an exceptional level in difficult circumstances. And Doug, myself and the rest of the leadership team applaud their tenacity and innovativeness. And with that, let me turn the call back over to Chip for your questions.

最後，我想呼應 Doug 對我們員工的評論。他們在艱難的情況下仍持續以卓越的水準表現。Doug、我本人以及其餘領導團隊都讚賞他們的堅韌與創新精神。接下來，我把電話交回給 Chip 來回答各位的提問。

Thank you. Just a couple of instructions for our phone participants. (Operator Instructions) Operator, we will now take our first question.

謝謝。先給電話與會者幾點說明。（接線員指示）接線員，現在我們開始第一個問題。

Our first question comes from Toni Kaplan from Morgan Stanley.

第一個問題來自 Morgan Stanley 的 Toni Kaplan。

Toni, you might be on mute.

Toni，你可能把麥克風設成靜音了。

Announcement of buying IHS Markit. What's been the reaction from your largest customers and from your internal business units? Is there anything in particular that they're excited about or conversely concerned about that maybe you weren't expecting initially?

關於宣布收購 IHS Markit。你們最大的客戶以及內部各業務單位的反應如何？是否有任何他們特別興奮、或相反地特別擔心、而且可能是你們一開始沒有預期到的事情？

Toni, this is Doug. Let me take that. Well, first of all, thank you for joining the call today. And since we announced the merger with IHS Markit, it's been great excitement from our customers. We had heard in particular from the financial institutions about all of the capabilities we're going to be bringing together from the energy industry.

Toni，我是 Doug。我來回答。首先，謝謝你今天加入電話會議。自從我們宣布與 IHS Markit 合併以來，客戶反應非常熱烈。尤其是金融機構，他們對於我們將把能源產業的各項能力整合在一起感到非常興奮。

We've also seen a lot of excitement from the people that are interested in ESG. Our employees are also very excited about that. We know each other. We had worked together before between our index business. Their fixed income index business and our index business, people know each other there. We've had great respect for Lance and for the team at IHS Markit. And so there's excitement across the board, and we see things very positive.

我們也看到許多關注 ESG 的人士非常期待。我們的員工也對此感到非常興奮。我們彼此其實很熟悉，先前在指數業務方面就曾合作過——他們的固定收益指數業務與我們的指數業務之間，彼此都認識。我們一直非常敬重 Lance 以及 IHS Markit 的團隊。因此，各方面都很振奮，我們看到的情況非常正面。

One final comment. As you saw in the slide, we talked about parallel paths. One of those is integration planning. So our teams have started to get to know each other through the integration work that we're planning for. And again, there's a lot of respect for each of the teams and a lot of progress being made there.

最後補充一點。如同你在投影片中看到的，我們談到「平行路徑」。其中之一是整合規劃。因此，我們的團隊已開始透過我們正在規劃的整合工作彼此熟悉。再次強調，各團隊彼此都非常尊重，而且在這方面已取得很大進展。

Great. And wanted to ask about the Market Intelligence strategy going forward. Historically, you've been positioned as the low-price competitor relative to peers. And with all the assets that you've purchased over the years and with the eventual integration of IHS' data, does your strategy change going forward? Would you expect to be at a higher price level? Or should we expect your growth to be more driven by adding more customers? Or maybe it's both? Just how do we think about the strategy there?

很好。我也想問一下未來 Market Intelligence 的策略。過去相較同業，你們一直被定位為低價競爭者。隨著你們多年來收購的各項資產，以及未來整合 IHS 的資料，你們的策略接下來會改變嗎？你們會預期價格水準提高嗎？或者我們應該預期成長更多是由新增客戶所驅動？或可能兩者皆是？我們該如何看待這裡的策略？

Yes. This is really a little bit premature for me to be giving you the strategy. But if you think about what we're going to be bringing together, Market Intelligence right now has a really strong base of installed customers, hundreds of thousands of users that are already using our information. So you think about that as one distribution channel for all of the very rich IHS Markit data.

是的。現在要我談策略其實還有點太早。但如果你想想我們將整合在一起的內容，Market Intelligence 目前擁有非常強大的既有客戶基礎，已有數十萬名使用者在使用我們的資訊。你可以把這視為一個分銷通路，用來承載 IHS Markit 非常豐富的資料。

On the other hand, IHS Markit also has very powerful tools, which include workflow for financial institutions and for corporate and asset management industry, et cetera. So getting those 2 together is going to allow us to have a much more comprehensive strategy, both looking at the value that we bring, which you talk about as a price strategy, but I think of more as a value strategy that expands that, and then also ability to bring much more -- many more products and services to all of the different kinds of customers that we serve.

另一方面，IHS Markit 也有非常強大的工具，包括提供給金融機構、企業以及資產管理產業等的工作流程工具。把這兩者結合起來，將使我們能制定更全面的策略：一方面著眼於我們帶來的價值——你稱之為定價策略，但我更把它視為價值策略，去擴大這個價值；另一方面也能把更多——更多的產品與服務帶給我們所服務的各類客戶。

Our next question comes from Alex Kramm with UBS.

下一個問題來自 UBS 的 Alex Kramm。

Just going to the base business for a minute here on the Ratings side. I think you made the comment, Doug, that the 3% issuance forecast, we should not take that as an indication of revenue. So can you just flesh out the other pieces we should be thinking about? I mean clearly, there's going to be a much different mix this year. You obviously have some pricing opportunities.

我想先回到基礎業務，談一下 Ratings 這邊。我記得 Doug 你提到 3% 的發行量預測不應被視為營收的指標。你能否更具體說明我們還應該考量哪些其他因素？很明顯今年的組合會差很多。你們也顯然有一些定價機會。

And then clearly, the recurring revenues have been running along very nicely and maybe talk about the sustainability of those. So anything that can help us bridge that gap to how we should be thinking about revenue there?

另外，經常性收入一直表現得相當不錯，也請談談其可持續性。任何能幫助我們把這個落差銜接起來、讓我們理解應如何看待那邊營收的資訊都很有幫助。

Yes. Alex, this is Ewout. As we have said many times about the Ratings business, it doesn't always rain everywhere at the same time. So there are always components that are going up and several other components that are going down. But in aggregate, the outlook for Ratings looks always quite constructive.

是的。Alex，我是 Ewout。正如我們多次談到 Ratings 業務時所說，並不是所有地方同時下雨。因此，總會有一些組成項目在上升，也會有其他幾個組成項目在下降。但整體而言，Ratings 的展望一向相當具建設性。

For 2021, overall, from a revenue perspective, we expect low- to mid-single-digit growth for Ratings. And that is particularly helped by nontransaction revenue. Nontransaction revenue, we're currently estimating to grow at a mid- to high single-digit level in 2021. That is being helped by higher surveillance fees based on more bonds outstanding based on the issuance levels last year; frequent issuer programs; Rating Evaluation Services, which we expect to continue to be helped by the M&A environment.

就 2021 年而言，從營收角度，我們預期 Ratings 將呈現低到中個位數成長。這主要受非交易性收入的帶動。我們目前估計 2021 年非交易性收入將以中到高個位數成長。其動能來自：因去年發行量水準使得在外流通債券增加，進而帶動更高的監控費；常態發行人方案（frequent issuer programs）；以及我們預期在併購環境帶動下仍將受惠的 Rating Evaluation Services。

And then in terms of a mix, there's always some elements that are going up and down. And then in addition to that, we should also see some benefit from new products. So overall, I think a very constructive outlook for Ratings. And again, overall, from a revenue perspective for the full year, low- to mid-single-digit revenue growth.

至於組合方面，總會有一些元素上升、一些下降。此外，我們也應該會看到新產品帶來的一些助益。整體而言，我認為 Ratings 的展望非常具建設性。再次強調，就全年營收而言，我們預期低到中個位數的營收成長。

Excellent. And then secondarily, Ewout, you made this comment briefly that in terms of share repurchases, you could be doing something before the deal closes if there was an open window. So maybe just flesh out what an open window means? And then related to that, what are your minimum cash requirements as -- on a stand-alone and combined company, so we can dimensionalize it a little bit here?

很好。其次，Ewout，你先前簡短提到，若有「開放窗口」，在交易完成前你們可能也會進行庫藏股回購。能否再說明一下「開放窗口」是什麼意思？另外相關地，作為獨立公司以及合併後公司，你們的最低現金需求大概是多少，讓我們可以更具體地量化一下？

Yes. Alex, we would love to do share buybacks, but there are certain regulatory limitations that we are facing this year. Think, for example, about the current period where the shareholders' vote is underway. So we would not be able to do share buybacks until the shareholders' meeting on March 11.

是的。Alex，我們很希望進行股票回購，但今年我們面臨一些法規限制。舉例來說，目前正處於股東投票期間。因此，在 3 月 11 日股東大會之前，我們無法進行股票回購。

Of course, we have also closed windows with respect to our quarterly results. And then we should not be in possession of material nonpublic information. So a combination of those elements might make the windows that we can do buybacks quite limited. And therefore, we think it is unlikely we can do buybacks. But if there is an opportunity, and from a legal perspective we should be clear, we definitely would like to restart some of the buybacks.

當然，針對我們的季度財報也會有封閉窗口期。此外，我們也不能持有重大未公開資訊。因此，這些因素的組合可能使我們能進行回購的窗口相當有限。也因此，我們認為今年不太可能進行回購。但如果有機會，且從法律角度我們也確認沒有問題，我們確實非常希望重新啟動部分回購。

Otherwise, we will do that post close of the merger. There's definitely going to be, at that point in time, some catch-up buybacks because, of course, we're falling short towards our return targets at this point in time. And then as we have stated at the merger call, in terms of our new financial targets, we're expecting to return at least 85% of free cash flow going forward for the combined company. And the combined company from a free cash flow perspective should have a very strong profile north of $4 billion out of the gate in terms of free cash flow and growing to about $5 billion or north of $5 billion in a few years' time.

否則，我們會在合併完成後再進行。屆時肯定會有一些補回式的回購，因為就目前而言，我們在資本回饋目標上確實有所不足。並且如同我們在合併電話會議中所說，依據新的財務目標，合併後公司未來預期至少回饋 85% 的自由現金流。合併後公司在自由現金流方面一開始就會有非常強勁的體質，起步即超過 40 億美元，並在幾年內成長到約 50 億美元或超過 50 億美元。

From a balance sheet perspective, we will have a very robust balance sheet in the future with a leverage ratio in a range of 2% to 2.5%. Of course, we'll have some minimum cash. But absolutely, we have currently excess cash, surplus cash that we will return to shareholders once we have the opportunity to do so.

從資產負債表角度來看，未來我們將擁有非常穩健的資產負債表，槓桿比率落在 2% 到 2.5% 的區間。當然，我們會保留一定的最低現金水位。但毫無疑問，目前我們確實有超額現金、剩餘現金，一旦有機會就會回饋給股東。

Our next question comes from Ashish Sabadra from Deutsche Bank.

下一個問題來自 Deutsche Bank 的 Ashish Sabadra。

So just on -- as you've commenced your integration planning activities, obviously, you've given pretty robust cost synergy targets as part of the merger. But are there areas that you've identified that could be potential incremental opportunities as you go through this integration planning?

關於——你們已開始進行整合規劃活動，當然你們在合併案中提出了相當強勁的成本綜效目標。但在這個整合規劃過程中，你們是否已辨識出可能的額外增量機會？

At this moment, the expense synergies of $480 million is still our best estimate at this point in time. Please keep in mind, we're still in a planning phase, and both companies are run separately and independently. You know us as management. You know our management philosophy and approach. We will always look for further opportunities, but the $480 million of expense synergies is the number we are committed to right now.

目前為止，4.8 億美元的費用綜效仍是我們此刻的最佳估計。請記得，我們仍在規劃階段，兩家公司目前仍分開、獨立運作。你也了解我們管理團隊，了解我們的管理理念與做法。我們一向會尋找更多機會，但 4.8 億美元的費用綜效是我們目前承諾的數字。

And that's very helpful. And maybe just a quick follow-up to earlier question Toni asked. Just around the data as well as the Kensho's data science. I was wondering how do you think about opportunities to further enhance the Data Lake that IHS Markit has by combining the data that S&P has, but more importantly, applying Kensho's data science on top of it. Wondering if you could share any incremental thoughts on that front.

這很有幫助。我再快速追問一下 Toni 先前的問題。關於資料以及 Kensho 的資料科學能力，我想了解你們如何看待機會：透過結合 S&P 的資料來進一步強化 IHS Markit 的 Data Lake，但更重要的是，在其上應用 Kensho 的資料科學。想請你分享在這方面是否有任何額外的想法。

Yes. Thank you, Ashish. And welcome to the call. I think this is the first time we've had you on the call. Well, first of all, this is one of the areas that we've got a lot of excitement about it. If you think about what it's like to have the amount of data across both companies and you see the success we've had with Kensho the last few years -- today, we highlighted many of the new areas that they've been providing great success.

是的。謝謝你，Ashish。也歡迎加入這通電話。我想這是你第一次參與我們的電話會議。首先，這是我們非常興奮的一個領域。若你想想看，兩家公司合計擁有如此大量的資料，再看看我們過去幾年與 Kensho 合作所取得的成功——今天我們也重點介紹了他們在許多新領域帶來的卓越成果。

When we think about the data that IHS Markit brings, just as an example, there's 50,000 customers in 140 countries. They're serving 80% of the global Fortune 500; 94 of the largest companies in the U.S.; and then on top of that, with the pricing data, the reference data, the private market solutions, the fixed income benchmarks and indices. And then all of that put together in a comprehensive data strategy with the Data Lake, that's going to give us an ability to take the Kensho capabilities and develop all types of new products and services.

當我們想到 IHS Markit 帶來的資料時，舉例來說，他們在 140 個國家有 50,000 名客戶。他們服務全球《財富》500 大企業中的 80%；美國最大的 94 家公司；此外，還有定價資料、參考資料、私募市場解決方案、固定收益基準與指數。再把這一切透過 Data Lake 的完整資料策略整合起來，將使我們能運用 Kensho 的能力，開發各式各樣的新產品與服務。

If you think about that, though, in addition, IHS Markit also brings its own high-quality data sciences teams. And across S&P Global, we also have other high-quality data sciences team. So this is one of the areas of the merger that we're most excited about, and we've got teams that have already started looking at what some of those possibilities are.

此外，若你再進一步思考，IHS Markit 也帶來其自有的高品質資料科學團隊。而在 S&P Global 內部，我們也有其他高品質的資料科學團隊。因此，這是我們對此次合併最感到興奮的領域之一，我們的團隊也已開始著手研究其中的一些可能性。

Our next question comes from Andrew Nicholas from William Blair.

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

Just wanted to ask maybe a bigger-picture question. Just wondering how you as a management team manage the different investment opportunities, growth initiatives, hiring plans for the stand-alone business with such a major merger expected to close later in the year.

我想問一個可能更宏觀的問題。想請教管理團隊如何在預期今年稍晚完成如此重大的合併之際，仍能管理獨立公司（stand-alone business）的各種投資機會、成長計畫與招募規劃。

Are you a bit more hesitant to commit to multiyear projects, again, for the stand-alone business knowing that there could be higher apply opportunities that present themselves as a combined entity? Or do you just kind of keep your head down and run the existing business and address those opportunities when the time comes? I'm just curious, any insight on how you plan to manage that during the waiting period would be helpful.

你們是否會更猶豫去承諾多年的專案——同樣是針對獨立公司——因為一旦成為合併後的整體，可能會出現更高的機會？還是你們就是專注把既有業務做好，等時機到了再處理那些機會？我很好奇，在等待期間你們打算如何管理，若能分享一些看法會很有幫助。

Andrew, this is Doug. I'm going to start, and then hand it off to Ewout. When we've been -- as you've seen earlier, we spent $139 million last year on a budget of $150 million of a target. And this year, we've targeted $100 million for our incremental growth expenses. We have a process around that. I'm going to hand that off to Ewout to talk more about that.

Andrew，我是 Doug。我先回答，然後再交給 Ewout。正如你先前看到的，我們去年在目標預算 1.5 億美元中實際花了 1.39 億美元。今年我們把增量成長費用的目標訂在 1 億美元。我們對此有一套流程。我先把這部分交給 Ewout，請他再多談一些。

But what's important for us is that we are managing the company for the long run. We think that there are opportunities for us to continue to grow in the Ratings business and Platts, Market Intelligence and indices very specifically with the capabilities that we have today; expanding into new markets, like we've mentioned, Asia or China; new product capabilities or customer experience that we think are very important to continue with our differentiation that drives our growth. So we're committed to all of those organic investments that we see internally and to keep driving those.

但對我們而言重要的是，我們以長期經營公司的角度來管理。我們認為在 Ratings 業務以及 Platts、Market Intelligence 和指數方面，憑藉我們今天既有的能力，仍有持續成長的機會；也會如我們提到的，擴展到亞洲或中國等新市場；並強化我們認為非常重要的新產品能力或客戶體驗，以延續我們的差異化並帶動成長。因此，我們承諾持續投入這些我們在內部看到的有機投資，並持續推動。

But as I just mentioned, there's also so many possibilities of bringing the 2 companies together. It's too early for us to plan those. As Ewout mentioned, we're 2 separate companies. We're managed separately. But we can start dimensioning those and working together to identify what those could be. That's one of the reasons we pulled back the investment from $150 million to $100 million this year because we didn't want to overextend people on areas that they might not be able to deliver once we start focusing on the integration. Ewout, do you want to talk a little bit more about our investment planning?

但如我剛才提到的，把兩家公司結合起來也有非常多的可能性。我們現在還太早去規劃那些。如 Ewout 所說，我們是兩家獨立公司，分別管理。不過我們可以開始衡量規模、並共同合作去辨識可能的方向。這也是我們今年把投資從 1.5 億美元下調到 1 億美元的原因之一，因為我們不希望在人力上過度延伸，投入到一旦開始聚焦整合後可能無法交付的領域。Ewout，你要不要再多談一點我們的投資規劃？

Andrew, the way how we operate here is we have a committee, an investment committee, that is built up by the business presidents and myself. And we're looking at all the growth initiatives that are being put forward. These are initiatives that should drive revenue growth going forward and should have a minimum level of investments because we don't want to look at all the small investments. So these should be larger growth initiatives for the company that should help with revenue growth in the future.

Andrew，我們這裡的運作方式是：我們有一個委員會——投資委員會——由各事業群總裁和我組成。我們會檢視所有提出的成長計畫。這些計畫應該能在未來帶動營收成長，且投資金額需達到一定門檻，因為我們不想把注意力放在所有小額投資上。因此，這些應該是公司層級較大型的成長計畫，能在未來協助營收成長。

And we make selections which of those are the most interesting, where we would allocate our resources. It's not only financial resources, more often, of course, product development resources, technology resources might be limiting factors there as well. And then ultimately, we allocate funding to those initiatives.

接著我們會做出選擇，挑出最有吸引力、值得配置資源的計畫。資源不只是財務資源；更常見的是產品開發資源、技術資源也可能是限制因素。最後，我們會把資金配置到這些計畫上。

And we are very encouraged about the growth of those initiatives. As Doug has mentioned during the prepared remarks, we have seen a lot of product launches in 2020. We are seeing good traction of those initiatives. So we're very encouraged at the level of innovation and new business development that we're having within the company. And we're continuing with that as well in 2021.

而我們對這些計畫的成長非常受到鼓舞。正如 Doug 在事先準備的發言中提到的，我們在 2020 年看到許多產品上市。我們也看到這些計畫有良好的進展。因此，我們對公司內部的創新程度與新業務開發的表現感到非常鼓舞，並且在 2021 年也會持續推進。

Please keep in mind that although the overall investment number is dropping, it doesn't mean that those costs are going away because after 2 years, when an initiative is funded for a period of 2 years, it goes to a business-as-usual situation, and those costs will become part of the normal business-as-usual budget of the division.

請記住，雖然整體投資金額在下降，但並不代表那些成本就消失了。因為一個計畫若獲得為期兩年的資金支持，兩年後就會轉為日常營運（business-as-usual）的狀態，而那些成本會成為該事業部正常日常預算的一部分。

So it is not really a total expense drop. But the investments, the new investments in the first 2 years is going to be about $100 million in 2021. So still, I think a very good number, a strong number. And all of these initiatives from our perspective make sense independently of the merger because they all are good initiatives that will help also the combined company in the future.

所以這並不是真正的總費用下降。但在 2021 年，前兩年的新投資將約為 1 億美元。我認為這仍是一個非常好的數字、很強勁的數字。而從我們的角度來看，所有這些計畫即使不考慮合併也都合理，因為它們都是能在未來同樣幫助合併後公司發展的好計畫。

Great. That's helpful. And then as my follow-up, in the index business, I know you're still 6, 9 months away from closing. But I am curious if you have any initial thoughts on kind of the strategy or change in kind of distribution approach that might be required as you kind of focus on building out fixed income and multi-asset ETF products. Just trying to figure out how those businesses might differ from equity ETFs and that kind of ecosystem, if at all.

很好。這很有幫助。接著我的追問是，在指數業務方面，我知道距離完成交割可能還有 6 到 9 個月。但我很好奇，你們是否對策略或可能需要調整的分銷方式有任何初步想法，特別是當你們聚焦於擴展固定收益與多資產 ETF 產品時。只是想了解，這些業務與股票型 ETF 以及那類生態系是否會有所不同（如果有的話）。

Thank you. And there's not a major change in the distribution strategy. Dan Draper, who joined us middle of the year last year, has put in place an excellent strategy to look across all of the different types of asset classes we want to be covering, which include multi-asset classes, looking at what's all of the major trends in the ETF markets, the mutual fund industry as well as private investors and finding ways for us to bring the solutions that they need.

謝謝。分銷策略不會有重大改變。去年年中加入我們的 Dan Draper 已制定一套非常出色的策略，從我們希望涵蓋的各種資產類別全面檢視——包括多資產類別——並觀察 ETF 市場、共同基金產業以及私人投資者的主要趨勢，找出我們能提供其所需解決方案的方法。

As you can see from the growth in the markets, the growth is coming across many, many different types of asset classes, including fixed income and equities, global equities, commodities real estate, et cetera. And so we want to be able to approach all of the different channels that we have with this broader set of capabilities and broader set of indices. And so it's not going to be so much a change in distribution strategy. It's a change in the capabilities and the breadth of the different kinds of products we'll be able to provide.

如你從市場成長所見，成長來自許多、許多不同的資產類別，包括固定收益與股票、全球股票、商品、不動產等等。因此，我們希望能以更廣泛的能力與更廣泛的指數產品組合，去觸及我們所擁有的各個不同通路。所以這不太會是分銷策略的改變，而是我們能力與可提供產品種類廣度的改變。

Our next question comes from Jeff Silber from BMO Capital Markets.

下一個問題來自 BMO Capital Markets 的 Jeff Silber。

Ewout, you were kind enough earlier to give us a little bit of color on the revenue guidance for the Ratings segment. I was wondering if we can get similar comments on your other 3 segments.

Ewout，你先前很貼心地就 Ratings 部門的營收指引提供了一些補充說明。我想請問，是否也能對你們另外三個部門給出類似的評論？

Of course, Jeff. Mid-single-digit growth is the expectation for Market Intelligence and Platts, and then mid- to high single-digit revenue growth expectation for the index business. And then on an enterprise basis, mid-single digit for this year.

當然可以，Jeff。Market Intelligence 與 Platts 的預期是中個位數成長；指數業務的營收成長預期為中到高個位數。以企業整體而言，今年預期為中個位數成長。

All right. Great. Sounds like you were prepared to answer that question. I appreciate that. Moving back to your slide presentation, I think it was Slide 19, where you talked about the shift in global issuance among the different aspects. I'm just wondering is there a meaningful impact either on your revenues or margins because of this shift?

好。很好。聽起來你已經準備好回答這個問題了。我很感謝。回到你們的簡報投影片，我想是第 19 頁，你們談到全球發行在不同面向之間的轉移。我想請問，這種轉移是否會對你們的營收或利潤率造成顯著影響？

Let me take that one, Jeff. Well, first of all, as you know, there's always a lot of shifts around the different kinds of issuance. And just a couple of examples. In the fourth quarter, while the corporates were only up 2.7% in the U.S., financial institutions were up almost 27%. At the same time, structured finance was down 27% globally.

Jeff，這題我來回答。首先，如你所知，不同類型的發行量之間一直都會有很多變動。舉幾個例子：在第四季，雖然美國企業發行量只成長 2.7%，金融機構卻成長了將近 27%。同時，結構性融資在全球則下滑了 27%。

So you always see this kind of a mix in the aspects of the Ratings business. We see, generally speaking, fees based on the size of a transaction for structured finance based on the complexity and size of structured loans if you look at leverage transactions, high-yield bonds, et cetera. Generally speaking, we do get higher fees from those types of asset classes.

因此，你總會在評級業務的各個面向看到這種混合。一般而言，若看結構性金融，費用會依交易規模而定，並取決於結構性貸款的複雜度與規模；若看槓桿交易、高收益債券等等，也是一樣。總體來說，我們確實會從這些類型的資產類別取得較高的費用。

Our next question comes from Owen Lau from Oppenheimer.

下一個問題來自 Oppenheimer 的 Owen Lau。

Doug, you mentioned that there have been some high-profile default in China, and there's an increased sensitivity in the quality of local rating. Could you please talk about your recent conversation with China on this topic? Is there any short-term solution? And does it accelerate the time line for China to open up its capital markets?

Doug，你提到中國出現了一些備受矚目的違約事件，市場對本地評級品質的敏感度也提高了。你能否談談你最近就這個議題與中國方面的交流？是否有任何短期解決方案？以及這是否會加速中國開放其資本市場的時間表？

Well, as you know, we've been encouraged as the China bond market continues to develop. This is something that despite me saying that there have been some defaults -- it's not that I'm encouraged about the defaults. But what you see now is the regulators are really starting to pay attention to the quality of the ratings in the markets as well as the market participants.

嗯，如你所知，隨著中國債券市場持續發展，我們感到受到鼓舞。儘管我說過出現了一些違約——我並不是對違約本身感到鼓舞——但你現在看到的是，監管機構以及市場參與者都真的開始關注市場中評級的品質。

We have seen recently that the regulators have started to put in place some new discussions around eliminating the AA floor for the insurance industry. They're also looking at seeing if they're going to have a new approach to regulating the ratings industry. So there's also been some interest among specific market participants at a recent report we put out, which showed what the spread would be of different bonds that you compare them to a ratings scale.

我們最近看到監管機構已開始就取消保險業 AA 底線（AA floor）展開一些新的討論。他們也在評估是否要採用新的方式來監管評級產業。此外，部分特定市場參與者也對我們近期發布的一份報告感興趣；該報告顯示，若將不同債券對照到一個評級刻度，其利差會是什麼樣子。

So we're very encouraged with the Chinese bond market. It continues to develop. The regulators are focused on it. And most importantly, investors themselves are looking at seeing how they can drive a much higher-quality credit ratings industry.

因此，我們對中國債券市場非常受到鼓舞。它持續發展，監管機構也聚焦於此；而最重要的是，投資人自己也在思考如何推動一個品質更高的信用評級產業。

Got it. That's very helpful. And then in terms of your blockchain initiatives, I think, Doug, you also mentioned Distro previously for the renewable energy. Could you please give us an update on that project?

了解，這非常有幫助。接著關於你們的區塊鏈計畫，我想 Doug 你之前也提到 Distro 用於再生能源。你能否提供該專案的最新進展？

And then also, I remember like 2, 3 years ago, you also mentioned a project at the Port of Fujairah. Could you please also give us an update as well?

另外，我記得大概 2、3 年前你也提到在富查伊拉港（Port of Fujairah）的一個專案。也請你一併更新一下進度，好嗎？

Yes. We think that blockchain is one of the areas that will continue to develop in financial markets from the point of view of contracts, specialized contracts, ability to gather data in a way that becomes reliable and it becomes unchangeable. And so the place we've been working on this in the company is through Platts. The first application was in the Fujairah port, where now all of the participants in that major port provide all of their data through a blockchain application that goes to the regulators. And then we have access to that to be able to use it for pricing, for references as well as for news. And then we recently worked on the Distro project, which allows us to also get that same kind of information in another market.

是的。我們認為，從合約、專門化合約，以及以可靠且不可更改的方式蒐集資料的角度來看，區塊鏈將會是金融市場中持續發展的領域之一。因此，我們在公司內推動這項工作的地方是透過 Platts。第一個應用是在富查伊拉港；現在該主要港口的所有參與者都透過一個區塊鏈應用把所有資料提供給監管機構。接著我們可以存取這些資料，用於定價、作為參考以及新聞報導。然後我們最近也推動了 Distro 專案，讓我們能在另一個市場取得同樣類型的資訊。

As we advance this, it's something that we're learning across the company. We think blockchain will be an area that with IHS Markit, we can advance our work. And we're very pleased that we're able to have some initial wins in -- especially with Fujairah and then in Rotterdam.

隨著我們推進這項工作，這也是我們在公司各部門持續學習的事情。我們認為區塊鏈將會是一個領域，讓我們在 IHS Markit 的助力下能夠進一步推進。我們也很高興能在——特別是在富查伊拉以及鹿特丹——取得一些初步成果。

Our next question comes from Craig Huber with Huber Research Partners.

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

Two questions. Maybe I'll start with Ewout or Doug, maybe talk about this merger, the playbook or the similarities you guys are putting in place here. I'm trying to think about this versus where your company was at versus, say, 3, 4, 5 years ago when all the changes you guys put in place to raise margins, increase the efficiency at S&P legacy. And what you learned there and you plan on applying on that side of the business over IHS going forward? Can you touch on that briefly, please, the playbook?

兩個問題。我可能先從 Ewout 或 Doug 開始，請談談這次合併，你們正在建立的作戰手冊（playbook）或相似之處。我試著把這和你們公司在 3、4、5 年前的狀況做比較，當時你們推動了各種變革以提升利潤率、提高 S&P 傳統業務的效率。你們從那段經驗學到了什麼，並計畫在未來把哪些做法應用到 IHS 這一側的業務？能否請你們簡要談一下這個作戰手冊？

Yes. So Craig, let me start. This is something that we've thought a lot about. And when we were working on this idea with our management team and our Board of Directors, one of the most important questions that I asked, and we had good discussion with the Board is, do we have the capacity to undertake a transaction like this. And that includes our management capacity, our people, our team, our technology. What are the lessons learned we've had? Do we have, in particular, the ability to undertake an integration like this?

好的。Craig，我先開始。這是我們思考了很多的事情。當我們與管理團隊及董事會一起推進這個想法時，我提出、且我們與董事會進行了充分討論的一個最重要問題是：我們是否有能力承作這樣一筆交易。這包括我們的管理能力、人才、團隊、科技。我們有哪些經驗教訓？尤其是，我們是否具備進行這樣整合的能力？

And one of the other questions we asked is, and what kind of talent will IHS Markit bring as well? And as we did our due diligence -- and we already knew the team, but as we got to know them better, we were impressed that they were also going to bring a really high-quality management team that would be complementary to ours. And that together, we could actually undertake something like this.

我們問的另一個問題是：IHS Markit 也會帶來什麼樣的人才？在我們進行盡職調查時——我們本來就認識他們的團隊，但在更深入了解之後——我們印象深刻的是，他們也將帶來一支非常高品質、且能與我們互補的管理團隊。兩邊結合起來，我們其實能夠完成這樣的事情。

But one thing that we've done over the past 5 years is we've put in place a very disciplined approach to managing the company. And it starts with an annual plan that we look at with the Board of Directors, we agree on. It then leads to goals and objectives, which feed into our own performance -- individual performance goals as well as our divisional and functional performance goals. Those include areas that are customer, operations, people. So it's not only driven by financial performance. We also include operational targets, which includes risk management targets.

但我們在過去 5 年做的一件事，是建立了一套非常嚴謹的公司管理方法。它從年度計畫開始：我們與董事會一起檢視並達成共識。接著延伸到目標與目的，並進一步納入我們自身的績效——個人績效目標，以及各事業部與各職能的績效目標。這些目標涵蓋客戶、營運、人員等面向，所以不只是由財務表現驅動。我們也納入營運目標，其中包括風險管理目標。

So we put in place a management system, which we think will be -- work very well with the IHS Markit team. And if we wouldn't have had the confidence that we had that process in place now for many years, that we had been delivering and that we had the capacity to do something like this, and along with the quality of the teams coming along, we would not have undertaken something like this.

因此，我們建立了一套管理系統，我們認為它將能與 IHS Markit 團隊很好地配合。如果我們沒有信心——也就是這套流程已經建立多年、我們一直在交付成果、且我們具備做這件事的能力——再加上對方團隊的品質，我們就不會推動這樣的交易。

And then my follow-on question is more of a nitpick here. The nontransaction line within Ratings, you touched on this briefly. But obviously, it's up 15% or so year-over-year. It was also up 15% coincidentally versus the average of the first 3 quarters, as you know. You talked about guidance for this new year, I think, about mid- to high single digits for nontransaction in Ratings for the new year, which is higher than generally it runs at.

接著我的追問比較像是吹毛求疵。評級業務中的非交易（nontransaction）那一行，你剛才稍微提到。很明顯它年增大約 15%。你也知道，它相較於前三季平均也同樣巧合地成長了 15%。你談到新年度的指引時，我記得你對評級業務的非交易收入給的是中到高個位數成長，這比一般的常態水準要高。

But if you just annualize that $451 million you had for nontransaction in Ratings and you apply that for all of next year on a year-over-year basis, that would be up about 11%. So clearly, there must be something sort of onetime in nature that benefit you guys in nontransaction in Ratings in 4Q. Maybe if you could just touch on that? I just want to understand that rate increase you had there.

但如果你把第四季評級業務非交易收入的 4.51 億美元年化，並把它套用到明年全年做年增比較，那大約會成長 11%。所以很明顯，第四季評級業務的非交易收入應該有某種一次性因素讓你們受益。你能否稍微談一下？我只是想了解你們那邊的漲幅來源。

Craig, that's a great observation. 15% is the nontransaction reported revenue growth. 11% is through organic nontransaction revenue growth. The difference of the 4% is driven mostly by CRISIL and CRISIL's acquisition of Greenwich Associates.

Craig，你觀察得很好。15% 是非交易「報表口徑」的營收成長；11% 是「有機」非交易營收成長。兩者之間 4% 的差異，主要是由 CRISIL 以及 CRISIL 收購 Greenwich Associates 所帶動。

Greenwich Associates has a certain pattern in terms of recognizing revenues and expenses that is mostly in the fourth quarter of every year, given their level of activity. So that's why that difference between organic and reported nontransaction was a bit larger than normally you would see in a particular quarter, but that was driven by that particular acquisition. Therefore, 11% is more what you should look at from an ongoing basis organically.

Greenwich Associates 在認列收入與費用方面有其特定模式；由於其活動水準的關係，這些認列多半集中在每年的第四季。因此，有機與報表口徑的非交易收入之間的差距，在該季度會比你通常看到的更大一些，而這是由那筆特定收購所驅動。所以，從持續性的有機角度來看，你應該更關注 11%。

And then we said those 1/3 is coming from the revenues coming from -- nontransaction revenues from surveillance and another 1/3 from Rating Evaluation Services that we also expect to be strong in 2021. So therefore, the mid- to high single-digit growth outlook for nontransaction this year.

另外我們也說過，其中約 1/3 來自監測（surveillance）的非交易收入，另有 1/3 來自評級評估服務（Rating Evaluation Services），我們也預期這兩者在 2021 年會維持強勁。因此，我們對今年非交易收入給出中到高個位數成長的展望。

Our next question comes from Hamzah Mazari from Jefferies.

下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Hamzah Mazari。

My first question is just on Market Intelligence margins. Could you maybe talk about how you're thinking about margins here? Is this sort of a trough margin and we build from here, just given some of the investment spend and just given your longer-term target for this segment being, I guess, mid- to high 30s.

我的第一個問題是關於市場情報（Market Intelligence）的利潤率。你能否談談你們如何看待這裡的利潤率？考量到一些投資支出，以及你們對該分部的長期目標大概是中到高 30% 的水準，這是否算是一個谷底利潤率，之後會從這裡往上走？

If you look at the Market Intelligence margins for 2020, they were, for the full year, up 30 basis points. And what you see is underlying growth from operations and the normal operating leverage that the business is having. But then the offsets were some of the acquisitions that were margin dilutive, for example, the 451 Research acquisition as well as the investment spend.

如果你看 2020 年市場情報的利潤率，全年是上升了 30 個基點。你看到的是來自營運的內生成長，以及該業務正常的營運槓桿。但抵銷因素則是一些會稀釋利潤率的收購，例如收購 451 Research，以及投資支出。

The investment spend should translate in 2021 to additional revenue growth. So we should start to see the benefits of those investment spend in 2021. And also, overall, the investment spend for Market Intelligence will come down a bit. So overall, we should expect that the operating leverage will be stronger and, therefore, also the margin expansion will be stronger for Market Intelligence in 2021. So what we overall expect is margin -- Market Intelligence margins to see quite a nice increase during this year.

投資支出應會在 2021 年轉化為額外的營收成長。因此，我們應該會在 2021 年開始看到這些投資支出的效益。此外，整體而言，Market Intelligence 的投資支出會略為下降。因此，整體來看，我們預期營運槓桿將會更強，因而 2021 年 Market Intelligence 的利潤率擴張也會更強。總體而言，我們預期今年 Market Intelligence 的利潤率將出現相當不錯的提升。

Great. And then just a question on the deal. Is it fair to say that don't expect any new information until the deal closes around sort of synergies, revenue synergies, cost synergies, cash integration costs? Or do you expect to sort of release information as you're going through this preplanning phase?

很好。接著想問一下這筆交易。是否可以說，在交易於接近完成交割之前，你們不預期會有任何新的資訊（例如協同效益、營收協同、成本協同、現金整合成本等）？還是你們會在進行這個前期規劃階段的過程中逐步發布資訊？

Hamzah, of course, we are going through the planning phase, a lot of work is underway, more work to be done up to the point that we will close. At this moment, this is the information that we can provide to you. As you know, the S-4 is now effective. Would expect some updates closer to the close of the merger itself or post the merger itself. So we are not really planning to give any changes and updates between now and the close.

Hamzah，當然，我們正在進行規劃階段，許多工作正在推進中，在完成交割之前還有更多工作要做。目前，這就是我們能提供給你的資訊。如你所知，S-4 現在已生效。我們預期在合併交割更接近時或合併完成後會有一些更新。因此，我們並不打算在現在到交割之間提供任何變更與更新。

Our next question comes from Simon Clint with Atlantic Equities.

下一個問題來自 Atlantic Equities 的 Simon Clint。

I was wondering if I could just -- going back to the fantastic sort of innovations products that you outlined from your Kensho capabilities. Could you just talk about how those kinds of new innovations feed through to actual incremental revenue opportunities for you over time in terms of the sort of process of distributing them to customers and when you actually start monetizing them? And then are these the kinds of things that are built into your expectations for revenue synergies in part for the IHS merger as well?

我想請教一下——回到你們從 Kensho 能力所概述的那些非常出色的創新產品。你能否談談，這類新創新如何隨時間推進，為你們帶來實際的增量營收機會？包括將它們分發給客戶的流程，以及你們何時開始將其變現？另外，這些是否也屬於你們對 IHS 合併部分營收協同預期中所納入的內容？

Yes. Well, first of all, let me mention that when we talked earlier about some of the growth that we've seen in the Kensho indices where we grew 10x in the SPDR Kensho New Economy indices, that's something that directly drives revenue. We have other areas where something like our Omnisearch, which is ability to have an intuitive search tool on our Market Intelligence platform, that's something that drives traffic and it drives retention. It gives you a superior ability to gather data from the markets and to link it. And so that, again, is something that drives retention.

是的。首先我想提到，當我們先前談到 Kensho 指數的一些成長時——例如 SPDR Kensho New Economy 指數成長了 10 倍——那是會直接帶動營收的。我們還有其他領域，例如 Omnisearch，也就是在我們的 Market Intelligence 平台上提供直覺式搜尋工具的能力，這會帶動流量並提升留存。它讓你能更優異地從市場蒐集資料並加以連結。因此，這同樣會推動留存。

And another example would be something like we talked before about being able to ingest 11 million new company data from groups like Preqin into our private capital information. And something like that drives the ability for us to have unique data faster than any other organization.

另一個例子是，我們之前提到能夠將來自 Preqin 等機構的 1,100 萬筆新公司資料匯入我們的私募資本資訊中。這類能力能推動我們以比任何其他組織更快的速度取得獨特資料。

Another example of that would be something like Market-on-Close in Platts, where we started off with 1 pilot and now we're up to 80 different commodities that are using a new process that gets our information to the market 80% faster. So we think that all of these, whether it's efficiency, it's data linking, it's actual products themselves that are being delivered by Kensho, all of those at the end of the day, help drive customer experience or directly drive revenue.

再舉一個例子是 Platts 的 Market-on-Close。我們一開始只有 1 個試點，現在已擴展到 80 種不同的大宗商品，採用一個新流程，讓我們的資訊以快 80% 的速度傳遞到市場。我們認為，所有這些——不論是效率提升、資料連結，或是 Kensho 所交付的實際產品本身——最終都能改善客戶體驗或直接帶動營收。

And Simon, if I may build on Doug's answer. The revenue benefit from Kensho, you see now within the division. So it's all recognized within the divisions. I think over time, we would see more also external revenue coming from Kensho again. Some of Kensho capabilities are now offered on the Marketplace or sold directly to certain customers. So that's a benefit that will come in. So Kensho was pivoted more internally for the first period, but we see a little bit of a change, more pivot to an external focus again over the next period.

Simon，如果我可以在 Doug 的回答上補充一下。Kensho 帶來的營收效益，目前你在事業部內就看得到，因此都在各事業部內認列。我認為隨著時間推進，我們也會看到更多來自 Kensho 的外部營收。有些 Kensho 能力現在已在 Marketplace 上提供，或直接銷售給特定客戶，因此這部分效益也會逐步顯現。Kensho 在前一段期間較偏向內部導向，但接下來一段期間我們看到一些變化，會再更偏向外部聚焦。

And then to the last part of your question, what could this do for the merger? At this moment, in terms of the merger synergies, we have not contemplated any benefits from Kensho. So we're actually also excited to see what Kensho can do. And I cannot wait to see if we can unleash Kensho, and we have had some first planning meetings around that as well. So Kensho is definitely going to be a very interesting element to the merger and some of the upside of the merger going forward.

至於你問題的最後一部分，這對合併能帶來什麼？就目前而言，在合併協同效益方面，我們尚未把 Kensho 的任何效益納入考量。因此，我們也很期待看看 Kensho 能做到什麼。我也迫不及待想看看我們是否能釋放 Kensho 的潛力，我們也已就此進行過一些初步的規劃會議。所以 Kensho 絕對會是這次合併中非常有趣的一個元素，也是未來合併上行空間的一部分。

That's really useful. And I guess my follow-up question, coming to the ESG business. And I guess what I'm thinking about is, obviously, the evolution of your business, particularly with the RobecoSAM survey asset that you have, in evolving that over time to become something more nimble and more flexible as opposed to just an annual survey. And how you might be able to use that to really service and leverage that into sort of servicing the corporate clients for their ESG needs over time, perhaps you could talk about that opportunity.

這非常有幫助。我想追問一下，關於 ESG 業務。我在想的是，顯然你們業務正在演進，特別是你們擁有的 RobecoSAM 調查資產，如何隨時間推進把它演變成更敏捷、更具彈性的形式，而不只是年度調查。以及你們如何利用它，真正去服務並槓桿運用到企業客戶的 ESG 需求上；也許你可以談談這個機會。

Yes. This ESG is definitely one of the most exciting areas for us at the company. As you saw, we had $65 million of revenues last year, which had been growing at a 40% pace. And when you bring the capabilities of IHS Markit together, we're going to have scores and time series, workflow platforms. We're going to bring emissions data from IHS Markit. IHS Markit also has the fixed income indices. And they've got information about plastics and other sorts of model -- metals that are used in batteries. So bringing these together are going to be something that are really new for us.

是的。ESG 絕對是我們公司最令人振奮的領域之一。如你所見，我們去年有 6,500 萬美元的營收，且以 40% 的速度成長。當你把 IHS Markit 的能力結合進來，我們將擁有評分與時間序列、工作流程平台。我們會引入 IHS Markit 的排放數據。IHS Markit 也有固定收益指數。他們也掌握塑膠以及其他用於電池的金屬等相關資訊。把這些整合在一起，對我們而言將會是非常新的東西。

And let me give you a couple of examples. Just imagine if you were a chief sustainability officer. You mentioned the corporate clients. Corporate clients are increasingly, either through their treasurer or directly a sustainability officer, looking at how their own company is going to perform and what is their own individual approach to running their sustainability programs. We're going to have the tools to provide them a rating. We're going to build them -- they're going to have the CSA. We're going to have the ability to provide them with more data to have benchmarking against other third parties. And then when you think about IHS Markit's ESG Reporting Repository, the carbon data that they bring that will allow them to have the workflow tools, we think that this is one of the areas that will actually allow us on our own, and then together with IHS Markit, to be really building a very relevant, very powerful ESG model.

我再舉幾個例子。想像你是一位永續長（chief sustainability officer）。你提到企業客戶。企業客戶愈來愈多地——不論是透過財務主管（treasurer）或直接由永續長——在評估自家公司將如何表現，以及他們推動永續計畫的個別方法。我們將有工具為他們提供評級。我們會為他們建立——他們將會有 CSA。我們也將能提供更多數據，讓他們能與其他第三方進行基準比較。再者，當你想到 IHS Markit 的 ESG Reporting Repository（ESG 報告資料庫）以及他們帶來的碳數據，這將使他們具備工作流程工具。我們認為，這將是能讓我們單獨、以及與 IHS Markit 一起，真正打造一個非常相關、非常強大的 ESG 模型的領域之一。

One thing I would end with is that we just launched a new ESG website. I would recommend that everybody go look at it. You can immediately look for ESG scores of companies on it. And then it has tiles of all of the different capabilities that we have. And so this is something for us, you're going to see a lot of investment here, a lot of focus on ESG. It's one of the most exciting growth areas in the company.

最後我想補充一點：我們剛推出一個新的 ESG 網站。我建議大家都去看看。你可以立刻在上面查詢公司的 ESG 評分。網站也以圖塊方式呈現我們所有不同的能力。對我們而言，你將會看到我們在這裡投入大量投資、並高度聚焦 ESG。這是公司最令人振奮的成長領域之一。

Our next question comes from George Tong from Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題來自 Goldman Sachs 的 George Tong。

You expect global debt issuance to be up 3% in 2021. Can you elaborate on how you expect individual debt categories to perform, including investment-grade, high-yield loans and structured?

你們預期 2021 年全球債務發行量將成長 3%。你能否進一步說明你們預期各個債務類別的表現，包括投資級、高收益貸款以及結構性產品？

Sure, George. This is Doug. I'm not quite sure if I can give you all of those categories. But what we've looked at in 2020, as I mentioned earlier, it's about a 2.7% or, let's say, a little bit close to 3% decrease for the year. But that includes financial services that we think will be up 3.5%; structured finance, up 2.5%; offset by corporates, which would be down a little bit over 8%; and U.S. public finance down about 5%.

當然，George。我是 Doug。我不太確定我是否能把你提到的所有類別都逐一說明。但我們回顧 2020 年，如我先前提到的，全年大約下降 2.7%，或說接近 3% 的下降。不過其中包含我們認為將成長 3.5% 的金融服務；結構性融資成長 2.5%；而企業債則抵銷掉這些成長，預計會下降略高於 8%；美國公共融資約下降 5%。

We do see a lot of demand coming from the M&A area. We think that between SPACs and what we see there, the activity from SPACs and other general M&A, that pipeline is growing. And typically, a lot of that is more in the high-yield area. But in terms of high yield versus other types, I don't really have anything further on that. But we do see that this year, there should be a very different mix than we've seen in prior years.

我們確實看到來自併購（M&A）領域的強勁需求。我們認為在 SPAC 以及我們所看到的情況之間——來自 SPAC 與其他一般 M&A 的活動——那個管線正在成長。而通常其中有相當一部分更偏向高收益領域。但就高收益相對於其他類型而言，我沒有更多可補充的。不過我們確實看到，今年的組合應該會與過去幾年非常不同。

Got it. That's helpful. And Doug, it's been 2 months since you announced the merger with IHS Markit. What additional findings have you had on the strategic opportunity during the course of due diligence would you like to call out?

了解，這很有幫助。Doug，自從你們宣布與 IHS Markit 合併以來已經 2 個月了。在盡職調查過程中，關於策略性機會，你們有哪些額外發現是想特別提出來說明的？

Well, there's a couple I would call out that are maybe beyond what we'd originally thought. One of them is what I'd call private assets or being able to support the private equity industry. When we originally looked at this, we started looking at areas that were maybe a little bit more obvious, in financial institutions and what we could do for debt capital markets, for corporate treasurers.

嗯，有幾個我想特別點出來，可能超出我們原先的預期。其中之一是我所稱的私募資產，或是能夠支援私募股權產業。當我們最初評估這件事時，我們先從一些可能更顯而易見的領域著手，例如金融機構，以及我們能為債務資本市場、企業財務主管做些什麼。

One of the areas that I see a lot of upside is in what we call private markets, private equity. Think about how much longer assets are staying private before they go public or the information that people would like to look at for their supply chain. And when you put the 2 companies together, you have tools that at IHS Markit, which -- for valuation, iVAL and Qval. They've got portfolio monitoring tools, iLEVEL. As you've heard me talk about earlier, we've been ingesting data from people like Preqin into our tools. And then we've got the information from 451 Research, from money market directories, our Market Intelligence platform. And you put all these together, and it's going to be a very complete set of services of workflow tools, valuation tools, reference data, fundamental data about corporations that we wouldn't have been able to do alone. And so that's one of the areas that I was quite excited about. I also mentioned what we'll be able to do with ESG. That's another area that's the upside. I think there is higher than what I originally would have thought.

我看到很大上行空間的其中一個領域，是我們所說的私募市場、私募股權。想想看，資產在上市前維持私有狀態的時間變得多長，或是人們希望為其供應鏈查看的資訊。當你把兩家公司結合在一起，你就擁有 IHS Markit 的工具——用於估值的 iVAL 和 Qval。他們有投資組合監控工具 iLEVEL。正如你先前聽我提到的，我們一直在把像 Preqin 這樣的資料導入我們的工具中。然後我們還有來自 451 Research、貨幣市場名錄（money market directories）、以及我們 Market Intelligence 平台的資訊。把這些全部整合起來，將會形成一套非常完整的服務組合，涵蓋工作流程工具、估值工具、參考資料、以及關於企業的基本面資料，這些都是我們單靠自己無法做到的。因此這是我相當興奮的領域之一。我也提到我們在 ESG 方面能做的事。那是另一個上行領域。我認為其上行空間比我原先想像的還要更高。

And then finally, when we look at energy transition, which -- sometimes I think of energy transition as part of ESG. But for climate change and the interest that this is generating, it's not always directly the same thing as ESG. This is another area that between what we've got in Market Intelligence and Ratings, but add that in with what we have between Platts and the resources business at IHS Markit, there's going to be a lot of opportunities in new energy, new energy investments, all of the things that are involved in EV, which also will bring some of the capacities from the Transportation business at IHS Markit. So on energy transition, I think this is also another area that is well beyond what I'd probably originally contemplated.

最後，當我們看能源轉型時——有時我會把能源轉型視為 ESG 的一部分。但就氣候變遷以及它所引發的關注而言，它不一定總是與 ESG 完全相同。這是另一個領域：結合我們在 Market Intelligence 與 Ratings 的能力，再加上 Platts 與 IHS Markit 資源業務的能力，將在新能源、新能源投資、以及電動車（EV）相關的各項事務上帶來大量機會，而這也會帶入 IHS Markit 運輸業務的一些能力。因此在能源轉型方面，我認為這同樣是遠超我原先可能設想的另一個領域。

We will now take our final questions from Manav Patnaik with Barclays.

我們現在將進行最後的提問，提問者是來自 Barclays 的 Manav Patnaik。

Just to follow up on ESG. I apologize if I missed this earlier, but the $65 million of revenue for the year, how do you break that down between your research and data and perhaps in the indices. And just some thoughts on the growth rates and the potential mix changes you anticipate as that portfolio evolves.

我想追問一下 ESG。若我先前漏聽了還請見諒，但全年 6,500 萬美元的營收，你們如何在研究與資料、以及可能在指數等方面做拆分？另外也想請談談成長率，以及隨著該投資組合演進，你們預期的組合占比變化。

If you look at the $65 million, which is 47% over 2019, we're not really breaking that out for each of the divisions and initiatives. But directionally, how you should look at it is the Platts energy transition initiatives are a significant part of the revenues today. But what we are seeing is particularly high growth of new initiatives, the ESG scores, Green Evaluations, ESG indices, fees. So particularly all the new initiatives are growing very fast. And all of that together is driving this revenue growth up going forward.

如果你看這 6,500 萬美元（較 2019 年成長 47%），我們並沒有針對各事業部與各項計畫逐一拆分。不過從方向性來看，你應該這樣理解：Platts 的能源轉型相關計畫目前占營收相當重要的一部分。但我們看到的是，特別是新計畫的成長非常高，包括 ESG 評分、Green Evaluations、ESG 指數、費用等。因此，尤其是所有新計畫都在非常快速地成長。而這些合在一起，將在未來持續推動這項營收成長走高。

And Doug has given you some of the statistics and data, for example, underneath some of the ETF AUMs that are using our ESG indices. So overall, I think it's really across the board. But at the current macro level, I think Platts is a significant component of the overall revenues.

Doug 也提供了一些統計與數據，例如使用我們 ESG 指數的部分 ETF 資產管理規模（AUM）等。因此整體而言，我認為確實是全面性的。不過在目前的宏觀層面上，我認為 Platts 仍是整體營收的重要組成。

Got it. That's helpful. And then, I guess, just staying on Platts, mid-single-digit growth, I guess, estimated for '21. Platts has historically always been pretty resilient to what happens in the energy market, but the IHS asset has been much more sensitive. Now I was just curious how you guys look at '21 and perhaps even beyond in terms of how that energy market fits into your strategy.

了解，這很有幫助。接著我想繼續談 Platts：你們對 2021 年的成長估計是中個位數。Platts 歷來對能源市場的變化一直相當具韌性，但 IHS 的資產對景氣更敏感。我只是好奇，你們如何看待 2021 年、甚至更往後，能源市場在你們策略中的定位。

Yes. We are very encouraged about the opportunities to bring the resources business of IHS Markit and Platts together. I think it's very complementary. I think that will be a very large benefit for our customers, with Platts having particularly a focus on price reporting, as you know, and that is quite steady and stable.

是的。我們對把 IHS Markit 的資源業務與 Platts 結合的機會感到非常振奮。我認為兩者非常互補。這將為我們的客戶帶來非常大的效益；如你所知，Platts 特別聚焦於價格報導，而這一塊相當穩定。

The resources business of IHS Markit, that is going through a transition from more upstream to more downstream. The upstream business has seen some headwinds and might continue for a shorter period of time. But particularly downstream analytics is doing very well.

IHS Markit 的資源業務正處於從較偏上游轉向較偏下游的轉型。上游業務已經面臨一些逆風，且可能在較短的一段時間內仍會持續。但特別是下游分析（downstream analytics）表現非常好。

So the opportunities to bring that together and to look at the commercial opportunities for the combined company is actually very attractive. Think about what we can do with respect to metals and mining. Think about what we can do with respect to the analytics platforms, bringing that together for our customers. Think about what we can do with the Data Lake and Platts Analytics growth by unlocking the value of the data of IHS Markit resources. So we're actually very encouraged. And we think despite some of the changes, structural changes in the industry, that we can help our customers, particularly also with energy transition.

因此，把這些整合起來並檢視合併公司在商業上的機會，其實非常有吸引力。想想我們在金屬與礦業方面能做什麼。想想我們在分析平台方面能做什麼，把這些整合起來提供給客戶。想想我們如何透過解鎖 IHS Markit 資源業務資料的價值，來推動 Data Lake 與 Platts Analytics 的成長。所以我們其實非常受到鼓舞。我們也認為，儘管產業存在一些變化與結構性改變，我們仍能協助客戶，尤其是在能源轉型方面。

Thank you very much. I'd like to just provide a couple of closing comments. I want to thank everybody for joining our call this morning and for all your questions and your support, as always. As you saw, 2020 was a very strong year for us during difficult circumstances. We made a lot of significant progress along the way with areas that we've been investing in over the last few years.

非常感謝。我想做幾點結語。我要感謝大家今天早上參與我們的電話會議，也一如既往感謝各位的提問與支持。如各位所見，在艱難的環境下，2020 年對我們而言仍是非常強勁的一年。一路走來，我們在過去幾年持續投資的領域也取得了許多重大進展。

As you know, we had put in place investment programs. And we started seeing them pay off, as we called it the year of the product launch. And it has to do with our technology, our innovation, productivity programs we put in place. We're very proud about what we're doing in China and the progress and advances that we're making there.

如各位所知，我們已經推動投資計畫，並開始看到成果，我們稱之為產品發布之年。這與我們的技術、創新、以及我們所推行的生產力計畫有關。我們對在中國所做的事情、以及我們在那裡取得的進展與突破感到非常自豪。

Our ESG program is starting to really take off, and we think we're very well positioned. And then our own internal environmental performance and social outreach and our own ESG approach, we think, is something that's very important for our company.

我們的 ESG 計畫正開始真正起飛，我們認為自身的定位非常有利。此外，我們自身的內部環境績效與社會參與，以及我們自身的 ESG 作法，我們認為對公司而言非常重要。

And of course, what is really most important for us this year is to continue to stay focused on the IHS Markit merger. We're so excited about that. We're always impressed with the people we meet, with the capabilities, with the products, with the reach that they have. And we think that, that's going to allow us to have a very strong opportunity in 2021 and beyond.

當然，今年對我們來說最重要的，是持續專注於 IHS Markit 的合併案。我們對此感到非常興奮。我們總是對所接觸到的人才、能力、產品以及他們的觸及範圍印象深刻。我們認為，這將使我們在 2021 年及往後擁有非常強勁的機會。

And as I've said all along, during last year and before, we could have never made this progress without our people and the talented people that we have that are working very hard especially in 2020 during uncertain and difficult circumstances. I want to thank all of our people again. Everyone has done a fantastic job.

正如我一直以來所說，無論是去年或更早，我們若沒有同仁、沒有我們所擁有的優秀人才——尤其是在 2020 年這樣充滿不確定且艱難的環境下仍非常努力工作——我們不可能取得這些進展。我想再次感謝所有同仁。大家都做得非常出色。

So thank you, everyone, for joining us again today. And we look forward to continuing to talk to you throughout the year. Thank you very much.

因此，謝謝各位今天再次參與。我們期待在今年持續與各位交流。非常感謝。

That concludes this morning's call. A PDF version of the presenter slides is available now for downloading from investor.spglobal.com. Replays of the entire call will be available in about 2 hours. The webcast with audio and slides will be maintained on S&P Global's website for 1 year. The audio-only telephone replay will be maintained for 1 month. On behalf of S&P Global, we thank you for participating and wish you a good day.

今天早上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。整場會議的重播將在約 2 小時後提供。含音訊與投影片的網路直播將在 S&P Global 網站上保留 1 年。僅音訊的電話重播將保留 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。