Computershare Limited (CPU) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning, and thanks for joining us for ComputerShare's 1H26 results conference call. As usual, Nick Oldfield, our CFO, is with me, along with Michael Brown from our IR team. We've released the presentation pack on our website, and I'll take you through the highlights on this call. Nick will then take you through the financials in more detail. Then we'll open the lines for Q&A. And just to remind you, we will be talking in U.S. dollars, constant currency and comparing to 1H FY25 unless we state otherwise. Now, there is a lot of detail in the results pack, but let me take you straight away to the key features of the result that matter on slide two. Business performance, EBIT XMI, which really talks to the underlyings of business results, was up 12%. And Nick will talk you through all the moving parts, but our BAU OPEX costs were contained below the rate of inflation. And excluding margin income, our margins expanded to 16%. I think we're well on our way to the 20% EBIT XMI margin target that we have called out. Now, the margin income result, you know, I thought was a standout. We knew that margin income was a headwind going into this year with the prospect of rate cuts, which actually came quicker than the curves predicted last August. And I know that U.S. cash rates have been a focus for many investors, and they did fall sharply in the half. U.S. cash rates were down over 17% compared to the PCP. However, computer shares margin income was only down 5%. So there's clearly more to this than cash rates alone. And computer shares' natural hedge worked, and I'll explain that a bit later. Event and transaction revenues were also a highlight, up almost 13%. And we are seeing increased corporate action activity in some areas, although not firing on all cylinders across a...