ASX : Half-Year Media Release

Media Release

15 February 2018

• • Continued earnings growth - NPAT up 5.1% to $230.5m

• • Strong core business performance and growth in initiatives driving shareholder returns

• • Investment in technology ecosystem leverages strengths and supplements future growth

Highlights relative to the prior comparative period (1H17) based on Group segment reporting:

1/4

Strategic initiatives progressing across all businesses

• • Continued success attracting technology and foreign company listings

• • Managing BBSW benchmark rate, with new methodology targeted for April 2018

• • New futures trading platform attracting offshore customers

• • Growth within Australian Liquidity Centre (ALC) and increase in ASX Net service feeds

• • Selected distributed ledger technology to replace CHESS, progressing to full development and implementation

• • Upgrading secondary data centre to complement success and sophistication of ALC

• • Investing in new data and analytics products and services, and upgrading ASX Net

• • Seeing increased opportunities to add value to customers through ASX's multi-dimensional technology ecosystem

Mr Dominic Stevens, ASX Managing Director and CEO, said: "ASX has achieved a strong result for the first half of the 2018 financial year, with profit up 5.1% on the same period last year to $230.5 million and up 7.3% - or almost $16 million - on the preceding six months. The performance was driven by higher secondary capital raisings, increased futures trading - particularly from offshore customers - and growth in technical services connections and data feeds. While cash market trading was down amid low levels of market volatility, revenue from information services increased with an expanded range of products. The share of value transacted in our premium Centre Point and Auctions services continues to grow, an indication that customers want control over their orders, efficient execution and the deepest liquidity. Collectively, 34.5% of all ASX on-market cash market value is now transacted through these two services.

"ASX's expenses rose 6.7%, or 3.1% excluding some step costs, such as higher ASIC levy (up 133%) and electricity charges (up 82%), as signalled at our last results briefing. Our capex is expected to be circa $50 million for the full-year.

"ASX made good progress on many of our core initiatives. We continued to attract foreign (18) and technology (11) companies, with new listings drawn to Australia's large and deep pool of investable capital, expertise in funding early stage enterprises and robust regulatory environment. The market capitalisation of the ASX-listed tech sector has grown 140% in the last three years, outperforming the benchmark index. The enhancements to our OTC clearing and collateral services led to rises in activity and customer engagement. And the expansion of the ecosystem within the Australian Liquidity Centre (ALC) saw an increase in the number of technical services connections, data feeds and hosted customer cabinets (up from 270 to 298). There are now 122 customers in the ALC. The successful implementation of the new futures trading system (futures contracts traded up 7.9%) and ASX's administration of the Bank Bill Swap (BBSW) interest rate benchmark also contributed to ASX's strong first half performance.

"The quality of ASX's infrastructure and our capacity to invest allow us to leverage our strengths into new areas to supplement the growth we receive from our core businesses. In part, this is driven by the global trends sweeping our industry, including customer demands for reduced complexity, lower costs, and access to more data and analytics. We see these opportunities as complementary to our traditional areas of focus, and requiring ongoing investment in new technology. ASX's goal is to make business easier for our customers. To do that, we must be technologically out in front."

Mr Stevens continued: "Our decision to replace CHESS with a next generation post-trade platform using DLT is an example of this. After extensive testing and stakeholder consultation, we are confident that DLT will meet the needs of Australia's financial marketplace for improved functionality and efficiency, and maintain the highest regulatory and operational standards. We are now preparing to provide stakeholders in March with the scope of Day 1 functionality and how we will transition to the new system. It's an exciting development and we think it will put Australia at the forefront of innovation in financial markets.

"Replacing CHESS with DLT is not the only example of how we aim to make business easier for our customers.

We are investing in new technology hardware and communications, including upgrading our secondary data centre and ASX Net communications network. We are also investing in data and analytics to make more information available to customers more easily.

"Another growth initiative we are exploring is in the area of electronic property settlement. ASX is working with InfoTrack, Australia's leading provider of electronic conveyancing technology and services, to investigate creating an Electronic Lodgment Network Operator - or ELNO - and whether we can leverage our existing infrastructure to generate efficiencies for customers.

"The first six-months of the financial year have produced a pleasing result for ASX. Our diversified business model continues to deliver solid financial and operational performance, and attractive returns to shareholders, with our interim dividend rising 5.1% to 107.2 cents per share. We have also continued to innovate and invest in initiatives that both develop our core businesses and unlock new growth opportunities."

Please see the accompanying presentation slides for individual business highlights.

Complete half-year results materials will be available here:http://www.asx.com.au/about/asx-market-announcements.htm

A webcast of today's 10.00am (Sydney time) presentation to analysts and media will be available at:http://www.asx.com.au/hy2018webcast

Further enquiries:

APPENDIX - ASX half-year results to 31 December 2017 (1H18) based on the Group's segment reporting