Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to HKEX 2022 interim results analyst presentation. Today, we are very pleased to have our Chief Executive Officer, Nicolas Aguzin, and our Group CFO, Vanessa Lau. We'll first present our key highlights in 2022 first half, financial performance review, followed by business and strategic updates. We are happy to take some of your questions. Those of you dialing into this call may follow the instruction of the conference call moderator later on to ask questions. Meanwhile, those of you joining us through the webcast may send us written questions through the webcast portal as usual. Without further ado, over to you, Gucho. Thank you, Ricky, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. It gives me great pleasure to be speaking to all of you investors and analysts here in Hong Kong and around the world, and I hope you all have found some time in this busy summer season to relax and recharge. During the first half, set against a challenging macro backdrop, we have proactively launched a range of new initiatives and continued developing projects that are focused on our vision to build the marketplace of the future. This long-term vision to build a thriving, sustainable, and successful organization and market is fully aligned with our strategic principles that we set up, set out earlier this year. Today, on behalf of HKEX, I am pleased to present our first half financial results. I would first like to give a strategic overview of the business in the last quarter. Then our Group CFO, Vanessa Lau, will provide details on the financial. Afterwards, I'll be happy to take questions from all of you. During the first half of 2022, HKEX demonstrated resiliency and robustness set against a range of global headwinds. Our Connect programs performed well during the quarter despite the challenging backdrop. I'm pleased to confirm that Bond Connect average turnover reached a record half-year high. We also further enriched our offering by including ETFs in Stock Connect and announcing the launch of Swap Connect. We warmly welcomed the announcement last week of the adjustment of the trading calendar between Hong Kong and Mainland China markets under Stock Connect. Activity on our IPO market reflected global market sentiment, impacting IPO revenues across the world. Encouragingly, our pipeline remains strong with more than 180 active applications. Hong Kong continues to be a preferred and attractive market for homecoming issuers. We recently welcomed Zai Lab, converting from a secondary to a primary listing in June. Our derivatives offerings goes from strength to strength, and volumes throughout the quarter have shown strong growth. This reflects the growing popularity of our new derivative products and increased cross-product trading. At the same time, it is also partly driven by the heightened market volatility. In the first half of the year, we continued to diversify our product offering, and we introduced a range of new initiatives. As a result, we have seen growth in ETPs and data revenue. We also announced plans for the carbon market. We have also continued to build our business for the long term by making investments in talent, technology, customer centricity, and risk management, all of which are central to building our vision of the marketplace of the future. I will describe this in a few moments, but first, let me hand you over to Vanessa to go through the interim results in more detail. Over to you, Vanessa. Thank you, Nicolas Aguzin. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I'm Vanessa Lau, and I would now like to share with you our interim and Q2 2022 financial results. In the first half 2022, we continued to navigate a volatile global macroeconomic backdrop, ongoing geopolitical tensions, and the continued impact of the pandemic. Our results this half reflect the resiliency and robustness of the HKEX business, especially when viewed against the exceptional record results of the comparable first half of last year. Despite headline ADT falling by 27%, total revenue and other income was HKD 8.9 billion, down 18% against the first half 2021. In fact, if you look at core business revenue, which excludes net investment income on our corporate funds and HKEX Foundation income, this was down by only 11%. Our EBITDA was HKD 6.4 billion, profit after tax was HKD 4.8 billion, and earnings per share was HKD 3.82. Dividend per share is at HKD 3.45. Turning specifically now to Q2's performance, our core business revenue was HKD 4.5 billion, down 4% against the prior year Q2, reflecting the 14% lower headline ADT. Our Q2 results were also impacted by the performance of the external portfolio, which recorded a mark-to-market loss of HKD 322 million against gains of HKD 162 million in Q2 2021. As a result, profit after tax was 22% lower compared with prior year at HKD 2.2 billion. Turning to the next page where we focus on the Q2 detailed financials. Core business revenue demonstrated its resiliency, down 4% against Q2 2021, attributable to softer cash market volumes and lower depository fees from eIPO applications. This was partly offset by strong ADV in the derivatives market, driven by the increased popularity of HKEX's newly launched products and the increase in net investment income from margin funds and clearinghouse funds. We're particularly pleased to see our newly launched products like the Hang Seng TECH Index Futures launched in November 2020 and MSCI China A 50 Connect Index Futures launched in October 2021, registering strong growth in 2022. OPEX was up 14% against Q2 2021, reflecting investments in talent and higher legal fees. Coupled with the losses of the external portfolio, Q2 2022 profit after tax was 22% lower than last year. Moving on to look at the trend line. We continue to follow the general upward trend of the last five years on both revenue and profit, with the first half 2022 results returning to long-term trend levels after the exceptionally buoyant volumes in Q1 2021. Despite the weaker market sentiment, HKEX continues to maintain an attractive EBITDA margin. Next, we take a look at our investment income. Net investment income comprises of internally managed corporate funds, margin and clearinghouse funds, and an actively managed external portfolio. Total net investment income in Q2 was $30 million. As mentioned earlier, net investment income was affected by the mark-to-market fair value losses on the external portfolio in Q2 2022 compared to gains in the prior year quarter. As we look forward, a positive trend that we're beginning to see is the impact of rising interest rates on our internally managed funds, with net investment income up by HKD 158 million in Q2 2022 or 81% versus Q2 2021. U.S. and Hong Kong interest rates are expected to rise further in the second half of this year, we should see continuous improvement in investment income of our internally managed funds in the second half 2022 and into 2023. Moving on to look at the external portfolio. As mentioned, the mark-to-market fair value loss of HKD 322 million in Q2 2022 or HKD 511 million in the first half 2022 was largely influenced by downward valuation adjustments in both the global equity and fixed income markets. These fluctuations in fair value reflect the normal fluidity of market cycles. It is worth noting that even including the loss in the first half 2022, the external portfolio has generated a cumulative net gain of $1.7 billion, representing a 4.6% annualized return since its inception in December 2016. That said, given our expectations as to ongoing market volatility, together with the uncertainty of a rising interest rate environment and continued global economic weakness, we will be initiating a $2 billion redemption from the external portfolio in the second half 2022 to prudently manage our earnings volatility in the medium term. The redemption proceeds will be invested internally with the rest of our corporate funds. Lastly, let's take a look at our operating expenses. OPEX was up 14% in Q2 2022 as compared with Q2 2021, reflecting our continued investments in existing and new talent, technology infrastructures, and strategic initiatives, as well as legal fees incurred in respect of claims relating to the nickel market at the LME. We expect wage inflation and the competition for talent to continue in the coming months. To summarize, we have seen challenging conditions in Q2, but our core business continues to show its strength and resilience built upon solid foundations and a clear strategy. We manage the business for the long term, and we will continue to invest in clients, technology, talent, and risk management to deliver our vision of building the marketplace of the future. With that, I'll hand back to Nicolas Aguzin for our business and strategic update. Thank you, Vanessa. As I mentioned earlier, our business continued to demonstrate resiliency in the first half of the year. Here you can see some data about some of the points that I made, in particular our diversification, new initiatives, and vibrancy in our derivatives market, which have in part offset the broader general market softness. Trading volume in our derivatives markets have surged by 35% compared with the same period last year. This was driven by the growing appetite for a number of derivatives products, including HSI futures, HS TECH Index futures, and MSCI China A 50 Connect Index futures. Our Connect program performed well, and while the number of IPO listings reflected global sentiment, we continued to welcome new economy and biotech companies, as well as high-quality homecoming and SPAC issuers, and our pipeline remains strong. I just mentioned diversification and the new initiatives that reflect our vision and our strategic focus. Let me now drill down into our ETF franchise as an example. Enhancements to our market structure have continued to make Hong Kong's ETP market more vibrant. Reflecting this, ETP appetite continued to gain momentum with daily turnover records hit again and again. In the past few years, we have welcomed more first-of-their-kind ETFs, helping us to build a more diversified ecosystem. We have launched various liquidity enhancing initiatives to maintain the competitiveness of our ETF markets. Examples of this include the fee waivers for Hong Kong-listed fixed income ETFs and money market ETFs. Also, the market makers stamp duty exemptions and the new spread table, among many others. As a result of all these actions, the average daily turnover of ETPs, including ETFs and leverage and inverse products, increased by 53% to HKD 11.8 billion from 2021, and we continue to add enhancements to this market. A significant new initiative in the first half was the announcement of the inclusion of ETFs in Stock Connect, which was launched on July fourth. This is the next development in our highly successful Connect franchise. It provides our customers around the world with a broader range of investment choices, risk management tools and opportunities. It also underpins our strategy to connect China and the world. We believe the growth potential for ETFs in Stock Connect is significant. It provides issuers with an additional channel to tap into the savings of Chinese household wealth, and this creates favorable conditions for even more new ETF listings, and this, in turn, will add to the vibrancy of Hong Kong's ETF market. Looking in more detail at our three strategic imperatives in the first half of the year, we have built on our China strength to facilitate the two-way capital flows. You can see some highlights of our China-related products here in this slide. Some I have mentioned before. The introduction of the first A-share structured products was another much anticipated and welcomed initiative. We have also been deepening our mainland strategic partnerships, opening up new opportunities in the Greater Bay Area. The GBA is something that continues to excite us. In connecting capital with opportunities, we have strengthened our position as Asia's derivatives trading hub, reflecting increased customer demand for hedging and risk management tools. We have been making our markets more attractive by expanding our product ecosystem and enhancing our market structure. For example, in the first half of 2022, we launched derivatives holiday trading, a new SPAC regime, the Value at Risk platform in the cash market, and a broad range of new ETF listings, including the first Metaverse ETF, the first Carbon Futures ETF, and the first Blockchain ETF. In connecting today with tomorrow, we have very much been focused on the modernization of our infrastructure and driving our sustainability agenda. We have long sought to be a leader in ESG, and our sustainable and green finance offerings continue to gain traction. A highlight was the launch of the Hong Kong International Carbon Market Council in July. During the quarter, we also expanded our offerings to listed issuers through their corporate life cycles with the launch of IR Connect. This reflects our commitment to excellent corporate governance standards in our market. We're pleased that we have made good progress on executing against our long-term strategy, and we remain firmly focused on our vision to build the marketplace of the future. Looking ahead, we know that there will continue to be headwinds, especially in the short term. Geopolitics, market volatility, and the rising interest rate environment will continue to impact our markets. We expect cash market trading volumes to continue to be affected by the broader global market sentiment. We remain resolutely optimistic about the medium to long-term opportunities for our business and the market. We have a robust IPO pipeline, and we're seeing some green shoots of market activity with 16 companies listing in July. We will continue to expand our Connect programs to connect China and global markets. This will further deepen cross-border market accessibility. As Vanessa mentioned earlier, we will keep investing in talent and technology to support the long-term growth of our business. With an exceptional team and a clear strategy in place, we're confident that we remain well-placed to capture the opportunities ahead. Thank you very much. With that, I'm happy now to answer your questions. Thank you, Nicolas Aguzin, Vanessa, for your sharing. Now we are open for questions. Operator, can you please give the audience the instruction how to raise questions either via webcast or audio? Thank you. Over to you, operator. Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, you need to press star one and one on your telephone and your name to be announced. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type your question in the Q&A tab on your console. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A. Cool. We're going to take the first question from the line. Operator, please. Thank you. We will take our first question. Your question comes from the line of Michael Lee from Bank of America. Please ask your question. Thank you. Thank you, Benjamin. This is Michael Lee calling from Bank of America Securities. I have two questions. We noticed that in the first half results, you mentioned that you did not take any on LME. Can you add some guidance then to if any on LME catastrophe and any updates of loss in LME expense. The second question is about the change from secondary listing to dual primary listing. We noticed that Alibaba, which is the largest among ADRs plans to complete the change by end of this year. I mean, we've been asked the question is that when after the completion of this dual primary listing, will Alibaba be included in southbound trading? Will it still? I mean, it could be waiting for like six months like when the trading day then. I think the line actually has a lot of echo. Michael- Yeah. If I may repeat your questions. I think your first question is mainly around any updates on the LME regarding the nickel incident. Your second question would be around the HFCAA potential ADR dual primary listing conversion for the Baba. Am I correct? Yeah. Yes, that's right. Cool. Okay. I'll push it over to you. Okay. Yeah, sure. I mean, it's clearly there's not a lot that I can comment on the, you know, LME situation, the LME situation there, on the reviews that are happening and the judicial reviews. I mean, the LME management is of the view that they. Of course, the claims are without merit, and the LME will contest them vigorously. The reviews are at an early stage, and therefore there is no sufficient information to estimate, you know, the numbers that you were mentioning. It's hard for us to provide any guidance for that. There hasn't been any provisions made in our financial statements. Of course, we're fully committed to supporting, you know, the efforts of the LME to restore confidence in the market and so making sure that we support the long-term health and efficiency of that market. Now, as it relates to the situations of companies that are transforming their listings from secondary to primary, clearly, there are mechanisms in place whereby companies that are primary listed in our market and meet certain criteria, they would qualify for Stock Connect. We do review like, I mean, it's hard to make a general comment. As much as I can do a general comment, I would say that companies that meet the criteria of having been traded for six months and that qualify under the eligibility requirements of Stock Connect, including the fact that they have a certain amount of volume, they qualify for certain indices, they would qualify for southbound Stock Connect. Thank you, Nicolas Aguzin. Thank you. We'll take the next question from the line as well. Operator, please. Thank you. Please stand by. The question comes from the line of Yafei Tian from Citigroup. Please ask your question. Thank you. I have two. The first one is around the Swap Connect that's just recently been launched. Would you be able to give us a little bit more color what is the long-term implication from the Swap Connect, particularly around your development of fixed income business? The second one is probably for Vanessa around the investment in talent in technology. We noticed that operating expenses have been going relatively higher than the run rate that you were at previously. Just wondering, is this an ongoing trend that we should expect as HKEX continues to invest in people as well as new initiatives? Thank you. Okay. Let me address the first one around Swap Connect. The significance of Swap Connect is that most of the connectivity initiatives that we have or all the connectivities were more around a cash product. This is one that is a connectivity program around a risk management tool. As you well mentioned, it also implies a development of the fixed income market. There are a lot of let's say, ancillary products that over time may be developed. Right now we're at the earliest stages of implementing this. It'll take about six months to implement it. As with any initiative that we have across with the mainland, it takes a lot of coordination with many stakeholders, in this case, CFETS and Shanghai Clearing House, our OTC Clear business. We're excited about the potential of this market. We should be working over the next six months to launch this. The other question, I will pass it on to Vanessa to answer. Thank you, Nicolas Aguzin. Yafei Tian, thank you for your question. You're right in that we have invested in talent, technology, infrastructures, and these continue to be very important investments for the long-term health of our business. If I look at specifically the OPEX for the first half, and you would know that, roughly 70% of our OPEX can be attributable to staff costs, b ut if we take a slightly longer term view on staff costs, if I look back at the last four years, for example, staff costs in absolute dollars have only grown at around 8% annualized. Right? Which is not an unreasonable rate for a business that we're really relying on talent to deliver on the future growth. Of course, this quarter, and also for the rest of this year, you will see the legal costs that Nicolas Aguzin already talked about, in respect of the LME. I think for the rest of the year, we would expect to see wage inflation to continue and also the competition for talent, which will have some impact on our costs. We will continue to try and strike the right balance between investing for long-term growth and navigating what are currently challenging times with our prudent cost management. Yeah. Maybe I comment a little bit on that question because I know Yafei said a very important one, and you have quite a bit of focus on that correctly. When we look at the first six months of last year, for example, you can see that headcount and expenses, I mean, actually, particularly around staff, they went down quite a bit. There were a lot of positions that you know remained unfilled and had to be covered up. Many of these around our control infrastructure to make sure that our markets continue being resilient, robust. There were a lot of those areas that you know were filled. I mean, if we look at, you know, the first six months, actually the growth in headcount was about 2%. You can say, "Okay, but maybe there was, you know, an uptick on average or something." There were a number of things that are quite unique, including the fact that the first six months of last year, you pretty much for the whole six months you did not have a CEO. This year you do have a CEO. Then also there are a number of individuals, I mean, with retirement and essentially there's a, you know, bring forward of, you know, their invested shares. I would say that we will continue investing in people. We want to make sure that we're market competitive. We feel very good about some of the actions that we took in the first six months around making sure that we have a competitive workforce. We're going to make sure that our talent is, you know, at the right level of, you know, both compensation and also competitiveness in the market. Thank you, Nicolas Aguzin and Vanessa Lau, for a very detailed response. Operator, can we move to the next question from the line as well? Thanks. Thank you. We will take our next question. The question comes from the line of Richard Xu from Morgan Stanley. Please ask your question. Thank you. I have a question on the derivative market. Certainly the volume has been up. Just wondering whether you can share a little bit on your pricing strategy after the fee holiday on the A-share index futures. Also, obviously there could be demand for other A-share index futures given different components right now. Any dialogue also with regulators in terms of whether there's opportunity for other derivatives product to be launched in the near or medium future? Thank you. Okay, thank you very much. We're very pleased with the performance of our derivatives business and a lot of the things that we have introduced, including all the enhancements, the microstructure enhancements that we've done with non-Hong Kong products. I mean, this includes the derivatives trading holiday with Stock Connect programs. Obviously, we've also announced something about a week ago. What I'd like to do is to have Wilfred Yiu, our Co-COO and Head of Markets to just like talk a little bit about, you know, the current environment and, you know, what we're doing about it. Yep. Thank you, Nicolas Aguzin. Richard, long time no see. Hello as well. I want to comment a little bit on the new product development front, and then address specifically about the China A 50 Connect contract in particular. Obviously, we are very encouraged by a lot of the support from the market across our new product launches, no matter if it's HS TECH, China A 50 Connect or Options on Futures, just to name a few. By working closely with our partners, we were able to see significant growth in ADV and also open interest as a result of it. Very quickly, I think we come to a good maturity point that some of the initial trading fee holiday, we were able to take it away. At the same time, we're still encouraged and very encouraged by the continued increase in the volume and participation from a substantially broader and more diversified flows that are coming into our market. That's the first point I want to make. Second point I want to make is the Connect A50 is still a very new index itself. We have been articulating about the advantage of the contract, especially in a lot of the risk management. As you can imagine, there's a significant amount of Asia exposure out there. If you look at the specifics about the Connect A50 contract, it does offer a very cost-effective way and a substantially better market tracking and sector balance approach for a lot of the portfolio managers. That actually helps in terms of a lot of the portfolio managers to achieve their goal, and therefore from an aggregate perspective, we are pleased with the development. Now that's the second point. Last point I want to make is about that Nicolas Aguzin mentioned. We are also very pleased to see the launch of derivative warrants on Connect A50 on the eighth of August, which is a very good day. The important point there is not just about derivative warrants launching, but I think what actually HKEX is very good at is actually building a very vibrant product ecosystem alongside with our partners and client ecosystem. We'll continue to work very closely with our regulators and also mainland regulators to stage in the right products into the mix to increase the overall vibrancy of the market. Thank you, Richard. Yeah. Just to complement Richard a little bit, one extra point, in terms of our plans and things that we're doing to enhance the platform. Something that we think is very important, especially in the derivatives market, is to make sure that we make a push to be closer to our international clients. We're trying to develop that investor base. One key thing is obviously being more aggressive in going out internationally, setting up an infrastructure in the US where we can, you know, market and be closer to the clients. Same things in Europe. We're trying to have a more client-oriented view of our business. We've centralized our sales force. We have global account management to make sure that we can get the most synergies. We're trying to establish ourselves closer to the client. We have to become much more aggressive, competitive, and that is a core part of our strategy on derivatives. Thank you, Nicolas Aguzin and Wilfred Yiu. Operator, please proceed to the next question from the line. Thank you. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Gary Lam from HSBC. Please ask your question. Hello and thank you, everyone, Nicolas Aguzin, Vanessa Lau, and Ricky Choi. Two questions, if I may. First off, if I may refer to page 24 of your slide about the ADR conversion. When we compare the Hong Kong market to the other exchanges quoted here, like Nasdaq, et cetera, where do you see, you know, the underlying investor demand that is not being met out from Hong Kong, but more on Nasdaq? Asking this question because we were definitely waiting to see whether HFCAA would cause an ultimate delisting of some of these companies around, and Hong Kong might represent 100% therefore on the trading volume. That 100% relative to today, you know, that absolute volume, how much of those are migration? How much of those are sort of reduction? We know that Hong Kong doesn't have a sort of active high-frequency trading or algo trading market, b ut other than that, can you maybe have us share some of these like gap that you might identify that we can actually enhance from infrastructure side in order to capture a bigger absolute volume of trade for these particular stocks? I think that might actually reconcile your plan to expand your representation in U.S. and Europe. Secondly, a more smaller question, more on the investment portfolio. Vanessa mentioned there's a sort of HKD 2 billion redemption planned. Can we just clarify that has been executed so far, sort of like within before today or is yet to come? Asking also because we are definitely also seeing some form of rebound from third quarter to date, over the last one month plus. Do we see some form of, you know, recovery from the earlier losses? Are we able to capture that as well as, to what extent are we now benefiting from a sort of higher deposit rate? Just could you remind us, is it more on the, you know, the Hong Kong rate, US, you know, sort of rate and a, and a short end, so sort of that sort of repricing mechanism so we can better gauge the sensitivity to that? Thank you. Thank you, Gary. I think it's going to be a little bit hard for me to just, like, give you all the details around the question that you've asked on the different trading platforms. You're right. I mean, our market does have a little less of the high-frequency trading investors. There are several areas or investor types that we're trying to make sure that they come to our market, are attracted to our market, and hence our idea of expanding our international presence. Of course, we do have like one advantage for some of the names in this list that is the mainland investors that can qualify through Stock Connect. That's a source of, you know, demand that is, you know, very attractive. On the other ones, most of the institutional investors that can invest in Nasdaq can also pretty much invest in our market. I mean, I don't know, Wilfred, if you have any additional color on that. First and foremost, I think, you know, the conversion is all still in process, right? We are seeing a lot of developments and the willingness, not only the fact that I think these stocks are migrating from the U.S. to Hong Kong per se, but importantly that these are stocks that have more information during Asia hours that is better captured within the Asia market. I think that is the benefit of being in Asia, in Asia time zone, for these stocks, and that's the first point I want to make. Now, second point is about, you know, the relative activities from the high-frequency trading or non-high-frequency trading. I think that gives you the impact on the aggregate trading volume per se. Importantly, I think we want to highlight is the Hong Kong participants' perspective is a very diverse set of participants that brings in a nice mix of client base from all around the world. I think that is absolutely important. Third point I want to make is also we are massively investing in our market microstructure to cater more with the trend the market is trending in trading. The Hong Kong unique advantage is actually we are a consolidated single trading venue, where full price transparency and order book level changes can be a lot more efficiently represented and integrated into providing solutions to a lot of our clients who are accessing our market. Those are the efforts that I think we will work very closely with our partners and participants to deliver that trading and settlement solutions to our clients. I'll answer the question on the external portfolio and investments. The external portfolio de-risking of the HKD 2 billion, that started from July onwards. We're more than halfway done with the HKD 2 billion redemption, clearly subject to the exit clauses of individual fund managers. We have a very diversified portfolio with over 33 fund managers. As you think about the performance, and Gary, you rightly pointed out, you know, the market rebounding somewhat in July and through August, that will have an impact on the external portfolio that you will see hopefully when we announce in Q3. For the deposits, the internally managed funds, these fall into different categories. If you look at our margin fund, and I'll just take Q2 as an example, around 30% of that margin fund was held at overnight deposits, and therefore you would look to the HIBOR overnight rates, which if you look at Q1 this year versus Q2 this year, it went up from seven basis points to 10 basis points. It did go up, but not significantly. Whereas if you look at HIBOR three months and HIBOR 12-month rates, HIBOR three months went from 41 basis points to 88 basis points. HIBOR 12 months went from 96 basis points to over 200 basis points. Now, part of our margin funds would be deposited in these longer time tenure instruments with maturity up to 12 months. We'll start to benefit, and we're already starting to benefit from the interest rate hikes. There will be some lagging effect because as you have these long-term, long-tenor time deposits, it takes time to mature the older ones and get renewed at the higher rates for the new ones. You're beginning to see some of that impact in already our Q2 results. That will likely continue as we see more rate hikes through the rest of this year. I hope that gives a better sense of the fund spread. For clearinghouse funds, which is a much smaller size fund pool, most of these are held overnight due to regulatory reasons. Thank you, Gucho, Wilfred, and Vanessa. We are going to take the last question, which is also coming from the line. Operator, over to you. Thank you. The question comes from the line of Gurpreet Singh Sahi from Goldman Sachs. Please ask your question. Thank you. Thanks for taking my question. Can I have three, please? And all should be pretty small. First of all, Vanessa, I was hoping that, on top of what you told us regarding the staff cost growth into the second quarter, can we be a bit more specific that 18% was the staff cost growth on a YOY basis within the second quarter? Can you please break it up into new hires, number one, and what that had an effect on a YOY basis? Because clearly when Nicolas Aguzin came in, he did not have the team that he has right now for building out in the longer term. Second, what is wage inflation and talent retention, et cetera, et cetera, in Hong Kong that we need to do? Third, all the other things like any other technology-related thing comes here. T hat we can look forward to what kind of cost growth we can staff cost growth we can expect here. That's the only question on staff on the cost that I have. Do you want the second one now, or do you want me to follow up as you reply? Why don't we have all the questions and we'll take it with the right person. Thank you, Gurpreet. Following up on the investment income, very quick question is that when you say that this HKD 2 billion will be then used for internal investments, can I just check that it will be like the deposit form or overnight HIBOR or six-month HIBOR kind of investment? Nothing else. Just want to clarify that. T hen the third being that the tax rate. Tax rate typically has been around effective tax rate 17%, just simplistic view of tax. Why was that in the first half 15%? Is it anything to do with the investment income not coming in? And how do we see that going forward? That's it. Thank you very much. Okay, thank you, Gurpreet. I think for the staff costs, it's difficult for me to disclose exactly how many new hires and what is exactly the wage inflation. I will highlight a few of the numbers that you will be able to find in the announcements. I think it's difficult, as Nicolas Aguzin also said, to look at just a quarter or one half of what's happening to staff cost dollars, 'cause there are bound to be, you know, new hires or retirements or exits in any particular month or quarter. It's better actually to look at the overall growth rate. If you look at the last four years, CAGR, staff cost dollars have been growing at about 8% a year. That's already looking at, you know, the last four years. If you look at what's happened in, say, 2021, we actually came down on staff costs. In a way, we're just building back up to where we were before, after a year of 2021, where staff costs came down and headcount came down, especially in the first half of 2021. I can also point to, in addition to staff costs, the headcount growth, right? Headcount growth for the last four years, averaging about 6% a year. Again, you know, we saw some dips in 2021, and we're now rebuilding somewhat. Nicolas Aguzin mentioned, you know, in the first half of this year, headcount growth was only 2%. I think I would definitely guide to longer term, you know, when we think about what's happening to staff cost dollars or headcount, take a longer term trend would be the right way to approach it. Your second question on investment portfolio, the external portfolio redemption of the HKD 2 billion. The HKD 2 billion will be placed back with the rest of our corporate funds. As you know, our corporate funds, we have all different types of deposits. We have the 10-year deposits. We have some debt securities. It will be the same as the rest of our corporate funds. Your third question on tax rate on the first half, I will. It's from last year, it's a one-off tax, the deferred tax of HKD 160 million that we took in 2021, and that's why it distorts the comparison. Cool. Thank you very much, Vanessa. I think this marks the end of today's session, and thank you everyone for joining us today. We hope to meet and speak to all of you again very soon, and have a good evening. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Speakers, please stand by.