SIX Group reported record first-half earnings on Thursday, with EBITDA excluding transformation costs up 40.2% at constant exchange rates to CHF 367.6 million (about $450 million). Net operating income reached CHF 806.6 million, a 10% increase on the same basis, the Zurich-based market infrastructure operator said.Roughly a third of that earnings increase came from spending less rather than earning more. Operating expenses excluding transformation costs fell 7.7% to CHF 438.9 million at reported rates, and headcount was down 1.1% to 4,279 at the end of June.Lower Costs Account for a Third of the Earnings JumpEmployee benefit expenses dropped to CHF 311.5 million from CHF 332.0 million, and other operating expenses fell 15.8% to CHF 147.1 million. Both lines came down while trading activity across the group climbed.Markus Habbel, chief financial officer at SIX, said all four business units contributed to "the strongest EBITDA result in the history of SIX." The interim figures are unaudited.[#highlighted-links#]The headline profit comparison flatters the picture. Group net profit of CHF 191.7 million compares with CHF 42.2 million a year earlier, but the 2025 period carried a CHF 69.3 million writedown on the group's stake in Worldline. Measured against the adjusted prior-year figure, the increase is 71.9%. SIX reported its full-year 2025 results in March, when post-trade revenue was working against falling interest rates.Aquis Turnover Climbs 23% While Its Market Share Stands StillAquis, the London venue SIX bought in a deal valued at about £207 million and completed in July 2025, turned over EUR 459.8 billion (about $525 billion) in the half, up 22.9% year on year.Its share of the markets it trades did not move. SIX put the market share of Aquis markets at 5.7%, exactly where it stood a year earlier.The two domestic franchises went the other way. SIX Swiss Exchange lifted its share of SLI trading to 65.2% from 64.6%, and BME Exchange took 55.5% of IBEX 35 volume against 52.3%. Combined turnover at the two venues rose 15.3% to CHF 969.3 billion.The Exchanges unit lifted net operating income 20.3% to CHF 219.2 million, though the year-ago comparison predates the Aquis completion, and SIX did not break out how much of the gain came from consolidating the London business. The group has selected the Aquis matching engine to run all three venues from 2027.SIX key financials, H1 2026 vs H1 2025 (CHF million, reported exchange rates)Rivals Report Their Own Records in the Same WeekDeutsche Börse published second-quarter and half-year figures on Wednesday. Net revenue rose 7% to EUR 1.62 billion, EBITDA excluding the treasury result climbed 13% to EUR 775 million, and the German operator raised its full-year treasury guidance to more than EUR 0.7 billion, citing higher cash balances and a changed rate outlook.Cboe, which runs Europe's largest equities venue by value traded, posted $2.4 billion of revenue for 2025 and guided to mid-single-digit organic growth for this year.Cboe also called the first quarter of 2026 a record for European equities, with industry-wide addressable average daily value traded up 23% year over year to EUR 94.4 billion. Aquis grew 22.9% over the half.Derivatives Slips as the Rest of the Exchanges Unit GrowsDerivatives was the only revenue line inside Exchanges to fall. Net operating income from the segment came in at CHF 3.7 million against CHF 4.1 million, with transaction revenue down about a fifth to CHF 2.0 million.SIX said in December it would stretch the derivatives trading day to nearly 14 hours, joining exchanges and brokers pushing into longer sessions.Everything else in the unit rose. Cash markets net operating income increased 22.7% to CHF 135.5 million, connectivity solutions gained 25%, market data was up 10.9%, and primary markets grew 16.4%.Securities finance also went backwards, falling to CHF 21.8 million from CHF 23.1 million, even though settlement transactions in Switzerland rose 11.1% and clearing transactions in Spain jumped 16.5%.Margin Target Cleared Two Years Into a Three-Year PlanScale Up 2027, the transformation program SIX launched in March 2025, targets mid-single-digit income growth and an EBITDA margin above 40%. The margin excluding transformation costs reached 45.6% in the half, from 35.8% at constant currency, with 18 months of the program still to run.Transformation costs fell to CHF 19.7 million from CHF 31.0 million. The company also folded its digital exchange entities, including SIX Digital Exchange, into central securities depository SIX SIS during the period, a merger completed on April 30 after FINMA sign-off.SIX is not listed, so there is no share price to read the numbers against. It is owned by around 120 Swiss and international financial institutions, and the group paid them an ordinary dividend of CHF 5.30 per share for 2025, approved at the May 6 annual meeting and worth CHF 100.2 million in total. That is the same per-share payout as the year before.This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.