Deutsche Börse Achieves Its Best Half-Year Result To Date - Sales Rise 71 Percent In Second Quarter, EBIT By 44 Percent - In First Half-Year, Sales Increase 71 Percent, And EBIT, 44 Percent

Deutsche Börse AG showed a substantial increase in sales and EBIT during the second quarter and posted a new record half-year result as well as the best Q2 result so far. Sales, which, compared with the previous year's figure, contains the fully consolidated result of the subsidiary Clearstream for the first time, rose by about 71 percent against the second quarter of last year, to 351.9 million euros (Q2 2002: 205.3 million euros). The earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) increased by some 44 percent compared with the second quarter of 2002, to 115.3 million euros (Q2 2002: 80.0 million euros). For the first half-year of 2003, the company shows a rise in sales of some 71 percent to 702.4 million euros (Q2 2002: 410.2 million euros), EBIT increased by some 44 percent to 241.4 million euros (Q2 2002: 167.4 million euros).

The earnings before interest, taxes and goodwill amortizations (EBITA) came to 131.3 million euros (Q2 2002: 81.2 million euros), representing about 62 percent growth compared with the second quarter of the previous year. For the first half-year, the EBITA was 273.4 million euros (Q2 2002: 169.6 million euros), about 61 percent higher than the previous year's first-half figure.

The segment reporting shows that Clearstream is the strongest segment in sales, with sales of 134.2 million euros and EBIT of 30.7 million euros. Because the subsidiary has only been fully consolidated since the third quarter of 2002, there are no comparable figures available in the segment reporting.

During the second quarter of 2003, Eurex posted another increase in sales, which are now at 103.9 million euros, after 73.6 million euros in Q2/2002. The EBIT more than doubled in this segment, from 27.9 million euros to 59.7 million euros. This is a direct effect of the economies of scale produced by the business model of Deutsche Börse.

In the Xetra segment, sales came to 50.4 million euros after 52.0 million euros in the same quarter of the previous year. The trading activity in the Xetra electronic order book showed highly favorable growth. Trading on the floor was well below the previous year's level, but picked up again compared with the first quarter of this year. EBIT increased from 4.8 to 6.9 million euros.

Due to an overall market slump, Information Services posted sales of 30.4 million euros compared with 33.1 million euros in Q2/2002. The EBIT for the quarter just ended is 12.6 million euros after 13.9 million euros in Q2/2002. The decline in sales was partially offset by lower operating costs.

In Information Technology, external sales decreased from 46.6 million euros to 33.0 million euros because of lower revenue from the Xontro floor-trading system and consolidation effects after the full takeover of Clearstream. As a result of tighter cost management, the EBIT fell comparatively less from 21.2 to 17.9 million euros.