Deutsche Börse Achieves Record Results In Q3 - Sales Revenues Up By 20 percent To €417.8 million - EBITA Up 42 percent To €179.9 Million - CFO Hlubek Also Confident For 2006

Deutsche Börse AG closed Q3/2005 with record sales revenues and earnings. At €417.8 million, sales revenues were up by about 20 percent compared to Q3/2004 (€347.1 million). Deutsche Börse earned an additional €28.6 million in net interest income from banking business (Q3/2004: €15.9 million). EBITA (earnings before interest, taxes and goodwill amortization) totaled €179.9 million in Q3 – a year-on-year increase of 42 percent (Q3/2004: €127.0 million). Earnings per share climbed to €1.05 for an average of 105.4 million shares (Q3/2004: €0.60 for 111.8 million shares).

Chief Financial Officer Mathias Hlubek was very pleased with the company’s business performance in the first nine months of 2005. “Revenues in the Group grew by an extremely strong 13 percent in the first nine months. Based on this performance and our successful cost management, €532 million in EBITA for the first three quarters exceeded the €528 million in EBITA for the full year 2004.” Hlubek is also confident about fiscal year 2006: “The cost benefits of the integrated business model and continued cost discipline strengthen our expectation that EBITA for fiscal year 2006 will exceed 2005 levels, even if revenue performance normalizes,” said Hlubek.

Segment reporting for the third quarter once again shows Clearstream as the strongest segment in terms of revenue. Total revenue (sales revenue including net interest income from banking business) rose by 20 percent to €190.2 million (Q3/2004: €158.5 million). This was driven by international custody business and settlement. Custody volume rose by 15 percent year-on-year to €8.6 trillion, with disproportionately high growth (20 percent) in international securities. Settlement instructions increased by 26 percent to 13.5 million instructions (Q3/2004: 10.7 million instructions). EBITA in this segment rose by 40 percent to €57.3 million in the third quarter (Q3/2004: €41 million).

The Eurex segment accounted for sales revenue of €124.2 million in the third quarter – a rise of 28 percent year-on-year (Q3/2004: €96.7 million). EBITA climbed by 63 percent to €62.9 million (Q3 2004: €38.7 million). This growth was due to the 19 percent higher trading volumes and a revision of profit allocation between SWX Swiss Exchange and Deutsche Börse. As of this year, Deutsche Börse receives 85 percent of Eurex profits, compared with the previous 80 percent.

Sales revenue in the Xetra segment increased by 38 percent to €66.2 million in Q3, as a result of greater trading activity on the Xetra trading system and floor trading (Q3/2004: €48 million). EBITA climbed 85 percent to €31.9 million. The number of transactions on Xetra was up 39 percent to 21.8 million (Q3/2004: 15.7 million transactions). The number of contract notes in floor trading rose by 57 percent to 7.4 million (Q3/2004: 4.7 million contract notes).

Revenue in the Market Data & Analytics segment increased by 8 percent to €33 million (Q3/2004: €30.6 million). This was driven by increased demand for real-time trading data. The segment generated EBITA of €11.1 million, compared with €12.5 million in Q3/2004.

The Information Technology segment grew by 12 percent in Q3, generating external sales revenue of €32.8 million (Q3/2004: €29.2 million). EBITA remained on par with the prior-year period, at €20.9 million (Q3/2004: €20.5 million).

Click here to download the interim report for Q3-2005.