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The European Energy Exchange AG (EEX) was able to generate significant increases in sales and profits in the first half of 2013. For example, the sales revenue of the Leipzig-based energy exchange increased by 18 percent to EUR 28.9 million (first half of 2012: EUR 24.4 million). “The development of the Power Derivatives Market was particularly impressive since we were able to generate a significant increase of 21 percent in trading volumes for the first time since 2010”, explained Iris Weidinger, CFO of EEX. “With additional sales revenue of EUR 2.1 mil- lion, this development made a decisive contribution to the overall jump in sales.” EEX also increased its results in all other business fields. The earnings before taxes (EBT) rose by 36 percent to EUR 11.5 million (first half of 2012: EUR 8.4 million). Furthermore, the number of trading participants increased from 215 last year to 223 today.
“The fact that the Power Derivatives Market, in particular, has developed so positively within an environment which has stagnated overall, underlines the success of our mar- ket and customer-oriented measures. Additionally, a higher number of year contracts was again concluded on the Power Derivatives Market in the first half of the year“, comments Peter Reitz, CEO of EEX. “At the same time, our diversification strategy is bearing fruit. This is borne out by the developments in natural gas and emissions trad- ing which increased tremendously during the reporting period.”
At EUR 14.3 million in the first six months of the current financial year (previous year: EUR 11.7 million), the power segment generated sales which were 22 percent higher than in the previous year. As opposed to the non-cleared segment EEX was able to further increase its market share on its home market with the help of attractive spreads and services for the traders. With regard to the current statistics from the London Energy Brokers’ Association (LEBA), the EEX market share on the Power Derivatives Market increased to 17 percent in the first half of 2013 from 14 percent in the previous year. Furthermore, in June, EEX launched a new market enabling trading in and marketing of the “green characteristic” of power with the Guarantees of Origin on the Derivatives Market.
In addition, EEX also generated a significant increase in sales in natural gas trading where sales increased by 52 percent to EUR 1.4 million (same period in 2012: EUR 0.9 million). As a result, three quarters of the entire sales generated in this segment in the previous year have already been reached. This result is due to a 47 percent increase in the trading volume with short-term 24/7 trading, which EEX offers for the GASPOOL, NCG and TTF market areas, making a decisive contribution to the growth. At the end of May, EEX, in cooperation with the French partner Powernext, launched a joint platform (“PEGAS”) on which all Spot and Derivatives products of the two ex- changes can now be traded via a uniform system in order to boost the development of the gas business segment. As a first step, the products which can be traded on PEGAS include the German, French and Dutch gas market areas as well as the spread products between these market areas. EEX is confident that this cooperation will provide a significant boost and a growing market penetration on the gas market.
The positive trend from 2012 also continued in the field of emissions trading. At EUR 0.8 million, sales more than doubled (compared to EUR 0.3 million generated in the same period in 2012). The trading volume in emission allowances rose by more than 400 percent as against the same period in 2012. This growth was again driven by the primary market auctions in emission allowances of the third trading phase which EEX now carries out for 25 EU Member States and will carry out for Poland on a transitional basis in the near future. In the spring of this year, the Federal Republic of Germany awarded the exchange the contract to operate as a permanent auction platform and the exchange aims to also repeat this success for auctioning throughout Europe.
Furthermore, the field of clearing cooperations of European Commodity Clearing AG (ECC), which increased its sales from EUR 2.4 million to EUR 3.0 million and, therefore, by 29 percent in the first half of 2012, also increased further. ECC is a clearing partner for, at present, six European energy exchanges. In the first half of the year, it has again implemented diverse product innovations for its partners at the settlement level in the framework of its co-operations.
Finally, the transparency/information products segment, which at EUR 0.7 million provided an unchanged contribution to sales as against the same period in the previ- ous year, established a stable position for itself. This business field covers both the operation of the EEX “Transparency in Energy Markets” transparency platform and marketing of the exchange market data and indices.
Outlook
With a view to the strong first half of the year, the Company expects a positive result for the entire year. Today, Peter Reitz commented on this as follows: “In 2013, we will generate higher results than in the previous year – both in terms of sales and in terms of profits. At the same time, we will consistently continue our growth and diversification strategy in order to ensure that, in the long term, we will have several mainstays of revenue and protect our business model against the volatility of individual markets.” In this process, diversification will be reached through the development of further trading markets – alone or together with partners – and through the expansion of existing products into further regional markets.
The European Energy Exchange (EEX) is the leading European energy exchange. It develops, operates and connects secure, liquid and transparent markets for energy and related products on which power, natural gas, CO2 emission allowances, coal and guarantees of origin are traded. Clearing and settlement of all trading transactions are provided by the clearing house European Commodity Clearing AG (ECC). EEX is a member of Eurex Group. For more information: www.eex.com
