Deutsche Brse AG closed its fiscal year 2003 with record pre-tax earnings of 453 Euros before interest, up 29 percent.
Including net interest income from its banking business, the company’s revenue jumped by 28 percent to 1.51 billion Euros.
Chief Financial Officer Mathias Hlubek said that Deutsche Brse would be entering a key growth market, the clearing of over-the-counter (OTC) traded bonds, in the current fiscal year. Hlubek also revealed that the company is expecting to generate EBIT of at least 450 million Euros in 2004.
Deutsche Brse also said it had successfully concluded two major strategic projects in fiscal year 2003.
Clearstream International has now been fully integrated into Deutsche Brse Group, and the Central Counterparty (CCP) has been introduced for the cash market.
“Both of these projects have enabled us to boost the efficiency and security of our securities trading in Europe for our customers, and, at the same time, have provided us with new opportunities for growth”, said Hlubek.
Deutsche Brse plans to further develop its OTC business and use the Central Counterparty for the clearing of OTC-traded bonds.
Moreover, Deutsche Brse Group has increased its access to the US capital markets with the launch of the derivatives exchange Eurex US in February.
The Executive Board and the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Brse will propose to the 2004 Annual General Meeting that The Lord Peter Levene of Portsoken and Alessandro Profumo be elected to the supervisory board of Deutsche Brse, the company said.
The Lord Peter Levene is Chairman of the Council of Lloyd’s, Alessandro Profumo is Chief Executive Officer of UniCredito Italiano. The Lord Peter Levene and Alessandro Profumo are following Sandra J. Jaffee, Executive Vice President, Citibank and Harold Hrauf, personally liable partner HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt.
The Supervisory Board and the Executive Board will propose to the Annual General Meeting that the dividend for fiscal year 2003 be increased by 25 percent to 0.55 Euro per share.
This will put Deutsche Brse’s distribution ratio at 25 percent, corresponding to a total distribution to shareholders of 61.5 million Euros. The intention, according to Hlubek, is to increase the dividend even further for 2004, provided that the company meets its growth targets.
Since its IPO in February 2001, Deutsche Brse has consistently increased its dividend by more than 20 percent each year, the company said. Since Deutsche Brse’s initial listing, its shares have outperformed the DAX by 70 percent, they said.