Deutsche Brse saw considerable restraint in market participants’ trading activities in the first quarter of 2009 as expected. Correspondingly, sales revenue fell by 16% to €539.8 million (Q1/2008: €644.5 million). In addition, net interest income from banking business fell by 50 % to €31.9 million (Q1/2008: €64.3 million) given the historically low short-term interest rates. Nonetheless, Deutsche Brse generated a solid operating result of €311.6 million (EBITA) in the first quarter 2009. In comparison with the best quarter in the company’s history (Q1/2008: €425.8 million), this is a decline of 27%. The exchange organization’s strict cost discipline was in particular contributing to the operating result. The Group reduced costs by 6% to€297.6 million in the first quarter, even though it increased investments in future growth.
At €−21.0 million, the net financial result was below that of the prior-year period (Q1/2008: €13.6 million), due to the positive effect of an unrealized currency gain of around €25 million in the first quarter 2008. Net income for the period amounted to €205.9 million in the first quarter of 2009 (Q1/2008: €304.2 million), a decline of 32%. The net income for the period reflects a significant reduction in the Group’s effective tax rate to 27.0%, which was partly due to the relocation of staff to Eschborn. Based on the weighted average number of 186.1 million shares outstanding in the first quarter 2009, earnings per share decreased by 30% to €1.11 (Q1/2008: €1.58 based on 192.1 million shares).
“Deutsche Brse achieved a solid result in an environment that was expected to be very difficult,” says Reto Francioni, CEO of Deutsche Brse AG. “Our diversified business model, strict cost management and the measures introduced to reduce the Group’s effective tax rate are helping us to meet the challenges presented by the market environment in the current financial year.”
The persisting uncertainty in the financial markets and the resulting restraint shown by market participants had a negative effect on trading volumes in the Xetra segment. The number of transactions on the electronic trading system Xetra fell by 27% to 43.5 million (Q1/2008: 59.6 million transactions).
The single-counted order book turnover fell even further, by 62% to €255.3 billion (Q1/2008: €669.1 billion). As a result, sales revenue fell by 45% to €63.9 million in the first quarter (Q1/2008: €115.7 million). There was a drop in EBITA of 66% to €24.4 million (Q1/2008: €72.4 million).
The Eurex segment reported a 16% decline in trading activity to 696.5 million contracts traded (Q1/2008: 829.0 million). The equity and index derivatives performed better than the interest derivatives, with the former recording a 6% decline to 580.9 million contracts as against the latter’s 45% drop to 115.6 million contracts. The reduction in trading activity for interest rate derivatives is particularly due to the European Central Bank’s interest rate policy of low interest rates and the current significant interest rate differential between European government bonds.
As a result, sales revenue fell by 19% to €221.1 million (Q1/2008: €271.5 million). There was a drop of 22% to €139.8 million in EBITA (Q1/2008: €179.9 million).
In the custody business of the Clearstream segment, the average value of the securities held in custody fell by 5% to €10.0 trillion (Q1/2008: €10.5 trillion). The value of international securities held in custody rose by 9% to €5.3 trillion, while the value of the German securities fell by 17% to €4.7 trillion – largely as a result of declining share prices.
The number of transactions in settlement business fell as a result of the reduced trading activity in equities by 19% to 24.0 million (Q1/2008: 29.5 million). Of those transactions, 5.6 million were recorded in international securities traded off-exchange – an increase of 5% over the prior-year period. The average monthly outstanding volume in Global Securities Financing (GSF) increased by 19% to €451.1 billion (Q1/2008: €380.4 billion).
The average customer cash deposits amounted to €6.6 billion in Q1 2009 (Q1/2008: €5.9 billion). Sales revenue in the Clearstream segment was 3% below the level of the prior-year period at €182.3 million (Q1/2008: €188.9 million). EBITA fell by 22% to €93.2 million (Q1/2008: €118.8 million).
Revenue performance in Market Data & Analytics was positive. Revenue increased by 9% to €48.8 million (Q1/2008: €44.6 million). This increase in revenue is primarily attributable to new subscriptions for price and trading data for the cash and derivatives markets. Furthermore, the acquisition of the US-based financial news agency Market News International Inc. had a positive effect on sales revenue with a contribution of around €2 .0 million. EBITA in this segment displayed a slight rise of 1% to €27.7 million (Q1/2008: €27.5 million).
External sales revenue in the Information Technology segment amounted to €23.7 million in the first quarter 2009 (Q1/2008: €23.8 million). EBITA in this segment displayed a rise of 23% over the previous year to €32.1 million (Q1/2008: €26.2 million) due to the lower costs.
D.C.