German exchange organisation Deutsche Börse Group achieved a stable financial performance throughout 2013 despite shelling out to cover Clearstream’s legal bills.
Clearstream, a 100 percent subsidiary of Deutsche Börse, was indicted by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regarding maintenance of an omnibus account in the US and certain securities transfers within the Clearstream settlement system in 2008.
Deutsche Börse’s operating costs shot up to €284.6 million Q4 2013 due to the costs of efficiency programmes and legal costs in connection with the OFAC settlement.
Despite these higher outlays, Deutsche Börse generated a net revenue of €473 million in Q4 2013—up from €447.7 million in the corresponding quarter of 2012.
The result from Deutsche Börse’s equity investments amounted to €9.3 million.
This was generated primarily by European Energy Exchange, Direct Edge Holdings and Scoach Holding. However, the latter only contributed to the result from equity investments in the first half of the year, because the joint venture with the Swiss exchange SIX was terminated with effect from 30 June 2013 and Scoach has been consolidated since then.
The result from equity investments also includes non-recurring income of €2 million in connection with the consolidation.
Reto Francioni, CEO of Deutsche Börse, said: “Despite challenging conditions, we generated overall stable net revenue in the past financial year. At the same time, we made good progress in tapping new growth areas by systematically expanding our investment program. In addition to the significant structural growth opportunities, the macroeconomic environment in Europe is also showing signs of improvement. As a result, we are optimistic about the future.”
Deutsche Börse generated net revenue of €1.9 billion in 2013, which met its annual performance in 2012.
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