Deutsche Boerse AG achieves high third quarter profit

Third quarter profit of stock exchange operator Deutsche Boerse AG rose 36 percent thanks to improved trading volumes and lower operating costs.

Photo: Deutsche Boerse AG achieves high third quarter profit

The Frankfurt-based company earned 238.2 million EUR(US$344.13 million) in the July-September period compared to 175.1 million EUR(US$252.97 million) a year earlier. Sales rose to 561.9 million EUR(US$811.78 million) from 432 million EUR(US$624.11 million) in the third quarter of 2006.

"Strong growth in business activity paired with cost discipline contributed to these excellent results for the third quarter," Chief Financial Officer Thomas Eichelmann said in a statement. "Against the background of strong structural growth drivers across all business areas, as well as positive effects from the restructuring and efficiency program, we expect to achieve a new record result in 2008."

Shares of Deutsche Boerse were down 1.45 percent to close 108.90 EUR(US$157.33). The company released its results after markets had closed.

By units, revenue in the company's Xetra segment was up 66 percent to 113.4 million EUR(US$163.83 million) from 68.4 million EUR(US$98.82 million) last year, with the number of transactions up by 98 percent to 48.7 million.

The company's Eurex segment posted sales of 189.4 million EUR(US$273.63 million) in the third quarter, up 36 percent from 139 million EUR(US$200.81 million) a year ago.

The increase was attributed to a 42 percent growth in transaction volume, including equity and index derivatives.

Deutsche Boerse's Clearstream unit posted a 15 percent gain in revenue to 193 million EUR(US$278.83 million) from 167.6 million EUR(US$242.13 million) a year earlier. The increase was the result of higher volumes in its custody and settlements operations.

In the first nine months of the year, Deutsche Boerse earned 641.2 million EUR(US$926.34 million) compared with 522.9 million EUR(US$755.43 million) while sales rose to 1.65 billion EUR(US$2.38 billion) from 1.39 billion EURUS$2.01 billion).