Deutsche Börse Group has published its financial report for the first quarter of 2023.

Net revenue rose by 16% to €1,231 million in the first quarter of 2023 and EBITDA by 12% to €772 million. The strong net revenue growth is due partly to secular growth of 7% and also to cyclical effects of 9%.

Net profit for the period attributable to Deutsche Börse AG shareholders totalled €473 million, up 12% on the same quarter of the previous year. Earnings per share before purchase price allocations came to €2.70, which represents an increase of 13%.

In the Securities Services segment, €29 million of the net interest income from banking business associated with assets under sanctions held by Clearstream was segregated, of which €14 million was attributable to prior periods. In the course of separating the Clearstream fund business, the relevant portion of the net interest income from banking business of €11 million was reclassified from Securities Services to Fund Services.

At the same time, the separation resulted in a transfer of net revenue of €4 million from Fund Services to Securities Services (Custody, Settlement and Other).

Operating costs rose in the first quarter to €452.7 million (Q1/22: €406.7 million). The increase of 11 per cent is due primarily to inflationary effects, higher staff costs as result of a larger workforce, and IT investments, amongst others in cloud computing projects.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 12 per cent to €772.1 million (Q1/22: €687.4 million). This includes net income from financial investments of €–6.4 million (Q1/22: €32.5 million). The decline is due largely to the higher market valuation of the Illuminate fintech fund in the previous year, since market valuations fell slightly in the first quarter of 2023.

Depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses came to €88.3 million (Q1/22: €84.4 million). The effects of purchase price allocations for acquisitions saw a slight increase in Q1/2023 whilst the same period of the previous year included a one-off impairment loss of some €7 million. The financial result of €–9.1 million (Q1/22: €–8.8 million) mainly consists of interest expenses for outstanding corporate bonds.

In view of the performance in the first quarter of 2023 and the outlook for the remainder of the year, Deutsche Börse currently expects that it will be at the upper end of its forecast for 2023, or even slightly exceed it if the strong cyclical tailwinds continue.

Gregor Pottmeyer, Chief Financial Officer of Deutsche Börse AG, commented:

“Trading volumes performed very strong in the first quarter of 2023 and were above our expectations. The factors affecting net interest income were also very positive. Even more important, however, is our continuous and dependable secular growth in this quarter. We therefore now expect that we will be at the upper end of our forecast for the current financial year, or even slightly above it, if the strong cyclical tailwinds continue.”