Heightened market volatility in the fourth quarter of 2014 lifted revenues at exchange operator Deutsche Boerse by 15%, compared to the same quarter in 2013.
Net revenue jumped from €473 million to €545 million in the quarter, surpassing analyst predictions, which had estimated net revenues would be up around 13% compared to the final three months of 2013.
The conflict in Ukraine, currency problems in Russia and concerns about Greece’s appetite for maintaining debt repayments led to an increase in volatility and trading activity.
The VDAX – the new volatility index of the German Stock Exchange – rose by 33% in the last three months of 2014, according to data from Dax Indices.
Order book volumes at Xetra jumped by 27% from €278 billion for the last quarter of 2013 to €354 billion while net revenues in the division were up 14%.
Clearstream also saw net revenue growth of 6% over the same period, with a rise of 4% in assets under custody and a 10% rise in settlement transactions.
In the group’s Market Data & Services division, data subscriptions for derivatives and cash market data grew by 3% and net revenues were up 6%.
In a statement in its analyst presentation to market, the company said that the management is “firmly focused on growing the business, effective cost management and attractive capital management”.
The group has set a net revenue growth target of 20-40% between 2013 and 2017.
Deutsche Boerse is anticipating the European Central Bank’s Target 2 Securities initiative will drive further business to its Clearstream operation as a result of changes to settlement legislation.
Deutsche Boerse’s share price is up 18% from 59.22 at the start of 2015 to 69.66 as at 13:30 on 19 February 2015.