Germany's Deutsche Boerse fourth-quarter earnings rose over six percent, meeting analysts' expectations, while full-year 2003 earnings grew 29 percent.
Deutsche Boerse, the world's biggest listed stock exchange operator by revenue and market capitalisation, reported fourth quarter earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of 102.1 million euros ($129.8 million), compared with analysts' forecasts of 102 million.
The group said after the stock market closed that full-year EBIT jumped 29 percent to 452.6 million while sales, including net interest income from banking business, also rose 29 percent to 1.51 billion euros, exceeding analysts' expectations of 1.421 billion.
The biggest contributor to revenue came from its securities settlement and clearing business, Clearstream, which more than doubled sales to 543.7 million euros.
Deutsche Bourse's revenue were again boosted by soaring derivatives trade at derivatives exchange Eurex, which it co-owns with the Swiss stock exchange, as investors sought to hedge their exposure to equities through derivative instruments. Eurex's revenue rose 23 percent to 409.6 million euros.
The group, which came under fire from investors for failing to adequately explain its investment plans for 2004 at its previous quarterly results presentation, gave no updated outlook.
Revenue for the full year was 1.51 billion euros, above analysts' expectations of 1.42 billion. Revenue for the fourth quarter was 375.7 million euros, beating analysts' expectations of 352 million.
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