EEX Group significantly increased its sales revenue and annual net profit in 2018 achieving the best corporate result in its history so far.
On the power market, EEX Group again recorded the biggest power trading volume worldwide. On the markets for emission allowances and natural gas, EEX Group was the second- and, respectively, third-biggest trading platform worldwide in the past financial year. In North America, EEX Group launched new contracts for emission allowances and also strengthened its presence in Asia with the establishment of EEX Asia. In total, the Group has further expanded its global position and generated significant volume growth in almost all its markets.
“In the past financial year, we continued to bring volumes from the over-the-counter market to our exchange platform and, as a result, expanded our market share in the existing markets,” says Peter Reitz, Chief Executive Officer of EEX. “Both in Europe and North America, we have set new record volumes on the Power Derivatives Market which is the mainstay of our revenues. EEX Group also achieved significant double-digit growth in the other markets, which is reflected in our consolidated result.”
The EEX Group sales revenue increased by 19 per cent to EUR267.7 million. The annual net profit rose by 24 per cent to EUR92.1 million (2017: EUR74.2 million). Iris Weidinger, EEX Chief Financial Officer, explains: “EEX Group has set new records in terms of revenues and earnings in 2018, driven by the continued diversification of our offerings into new products and regions. At the same time, we further invest in infrastructure and personnel in order to continue on our growth path.”
On the Group’s power markets, the significantly higher trading volumes (which increased from 3,760.7 TWh in 2017 to 4,962.1 TWh in 2018) led to a strong increase in sales revenue: On the European power derivatives markets of EEX revenue rose by 21 per cent to EUR76.6 million (2017:
EUR63.6 million). The revenue on the power spot markets operated by EPEX SPOT increased by 7 per cent to a new record of EUR72.6 million (2017: EUR67.7 million). Moreover, the revenue from the North American Nodal Exchange power markets increased to EUR11.6 million (May – December 2017: EUR5.4 million).
In the natural gas business, the sales revenue of the PEGAS gas trading platform rose by 16 per cent to EUR44.9 million in 2018 (2017: EUR38.8 million). The volume decline on the derivatives market to 851.7 TWh (2017: 1,153.9 TWh) was more than compensated by above-average growth on the spot market of 34 per cent to 1,111.2 TWh (2017: 827.7 TWh).
In total, all other segments (Environmental products, Agriculturals, Global Commodities, Clearing Cooperations as well as Registry and Market Data Services) reached a sales revenue of EUR21.3 million, which corresponds to an increase of 46 per cent as against the previous year (2017:
EUR14.5 million). In particular, the doubling of the trading volume in the markets for emission allowances to 2,896.6 million tonnes of CO2 (2017: 1,380,5 million tonnes of CO2) contributed to this development.
Reitz says: “We will continue our strategy of growth in three dimensions. In the existing markets, we are working to continuously increase our market share. In addition, we are expanding the geographic reach of our offering, for example by launching new power futures for Southeastern Europe and gas products for Spain. And thirdly, we open up new business areas such as the recently launched Trucking Freight Futures on Nodal Exchange. The positive volume development in our power and natural gas markets in the first quarter of 2019 shows that we are on track for further growth.”
