The European Energy Exchange (EEX) concluded the 2013 financial year with a record result and significantly increased sales in all business segments. The EEX Group sales revenue increased to EUR 62.2 million (2012: EUR 47.9 million), an increase of 30 percent for the 2013 financial year. Earnings before taxes (EBT) rose by 32 percent to EUR 17.3 million (2012: EUR 13.1 million) and a significant increase of 16 percent to EUR 13.7 million (2012: EUR 11.8 million) was also recorded with regard to the annual net profit. “This means that, in 2013, EEX achieved its highest ever annual net profit. This forms an excellent basis for our further development”, emphasises Iris Weidinger, Chief Financial Officer of EEX. At the end of the year, EEX Group employed 161 employees, 149 of whom work at the company’s headquarters in Leipzig. This forms an 11-percent increase (2012: 145 employees).
As in the past, the Power Derivatives Market still constitutes the mainstay of the EEX Group revenue: At EUR 30.8 million, EEX achieved a 37-percent increase as against the previous year in this market (2012: EUR 22.4 million). Both the exchange volume and the volume of registered trades concluded off the exchange (“Trade Registration”) increased significantly as against the previous year. On the overall German power market, which is on a declining trend, EEX maintained its excellent position and was even able to further increase its market share. Additionally, with trading in Guarantees of Origin for green power, EEX launched a new market segment which enables participants to prove the origin of power from renewable energies. In the course of the year, EEX also expanded its product range to further regions and launched trading in Belgian and Dutch power futures as well as the Trade Registration Service for Italian, Swiss and Scandinavian contracts. The revenue from clearing of Power Spot Market transactions on EPEX SPOT rose by 31 percent to EUR 9.0 million (2012: EUR 6.9 million).
Importantly, EEX also recorded a significant increase in sales of 63 percent to EUR 3.0 million within the natural gas business segment (2012: EUR 1.9 million). “Together with our French partners, we have created PEGAS, the platform for European gas trading which has met with an excellent response from the market”, explains Peter Reitz, Chief Executive Officer of EEX. In the context of this cooperation, EEX and the French cooperation partner Powernext, concentrated their gas markets on a joint trading platform last year. As a result, trading of so-called “location spreads” (i.e. the price differences between the same products in different gas market areas) became possible for the first time, in addition to a consolidated access to the German, French and Dutch gas products of both exchanges. The increase in liquidity on the natural gas markets was further boosted by new products on PEGAS, such as the quality-specific gas products on the Spot Market.
EEX also recorded a significant revenue increase in the emission allowances segment. At EUR 1.6 million, EEX achieved an increase of 85 percent (2012: EUR 0.9 million) in this area. The primary market auctions, which EEX carried out on behalf of the EU Commission, the 24 participating member states as well as Germany and Poland, have made a decisive contribution to this. In 2013, a total volume of 730,970,500 tonnes of CO2 was auctioned in a total of 214 auctions. Furthermore, increases were also achieved on the secondary market for emission allowances.
The sales revenue from the clearing cooperations of European Commodity Clearing (ECC) rose by 10 percent to EUR 5.5 million (2012: EUR 5.0 million). ECC continuously expanded its network with new partners in the course of the year. As a result of the launch of clearing for the Prague-based PXE exchange and the cooperation agreements with NOREXECO and OMIP/OMIClear, ECC was able to win further partner exchanges. Furthermore, ECC connected four clearing banks in 2013. Additionally, with the application for the licence as a central counterparty within the framework of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), ECC has taken an important step towards ensuring that it can retain its position as the leading energy clearing house in Europe in the future.
The transparency/info products segment, which contributed EUR 1.5 million to the overall sales in the past year, recorded a slight increase (2012: EUR 1.3 million). This includes both the operation of the “Transparency in Energy Markets” transparency platform and marketing of the EEX trading and fundamental data.
Outlook for 2014
After the first quarter, Peter Reitz anticipates a positive development also for the current financial year. The growth of EEX has continued in the first three months of 2014. “We aim to reinforce our presence on all essential European energy markets
in 2014”, explains Peter Reitz. “We will tackle this aim with a number of measures in the framework of our growth strategy. We pursue organic growth on our existing markets and will continue to increase our geographic scope and enter new asset classes. Our results in 2013 have impressively shown that we are on the right track with our strategy.” In this context, the connection of the Cleartrade Exchange (CLTX) commodity markets to ECC constitutes an important element of the measures which will be implemented in 2014. EEX has acquired a majority shareholding in CLTX at the end of 2013.