- 5.7% higher year-on-year and 8.5% higher than the first quarter
- Revenue rose in 2Q2012 to €81.2 million, up 5.7% year-on-year and 4.9% higher than the first quarter
- EBITDA totalled €55.4 million, up 7.2% in the quarter
- Net earnings for the first half of 2012 amounted to €74 million
- The efficiency ratio at the end of 2Q2012 was 32.1%. As a result, BME’s ratio is still more than 18 points better than the sector average
- Revenue not linked to trading volumes covered 116% of the cost base
BME reported second-quarter net profit of €38.5 million, up 5.7% on the same period in 2011 and 8.5% higher than the first quarter of 2012. Earnings for the first six months totalled €74 million, 5% lower than the same period in 2011, although this was an improvement on the 14.4% setback registered during the first quarter.
The diversification of the business model into different products and markets, together with the generation of revenues that are not linked to the trading volumes, has enabled a positive results performance despite the complex economic backdrop.
Revenue rose 5.7% in the second quarter to €81.2 million, while the figure for the first six months of the year was €158.6 million, down 2% on the same period the previous year. Operating costs totalled €50.8 million in the first half of the year, up 2.4% year-on-year while in 2Q2012 they were €25.8 million, 2.6% higher than in the same period the previous year.
First-half EBITDA amounted to €107.7 million (-3.9%), while the second quarter figure of €55.4 million reflected an increase of 7.2%.
As for the performance of the main indicators for tracking financial management, the efficiency ratio was 32.1% and 31.7% for the six-month period and quarter, respectively, as compared to 30.7% and 32.7% in 2011. As a result, BME’s ratio is still more than 18 points better than the sector average. ROE stood at 34.1% at the end of the first half of 2012, compared with 35.1% a year earlier. This represents a favourable difference of more than 16 points with the sector average.
Revenue not linked to volumes amounted to 116% of BME's cost base in the first six months of 2012.
EQUITIES
Revenue from the Equities business amounted to €60.1 million in 1H2012, down 12.8% year-on-year while EBITDA declined 16.9% to €43.9 million. Revenue and EBITDA both fell by 2% in 2Q2012, to €29.9 million and €21.9 million.
Trading activity in the second quarter, in terms of both number of trades and number of shares traded, was the highest ever achieved by BME and helped offset the decline in trading volume.
In 1H2012, the trading volume in equities was €376.09 billion, down 22.6% year-on-year. The number of trades in the first half of 2012 increased by 5.7% year-on-year to 24.9 million. The number of shares traded in the second quarter rose 53% to 58.49 billion while this number for the first half was 106.15 billion, a year-on-year increase of 28.1%.
CLEARING AND SETTLEMENT
The Clearing and Settlement unit reported EBITDA of €18.1 million in 2Q2012 and €34.2 million in 1H2012. These amounts represent year-on-year increases of 19.2% and 10.7%, respectively. Revenue contributed by the unit's activities relating to settlement, registration and services provided to issuers amounted to €41.4 million (+9.5% year-on-year) in the first six months and €21.9 million (+16.2%) in the second quarter.
At 30 June 2012, the nominal volume registered for both equities and fixed income (both private and public) totalled €1.72 trillion, representing year-on-year growth of 6.7%.
The total number of operations settled rose 35.3% year-on-year in 2Q2012, to 14 million. The aggregate figure for the first six months of 2012 showed a year-on-year increase of 16.3% in the number of operations settled, to a total figure of 25.5 million.
LISTING
Revenue from the Listing unit amounted to €5.4 million (+0.9%) in 2Q2012 and €11.5 million (-1%) in the half-year. EBITDA for the second quarter was €3.1 million, an increase of 1.7% on the same period last year. Over the six-month period, the unit’s EBITDA decreased 1.6% to €6.8 million.
Investment flows channelled through the Exchange in the second quarter amounted to €5.21 billion, 120% more than in the same period in 2011. The activity in equity issues focused mainly on shares already listed.
INFORMATION
Revenue from the Information unit was €8.7 million in 2Q2012 (+4.3%), while first-half revenue rose 8.5% to €17.6 million. EBITDA totalled €6.9 million (+5.4%) and €13.9 million (+7.0%) in 2Q2012 and 1H2012 respectively.
In 2Q2012 real time primary-source client data continued the rising trend seen in previous quarters (+4.2%), as did growth in the number of clients with a direct connection to BME's information servers (+9.7% year-on-year).The total number of end users at the end of the quarter was up 4.7% year-on-year.
DERIVATIVES
The volume of contracts traded in the derivatives business line rose by 7.2% year-on-year in 2Q2012 and by 1.2% in 1H2012. A positive performance was seen in all IBEX 35® derivative instruments. Trading in both futures sizes registered increases of more than 30% in the quarter, while in the case of options, the increase was 111%. Over the first six months, futures trading shrank between 5% and 10% while options trading rose by 55.6%.
Revenue from trading in the various underlying assets offered by the unit totalled €7.2 million in 2Q2012, a year-on-year rise of 25.3%, and €12.6 million in the first half (+0.5%).
FIXED INCOME
Revenue at this business unit increased year-on-year in both 2Q2012 (+2.4% to €2.4 million), and 1H2012 (+14.3% to €5.3 million). EBITDA rose 1.9% year-on-year in 2Q2012, to €1.6 million, and by 19.3% in 1H2012, to €3.8 million.
Trading in private fixed income totalled €498.99 billion, a drop of 58.5% year-on-year that was due mainly to lower volumes in repo and simultaneous trading (-66.3%), while trading to maturity rose 54.6%.Trading volume over the first six months came to €1.25 trillion, 58.7% lower than in the same period the previous year.
IT & CONSULTING
Revenue in the IT & Consulting business totalled €4.2 million in 2Q2012, up 3.5% on the previous year. The aggregate contribution of the various services offered in the unit generated revenue of €8.3 million in the first half of 2012, up 7.2% on the previous year. Once operating costs are stripped out, the unit's EBITDA was €1.5 million (up 8.1%) and €3 million (+23.7%) in 2Q2012 and 1H2012, respectively.
In the trading support area, progress was made with the marketing of maX terminals, the number of terminals installed over the last 12 months rising by 20.3%. Traded volume channelled via order routing by the VT network onto the trading platform rose 5.3% in 2Q2012 and by 5.7% in the previous quarter, even though the traded volume following this route dropped 2.1% year-on-year.
The number of institutions belonging to London hubs has doubled since June 2011, with the number of proximity lines rising 33%.