Correspondingly, sales revenue fell by 16 percent to €539.8 million (Q1/2008: €644.5 million). In addition, net interest income from banking business fell by 50 percent to €31.9 million (Q1/2008: €64.3 million) given the historically low short-term interest rates. Nonetheless, Deutsche Börse generated a solid operating result of €311.6 million (EBITA) in the first quarter 2009. In comparison with the best quarter in the company's history (Q1/2008: €425.8 million), this is a decline of 27 percent. The exchange organization's strict cost discipline was in particular contributing to the operating result. The Group reduced costs by 6 percent to €297.6 million in the first quarter, even though it increased investments in future growth.

At €-21.0 million, the net financial result was below that of the prior-year period (Q1/2008: €13.6 million), due to the positive effect of an unrealized currency gain of around €25 million in the first quarter 2008. Net income for the period amounted to €205.9 million in the first quarter of 2009 (Q1/2008: €304.2 million), a decline of 32 percent. The net income for the period reflects a significant reduction in the Group's effective tax rate to 27.0 percent, which was partly due to the relocation of staff to Eschborn. Based on the weighted average number of 186.1 million shares outstanding in the first quarter 2009, earnings per share decreased by 30 percent to €1.11 (Q1/2008: €1.58 based on 192.1 million shares).

Reto Francioni, CEO of Deutsche Börse AG, said, "Deutsche Börse achieved a solid result in an environment that was expected to be very difficult. Our diversified business model, strict cost management and the measures introduced to reduce the Group's effective tax rate are helping us to meet the challenges presented by the market environment in the current financial year."

Segment reporting

The persisting uncertainty in the financial markets and the resulting restraint shown by market participants had a negative effect on trading volumes in the Xetra segment. The number of transactions on the electronic trading system Xetra fell by 27 percent to 43.5 million (Q1/2008: 59.6 million transactions). The single-counted order book turnover fell even further, by 62 percent to €255.3 billion (Q1/2008: €669.1 billion). As a result, sales revenue fell by 45 percent to €63.9 million in the first quarter (Q1/2008: €115.7 million). There was a drop in EBITA of 66 percent to €24.4 million (Q1/2008: €72.4 million).

The Eurex segment reported a 16 percent decline in trading activity to 696.5 million contracts traded (Q1/2008: 829.0 million). The equity and index derivatives performed better than the interest derivatives, with the former recording a 6 percent decline to 580.9 million contracts as against the latter's 45 percent drop to 115.6 million contracts. The reduction in trading activity for interest rate derivatives is particularly due to the European Central Bank's interest rate policy of low interest rates and the current significant interest rate differential between European government bonds. As a result, sales revenue fell by 19 percent to €221.1 million (Q1/2008: €271.5 million). There was a drop of 22 percent to €139.8 million in EBITA (Q1/2008: €179.9 million).

In the custody business of the Clearstream segment, the average value of the securities held in custody fell by 5 percent to €10.0 trillion (Q1/2008: €10.5 trillion). The value of international securities held in custody rose by 9 percent to €5.3 trillion, while the value of the German securities fell by 17 percent to €4.7 trillion - largely as a result of declining share prices. The number of transactions in settlement business fell as a result of the reduced trading activity in equities by 19 percent to 24.0 million (Q1/2008: 29.5 million). Of those transactions, 5.6 million were recorded in international securities traded off-exchange - an increase of 5 percent over the prior-year period. The average monthly outstanding volume in Global Securities Financing (GSF) increased by 19 percent to €451.1 billion (Q1/2008: €380.4 billion). The average customer cash deposits amounted to €6.6 billion in Q1 2009 (Q1/2008: €5.9 billion). Sales revenue in the Clearstream segment was 3 percent below the level of the prior-year period at €182.3 million (Q1/2008: €188.9 million). EBITA fell by 22 percent to €93.2 million (Q1/2008: €118.8 million).

Revenue performance in Market Data & Analytics was positive. Revenue increased by 9 percent to €48.8 million (Q1/2008: €44.6 million). This increase in revenue is primarily attributable to new subscriptions for price and trading data for the cash and derivatives markets. Furthermore, the acquisition of the US-based financial news agency Market News International Inc. had a positive effect on sales revenue with a contribution of around €2.0 million. EBITA in this segment displayed a slight rise of 1 percent to €27.7 million (Q1/2008: €27.5 million).

External sales revenue in the Information Technology segment amounted to €23.7 million in the first quarter 2009 (Q1/2008: €23.8 million). EBITA in this segment displayed a rise of 23 percent over the previous year to €32.1 million (Q1/2008: €26.2 million) due to the lower costs.

Key indicators Q1/2009

1) External sales revenue excluding net interest income from banking business