Qontigo posts €78m in net revenues, Eurostoxx 50 sales back on track

Deutsche Boerse Group saw its net revenue increase to €934m in the fourth quarter of 2021, representing a growth of 15% year-on-year (Q4 2020: €814m).

Net revenue for full year 2021, at €3.5 billion, was up nine percent YoY.

The financial year 2021 was defined by low market volatility, following very high levels in the previous year. This reduced net revenue in the trading segments Eurex (financial derivatives) and Xetra (cash equities).

Qontigo, the group’s index and analytics business that was created in 2019 through the combination of Axioma, Dax and Stoxx, posted net revenue of €78.4m for Q4 2021, up six percent from the prior year quarter, including €51m generated from licences.

Revenues for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) licences, at €11.7m, and exchange licences, at €9.9m, were up 14% and 16%, respectively. However, other licences – which include structured products – were down nine percent to €29.4m (Q4 2020: €32.3m).

Qontigo’s revenue for FY2021 equals €258.7m, an increase of four percent from 2020.

According to SRP data, some 4,767 structured products worth an estimated US$14.5 billion were linked to Qontigo indices during the fourth quarter of 2021 – an increase of almost 37% by sales volumes compared to the prior year period (Q4 2020: US$10.6 billion from 3,598 products).

Eighty percent of all sales volumes, at US$11.5 billion, was tied in 4,107 products linked to the Eurostoxx 50 index.

The European benchmark was especially popular in South Korea and the US, where it achieved sales of US$6.6 billion and US$2.7 billion, respectively, albeit mainly from products where it was part of a basket of several indices.

In France, where 24 products linked to index collected an estimated US$1.1 billion in Q4, the Eurostoxx 50 was predominately used as a single index. The best-selling structure of the quarter, the LCL Autocall AV (Mars 2021), was a six-year Eurostoxx 50-linked MTN that sold €455m (US$495m) during its subscription period.

Volumes of structures tied to the Eurostoxx Banks Index increased by 230% to US$764m in Q4 2021 while sales of the Euro iStoxx Equal Weight Constant 50, at US$258m, were up by 121% year-on-year. The latter, which replicates the returns of the Eurostoxx 50 Equal Weight Index while assuming a constant dividend, was exclusively seen in France in 26 products issued via Société Générale.

Other indices that caught the eye during the quarter include the iStoxx Europe 600 ESG-X NR Decrement 4.75% Index, which collected US$192m from just three products issued by Intesa Sanpaolo in Italy, the Euro iStoxx 50 Carbon Adaptation GR Decrement 5% Index, and the Euro iStoxx 50 Recovery Tilted NR Decrement 5% Index.

The market for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) reached a new record high in 2021 with investments in Deutsche Boerse's ETF segment exceeding €1 trillion (2020: €788.1 billion).

Trading volume on Xetra reached €205 billion in 2021, from 1,757 different products. At €33.6 billion, turnover in ESG ETFs increased by 176% YoY. This equates to 16.4% of total ETF trading turnover on Xetra. Some 208 ESG ETFs were listed on Deutsche Boerse last year, the highest number for 10 years. 136 of these were classified as sustainable under the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).

The exchange, led by Theodor Weimer (pictured), also expanded its product offering for crypto exchange-traded notes (ETNs), rising from four to 36 products from eight providers as of year-end 2021. The average monthly trading turnover in crypto ETNs increased by 922% to over €1 billion (2020: €103 million).

Click the link to read the Deutsche Boerse fourth quarter and full year 2021 results and presentation.