The SWX Group, SIS Group and Telekurs Group each generated record earnings in 2007. Higher volumes in all business fields contributed significantly to these results, Swiss Financial Market Services Ltd announced earlier this month.

For the SWX Group, 2007 was the most successful year in its history. Securities turnover on the SWX Swiss Exchange, SWX Europe (formerly, virt-x) and Scoach Switzerland Ltd. increased by 27.8% to CHF2.528tn (EUR1.562tn).

Turnover in structured products and warrants rose a marked 57.7% and in exchange traded funds (ETFs) by 51.8%.

The Group’s net profit for 2007 surged an annualised 49% to CHF244.3mn, representing the sixth consecutive year of record earnings. Increased demand for trading capacity contributed significantly to that result. Operating income in 2007 grew by 26% to CHF533.8mn.

On the other hand, operating expenses rose 22.5% to CHF253.8mn, mainly due to investments in innovation projects, particularly those focused on the total modernisation of the trading infrastructure.

Earnings before tax for 2007 increased by 47.4% to CHF290.4mn, while cash, cash equivalents and securities holdings declined 2.5% to CHF571mn. Revenues from cash market trading recorded a sharp 39.6% gain versus the previous year to a total of CHF240.9mn, and income from data sales increased by 11.5% to CHF42.3mn. Admission revenues fell 21.4% to CHF19.4mn, while those from futures and options trading on Eurex rose 22.7% to CHF223.8mn

10 initial public offerings were launched on the SWX Swiss Exchange in 2007. The newly listed companies have a collective market capitalisation of approximately CHF5.0bn, CHF1.5bn of which was placed in the public capital market. With the IPOs of Cosmo Pharmaceuticals and Addex Pharmaceuticals, the SWX Swiss Exchange was able to expand further its position as Europe’s leading life-sciences exchange.

Dramatic growth was also recorded in the number of new issues of structured products and warrants. At the end of 2007, the number of outstanding products totalled 19,062, with 25,742 having been admitted to trading during the year. 64 new ETFs were listed on the SWX Swiss Exchange in 2007, bringing the year-end total to 125 products.

Also, the SWX Swiss Exchange and SWX Europe last year pressed ahead with their “Trading for the Future" initiative, which is aimed at expanding the exchanges’ trading infrastructure.

In the past year, Eurex, the derivatives exchange jointly operated with Deutsche Boerse AG, recorded an approximate 25% increase in the number of contracts traded (1.9bn).

Eurex’s acquisition of America’s International Securities Exchange (ISE) in 2007 is contributing not only to a broader presence in the USA through the addition of new participants, but also an expanded palette of USD-based products.

The SIS Group, which provides clearing and settlement services, also achieved solid results, and the 2007 financial year represented the company’s fourth consecutive year of record earnings. Operating income rose by 78.1% to CHF108.8mn, while net profit grew from CHF34.6mn in 2006 to CHF70.3mn in the past year.

At the Telekurs Group, the payment services and financial information company, operating income increased by CHF136.3mn, or 19.5%, to CHF834.1mn; earnings before interest and tax rose by 23.5% to CHF79.3mn. These key readings are all the more impressive when one considers that Telekurs acquired the French financial information company Fininfo in 2007.

"Given those results, Swiss Financial Market Services Ltd is starting out on an extremely solid base," the SWX stated.

No consolidated financial statements are available as yet for 2007 because the three former companies did not apply the same accounting standards, meaning that their figures are not directly comparable. The accounting standards of Swiss Financial Market Services AG will be unified during the course of 2008.