NYSE Euronext, the shares and futures trading exchanges group, saw its profits plunge 44% in the first three months of this year as its was hit by the costs of its blocked merger with Deutsche Börse and lower trading volumes in the US.
Post-tax profits dropped to $87 million (£53 million) from $155 million, lower than most analysts had forecast.
Earlier this month, NYSE Euronext told investors it would make savings of $250 million a year by 2014 as exchanges worldwide react to lower equity trading volumes.
“Our first-quarter results reflect the challenging operating environment which carried over into 2012 and will continue to result in near-term headwinds,” said Duncan Niederauer, chief executive of NYSE Euronext. “Looking ahead into 2013 and 2014, we are focused on creating value by enhancing the underlying earnings power of the company and solidly executing on the three core pillars of our earnings growth strategy.”
NYSE Euronext said the volume of shares traded on its US exchanges was 23% lower than a year ago at 1.18 billion shares a day. In Europe, the average number of daily share deals slipped from 1.8 million to 1.6 million.
Total revenues dropped 11% to $601 million.
The planned merger with Deutsche Börse was blocked by the European Commission in February on the grounds that it would create “a near monopoly in European derivatives trading.”
