Deutsche Börse ups payout to shareholders

LONDON (ShareCast) - After its merger with NYSE Euronext (Euronext: NYX.NX - news) was blocked by European competition regulators, Deutsche Börse has opted to increase its returns to shareholders with the payout of a special dividend and an increase in its share buyback program. After the market close last night, the exchange operator reported a 4.4% increase in fourth quarter revenues to €541.1m and announced €228m in profit compared to last year's loss of €219.3m. Chief Executive Reto Francioni notes that is was "our strongest sales performance since a record year 2008" and stated that the strong performance was the basis for the decision to increase the regular dividend to €2.30, to add a special dividend of €1.00 and to announce plans for share buybacks of up to €200m in the second half of 2012. Francioni added that the company is ready to move forward on its own after the failure of its merger with NYSE. "After the EU Commission's decision, our view is exclusively forward. "We will now accelerate our growth strategy with an offensive on unregulated and unsecured markets, an extension of our leadership role in technology and market data, and by partnering further with infrastructures and customers in growth areas and regions. Our outlook for 2012 is positive," he said. Deutsche Börse currently leads the gains on the DAX (Xetra: ^GDAXI - news) as it trades up 1.48% to €48.505. JM