European Energy Exchange to expand trading as earnings surge

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Energy Exchange (EEX), the continent's biggest power bourse, will expand trading in North America and elsewhere this year as it reported record sales and earnings for 2016 due to contract sales and acquisitions. The Deutsche Boerse-owned exchange took over Prague-based PXE in 2016 and said last month it agreed to buy all the shares in power and gas-trading U.S. peer Nodal, to pursue its growth strategy. "As a result, we will directly expand our offering with contracts for Northern America which is the biggest power derivatives market in the world," Chief Executive Peter Reitz said in a webcast from the company's Leipzig headquarters. EEX will also push its core products, which apart from power, are spot and futures contracts for gas and carbon emissions, while its Singapore subsidiary CLTX adds freight, bunker, iron ore and fertiliser. Sales revenue rose by 23 percent last year to 234.2 million euros (196 million pounds) and earnings before tax by 76 percent to 87.6 million euros, Chief Finance Officer Iris Weidinger said. Both were record highs. Trading volumes of all its power futures contracts rose 54 percent in 2016 compared with 2015 and all its spot futures rose 1 percent, it said, following preliminary data published in January. EEX has benefited from tighter financial markets regulation, as some participants in over-the-counter trade prefer the anonymity and clearing functions offered by exchanges. The EEX last year widened its market share in German power derivatives to 37 percent from 31 percent a year earlier, to 33 percent from 24 percent in France, and to 63 percent in Italy from 49 percent. It became the leading power exchange in Spain in 2016. Trading in the German flagship power future rose by 57 percent to 2,854 terawatt hours (TWh), more than five times Germany's annual consumption. (Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Susan Thomas)