Stephan Leithner: Letter from the CEO

Dear shareholders,
ladies and gentlemen,

Over the past year, Deutsche Börse Group achieved the best result in its history—and did so in a market environment facing significant headwinds. Our ambitious growth targets for both net revenue and net income were again met. Our net revenue without treasury result has grown as planned by 9 per cent to €5.2 billion. By contrast, the past year saw a small increase in costs, rising by a moderate 3 per cent. As a result, the increase in our pre-tax earnings or EBITDA without treasury result significantly outpaced revenue growth, rising by 14 per cent to €2.7 billion. This strong and scalable growth means we have more than compensated for the negative effects of falling interest rates worldwide and achieved an increase of 3  per cent at the level of total net revenue.

Our strong structural growth has allowed us to demonstrate three things: we deliver on our promises; our business model is scalable—as without treasury result our profits are growing faster than revenues; and our unique position as an integrated provider of infrastructure for the financial markets makes us resilient to economic fluctuations. A large part of our growth was due to structural aspects. We identify multiple strong growth factors:

Firstly, the importance of the capital market for pension provision is increasing. We are clearly observing citizens taking their futures into their own hands—especially young people. In Germany, as in Europe, this is leading to massive inflows, which are invested and managed via our platforms. 

Secondly, the international inflow of capital to Europe is growing—and Deutsche Börse Group is the gateway to the European capital market. We are seeing long-term inflows in particular in the custody and settlement of securities and fund units at Clearstream.

Thirdly, the public sector has launched new debt-financed investment programs—in Germany and throughout Europe. We are reducing the costs involved by ensuring greater efficiency on the bond market with our offerings along the value chain. 

Fourthly, our customers are facing tough conditions in terms of global competition. This applies to banks and increasingly also to institutional investors. More and more of them are outsourcing services to us or seeking direct access to more affordable, standardized infrastructure with a high level of security—such as our investment software subsidiary SimCorp. This enables our customers to reduce costs, while we strengthen our position as a “partner of choice”.

The above are four reasons supporting structural growth—and this means supporting long-term growth beyond the last financial year. In today's world, shaped by geopolitical upheavals and rapid technological transformation, capital markets are also changing rapidly. We are experiencing a surge in digitalization, new asset classes are emerging, and competition within economic regions is intensifying. This is not a slow transition—but rather an upheaval. Our “Leading the Transformation” strategy allows us to utilize this upheaval as an opportunity. Leading the transformation defines our program as well as our commitment.

We will continue to grow organically—by an average of 8 per cent annually until 2028. In this way, we are seeking to increase net revenue without treasury result to €6.5 billion by 2028. We will continue to limit the cost increases to around 3 per cent. Our business will therefore continue to scale. This will also provide us with the strength beyond 2028 to achieve a new scale and further growth in the coming decade. What are we focusing on specifically in this regard?

Firstly, we are building on our position as a long-term partner to major asset owners and managers—to the buy side, worldwide. This applies throughout our entire value chain, particularly through SimCorp and ISS STOXX, which we will acquire in full. We are also increasingly positioning ourselves as a partner to providers serving the growing private investor market—we refer to this business as “business to business to consumer”: B2B2C. This also increasingly includes neobrokers.

Secondly, we are building the infrastructure for digital assets and alternative markets. For this, we are focused on co-design with leading players. As pioneers in cloud usage in the financial sector, we have already demonstrated this effectively—in partnership with Google and Microsoft. We are now using artificial intelligence to further strengthen our processes and services. Digitalization also means digital assets. We are using cooperation projects to build bridges between traditional and digital investment markets.

Thirdly, we are using the transformation of the European capital market as an opportunity. We are supplying the infrastructure for a unified pan-European ecosystem. This will not only enable us to continue to benefit from the inflow of capital into Europe, but we will also attract new investment flows.

Fourthly, those seeking to change the markets must also be prepared to change themselves. Our program for this is “OneGroup”. This will enable us to further increase our efficiency and effectiveness. Attractive returns for our shareholders also remain important to us. Besides dividends, this also includes share buybacks, which—and this is new—we shall carry out annually in the future.

Our strategy is supplemented by targeted acquisitions, wherever appropriate. This includes our planned acquisition of the leading fund provider Allfunds. This would allow us to add to our strong Clearstream Fund Services business with a focus on a unified European capital market, bringing another European champion with global relevance to our group.

My sincere thanks go to all employees worldwide for making this growth possible. Our One Global Team now involves around 16,500 individuals at 64 locations. Besides more than 4,000 employees in Germany, around 7,000 colleagues work in European offices. In terms of personnel, this also makes us the most significant provider of critical capital market infrastructure in Europe—and one of the most important worldwide.

Our growth is also your growth. We are proposing a dividend of €4.20 per share, which is 5 per cent higher than in the previous year. In addition, we have once again implemented a share buy-back program. You can expect a new record payout in 2026.

Dear shareholders, we believe this all provides you with compelling reasons to invest in us. We aspire to lead the transformation of the markets. The 25 years that have passed since our own IPO show that we can achieve this. Our IPO is the best example of the power of capital markets. For us, it was the starting point for building our integrated market infrastructure. We are continuing this now. Here's to the next quarter of a century of growth and innovation—together! Thank you for the trust you have placed in us.

Yours,

Stephan Leithner

Frankfurt/Main, March 11, 2026