Very warmly to our annual press conference here in the room, but also, of course, I'm delighted to be with our CFO, Jens Schulte, and longstanding CFO, Gregor Pottmeyer, and I think get to know Jens. I'm going to simply provide the details about our strategy, leading of the recent transactions. We are here in a room, which was from five years ago. Since then, again, this strength makes us very proud and confident, this transformation story going forward. The highlights of the past financial year, so we delivered the best results or continued our growth and forecasts. Here are the most important figures: 9% growth. That's extremely important operating KPI. 8% , 3% only grew disproportionately by 14% of EUR 3.5 billion. Strong financials indeed, and I think this is the—when it comes to announcing the dividend, which went as 0.20.
We're going to launch our 500 million share buyback, already announced early December at the Capital Markets Day. The thing is that our business model is growing, it's scaling, and it factored to this success. Five of our eight business achieved growth of over 10%. So, and I think this strength is also reflected in our figures. Despite headwinds, there's of course volatility, the volatility that we saw after a strong Q1 in terms of volume. What we saw was turbulent time, but the market expected a stronger development. Hedging transactions decreased. And the development of interest rates set by the ECB and the interest rate cuts, which obviously reduced our... And last but not least, the development of the U.S. dollar up to 1 point. Our U.S. business is growing strongly, and of course, this development helped.
Despite those headwinds, we managed to deliver strong growth because we can build on strong structural developments. Let me emphasize the development of the savings behavior in Europe. This is a change that I'm going to come back to in a minute. 14 million shareholders of the year 2025. A new record in Germany. 33 million ETF accounts exist in Europe by now, and ETF trading volume is 50% up on the prior year. All of these figures show that this trend has gained enormous momentum. There is international debt finance infrastructure programs that support a number of our activities, and above all, we're seeing technology growth. This is an important trend for our own development. Of that, outsourcing means direct access to the capital market. That becomes ever more important to them, and we can benefit from that development.
Those are trends that we saw in the past few years, and they accelerated in 2025. In geopolitics, technology, tell you about that. But we're talking about, and in fact, the Chancellor made that very clear last week at our New Year's reception in Eschborn, we're not talking about change. We're talking actually about new challenges, new requirements for Europe, for the capital market, which is transformation. And this transformation is in fact the focus of our new strategy. It's called Leading the Transformation. So it goes hand in hand with this transformation process, with this epochal turning point. Let me give you another example to explain what I mean. Number four, we try to strengthen in our business that have an immediate impact here. I already mentioned ETFs and the development in the retail sector.
Last year, based on ETF, non-German ETFs, and this shows our strength and our involvement in this fundamental trend, retirement provisions. Those are central, fundamental trends, and we benefit from them, and have so for a number of years. We're building on this momentum, and they're also model. And this is a European investment, the retirement product. There's another, we talk about index, that's the largest platform that we can build on, emphasize the... If you look at my German company, on average, they have visibility on when you IPO here in a number of companies that were listed to their IPO. So it's about growth that Germany is witnessing. Corporations for their subsidiaries, and this is Volkswagen, Daimler, Thyssen, major German corporations that have significant added to much better than any other European equity. Debt is also improving.
Debt financing and the financing of infrastructure play a small role, especially in the Euro yield curve. This is our motto. Last autumn, new futures instrument for risk management. Eurex Clearing has four actives by Eurex. And this goes to show that we offer the capital market on the financing side. The European capital market can only become truly efficient on the technology side. This has been moved to the cloud, so we are able to co-shape the future. We're developing hybrid market infrastructure products. We are leading in digital securities with T7 and D7 in cooperation with the stablecoin, and over the past few months also in our own platform Crypto Finance, but also Kraken, and announced over the past few weeks. So technology that will create autonomy for Europe and global presence. This is what Deutsche Börse Group does. Some specific examples.
You followed the development. Attracted a number of significant customers, especially in Q4, show that. This is due to customer. So EEX, our energy exchange, now entered, thus continuing its success story in the U.S. It is also true for a number of other businesses. We come back to our financials. At the end of the day, financials. It's also about people, and I'd like to take this opportunity to salute the one global team. We have 60 locations, employees. We've always emphasis on the people working for us in Europe, 10,000 employees working, 1,000 outside of Germany. So this is a true European success factor, thanks to our employees at this point. Infrastructure provided, so we can benefit from our entire business portfolio. I'd like to hand over to Jens, who has more details for you.
Good morning. I'm looking forward to this first in my capacity as CFO for the first time. As Stephan will take you through the numbers, starting with group level and then the business segments, and provide some context. All in all, we can say, CFO, this was the ideal year because these are wonderful numbers that of, so that made it fairly easy for me. So let's start with the revenue. You can see this here, the net revenue of the group, as Stephan has said, nine excluding treasury results. Let me remind you what the treasury results. Ultimately, it's the interest generated with customer balances and also fees through collateral that customers have to provide in clearing, and we take that out operating. So much dependent on the yield curves.
The real operating performance is a 9%, which means EUR 5.2 billion of revenue, and that's exact, so on the spot. Another word about the treasury result, and why? Because interest rates have gone down, which is a direct contributor. End of the year, we said EUR 0.8 billion was expected, EUR 837 million was the income. So again, fully on track. As for the cost, 3% operating cost growth, Stephan mentioned it. Cost management is behind that. We are a platform-driven company, so we invest upfront, and based on that investment was capital expenditure. We see growth at, well, 3% operating cost growth, I think is quite nice in terms of scale. 14%, totaling EUR 2.7 billion, again, the guidance at the beginning of the year, and earnings per share or cash EPS increased by 3%.
What's important is the message: we set an ambition, and we deliver, and that's what we did. Let's take a look at the different segments, starting with investment management solutions, including two sub-businesses in IMS. One is SimCorp, the software offering and getting out of that, especially North America. The deal has been made, but the press release is in consultation, a large North American asset. Very well. The second business, ISS STOXX , consists of ESG on the one hand, proxy advisory, essentially, and the index part of the business, the latter developing very well. STOXX rising by 10%. The drivers being demand for European investment products, ETFs and other products. The other part of the business, proxy advisory, has only shown 3% in local currency and 1% in euros, I should say.
There are several drivers: the regulatory headwinds currently, which had always been there for that business last year. Deutsche Börse, if you hold derivative trade, various bonds and short-term growth in the past in Europe and various REX index. The record was low. It's happening in the world. Stock markets have calmed down to a lower level compared to less of a hedging requirement had developed well. Equities, energy exchange, gas and power derivative last year. A lot of energy, the move, and Stephan mentioned Brazil, where the business developed well as well. EEX has such a strong platform, an auction platform. This is about attracting more and more customers in business, really. Again, which again, our business very visible on- Where a lot of capital... Another reason was that Stephan mentioned as well, and for et cetera, that very encouraging development.
Thirdly, this business, what is funds?... services, distribution and fund custody and settlement, 17% growth. What benefits this trend? Ongoing outsourcing trend for fund management in our industry instead of doing it themselves. So the retail trend and retail ETFs, so beautiful development there as well. I said the smallest, which we plan to acquire or have a much more interesting yet. Services about security management and custody, spider in the web, a hub for international financial markets. 16 countries, 60 connected countries, what we call European unification, fragmentation, but through our wide-ranging network, which means if you want custody for your shares in another as well, and we work with all the central depositories, which helps capital market integration as well. Operation with the same underlying drivers as for the other segments. More, retail plays a role here as well.
Neo brokers were connected to our platform for the very thing through custodian banks, and currently they are our direct customer, are among our customers now. They could deal flow, and they bring it in on a gross level with the stakeholders before. So they contribute all their retail to us. This is where the lower interest rates play a role. They are both... They went down, both rate. Without that, the business saw strong underlying growth in. Right. These were our segments. All in all, great numbers, I would say. At the end of the day, this reliable performance allows us to turns, and it's something we feel generally comfortable with. There are two components. One is the set, annually increased dividends, 30s of range, and that is why we suggest to go EUR 4.20, up from EUR 4 before.
This chart shows more every year, 5% more this year, year-on-year. So that's certainly a win. The second component are share buybacks. On the capital markets to change, in the past, it used to be individual discretionary, and the novelty is that we make that part of a continued develops every year, and the decision will be about the volume, depending on larger acquisitions or investments planned. So for 2020, EUR 4.7 billion is the growth target for net revenue. In line with the transaction, EUR 1.3 billion being to our shareholders, which is all the, also the largest sum ever. And with looking back first, let me now give you a bit of an outlook. That's part for me. What's our ambition for this year?
We confirm the developed under Horizon 2026 at the time, EUR 6.4 billion, and taking out the treasury result, which is about EUR 700 million. That's EUR 5.7 billion. That's a significant growth, 10% growth that we intend to achieve. Also, the costs at 3%, just like the current year, and the result should then grow disproportionately, EUR 3.1 billion, 3.8 without the treasury result. So again, it's quite an ambition again, but we feel quite comfortable in the area and constituent parts of that, and confident that we will achieve this. Looking ahead, we'll start with the new strategy cycle, Leading the Transformation for that. Well, I hope you've seen not just our regular result.
I hope you also got an impression of the breadth of our portfolio and how well these financials are anchored in our portfolio. As mentioned before, the transformation, this is why we call our new strategy Leading the Transformation. But that's not just the name of our strategy. This is our commitment because we want to make it work for the percent. We've seen most important over the past few years from the buy side. This is based on the trends I mentioned. This is to clearing, to settlement, et cetera. Our partners in the buy side want that increasingly. There's also technology change, especially on the buy side. This requires a strategic answer for our customers, that, SimCorp opens the doors, opens the door.
Over the next few years, we are also a digital assets, a number of so on our network, genuine during the Q&A session. Apart from the market participants and the clients, the ECB is of many aspects concerning wholesale Europe. It's important to come up with European answers to those questions. Another important part is our role. We see our... That can drive a pan-Europe gaining organic market share addition strategy, that it be enough to achieve the mentioned, that to ensure that they also have innovation. We also want to one group, it was announced, in fact, in early. Therefore, we are quite confident over years. Many factors will play out, increasing globalization and also to the platforms that we created over the past years, is at the very heart of our strategy.
Expect to use leverage to scale our shareholders, that we can use capital efficiently, share buybacks and on dividend payments.
... to pay out in full in this context. So with recent acquisitions, in fact, 30% in ISS STOXX, it's clarity. That was important to us. The successful collaboration, first time, that it's since 2019, we et cetera, and it was a good path to buy back this 20% share for one part, in fact, of the investment agreement that we- And as we emphasized last strategic vision, in ISS STOXX is that when it comes to complex analytical products to the buy side, as mentioned before. With it easier to implement, and we'll be able to eliminate some of the costs that we saw last year to do an IPO. So those costs are going to go away when integrated into the group. This, plus Allfunds with cash and with debt, this also shows the financial leeway that we have.
Have a positive effect on earnings per share. So the second transaction's only three weeks old, be far back in the past, at least that's the perception, Allfunds. I think they fit when it comes to Leading the Transformation. And in doing so, we're creating a true investment fund champion. As Jens said on our own business last year, very, very wrong place, it involves buy-side, the buy-side distributor. It has characteristics that are also typical of a It makes sense financially, but especially, what is good about this, the two businesses are they, they complement each other in terms of regions, southern, central, and northern complementarity in the products. And Clearstream has settlement and processing. So you spend EUR 5.3 billion. This is a mixture of cash and debt.
For the combined business, we expect synergies that over the next few years: EUR 6 billion in cost synergies, but also synergies in terms of investments, and we have two investment portfolios, key elements, and going forward, we want a single integrated basis. So Leading the Transformation is a step. The process will only be concluded after regulatory approval. We expect that this will take until the end of this year or perhaps even the first half. But next month, Allfunds is going to have it. We expect that the shareholders will agree to action, so that the only thing that's required after that is regulatory. The Allfunds example is an excellent example of how the European capital market ought to develop. So I'm pleased to hear about this development regarding the European consolidation. Last week, Merz visited us in Eschborn.
The same messages are repeated at the European level, and this makes us happy because we need an integrated European capital market structure. This is what drives us. This is our axis. This is the basis for our success story. And this is the only way, in fact, to have to build those European capital market infrastructures. We were a stock exchange operator. We developed into a globally relevant capital market infrastructure provider. This is the story that we celebrated last year when we celebrated 25... Emotional day, for many of our employees, because many of them were there already at the time, and they went through the entire transformation that we saw over the years. But this also shows the potential that can be released by an IPO.
Deutsche Börse wouldn't be where it is without this, IPO, without being listed on the stock exchanges. Deutsche Börse wouldn't have been a technology driver. So let me show you and talk about some of the cornerstones of those 25 years to explain why we can be so proud and sell three points to, as Jens just mentioned, to EUR 4.20 for 2020 fund working for us and our footprint in Europe and around the world. I don't have to explain that, do I? Because, I've done that, at previous occasions. Over those 25 years, the integrated model, that acquisition, 25, this, size, the acquisition of the UBS f rom general market on the buy side model, really came from ability to innovate. Deutsche Börse has always been innova trading segment, as it were.
This is for our T7 hybrid, as well as one, and it's important big years. We've assumed a lean financial industry, and we have the strength to do EUR 700 million. So I think of the capital markets, so confident in the context, quality, and innovative strategy. This is our commit questions. Thank you.
To your question, starting in this session online, you can do that. Raise your hand. We start with Mr. Mahlmeister from-
... rising today, which hasn't always been down again, and it can't have been done today. So could you perhaps say high loss loser, that is, those losing software driven. So could you explain why the second question? You now billion, you do a share buyback, which means you're so that you have the financial firepower, but so that we really see this firepower hit at some point and will also lapse. You might be a little limited in your ability of period B.
Thank you for these questions, follow. When it comes to the share price development here, it has been going down significantly. This is not within our influence as a financial institution by portfolio management.
From financial market infrastructure, long doing very well last year, and we felt that, and so did- By investors has changed a lot or did change- Risk on culture is what it's often called. Our organizations that are seen as defensive stock, payouts, delivering all good, attractive when investors seek low-risk investments and they're aggressive right now, AI being one example. Another point is this: when there was a lot of ad hoc Europe euphoria, EUR 100 billion of government spending and more, and of course, that requires financing, and that goes through our- That assumption wasn't wrong, but there has been a calmer period, calmer, and found that some things may take a little longer in Europe than expected. AI is not such a strong factor anymore this year. Eve of investors moving into AI, various business models, as we see and observe it this sense.
During the last few days, we saw it again when the Americans published data-driven businesses took a battering. Now, total, we're not part of that bucket, but with our IMS business, many associate and automatically we got on to, got on somewhat automatically. Of course, we have to look at ourselves as well. Lower volatility with its impact on derivatives, and there are some analysts. Achieve your ambitious goals. Well, we are confident because we have a strong portfolio. So that was one factor as well, a smaller one. Now, I've been part of many investor talks and analyst talks, 100. Among the investors, it's great, actually. They're confirming that we're doing every... everything good, the capital allocation fits. So when you continue, and if you continue to stick it with us, then that will materialize in the share price.
But it's a long story with some factors outside our control. The second question: Financial power. Well, we calibrated things. If it were to happen this year, the share buyback and the dividend, those will. ISS buyout, we've known since yesterday that it will come. For Allfunds thing, remains the likelihood is higher in 2027, but we would this year as well. But how do we calibrate that, and how can you see it? Meetings, AA- for the S&P rating, and something we'd like to preserve. All KPIs that are part of that, funds from operations. Debt plays an important role as a ratio or KPI. They all calibrated to our last percent. Last year, for these KPIs, we'd need at least 40, and even if we had to do this year, then this would still fit. How come?
Well, we are a business, EUR 2 billion free cash flow that we generate every year, and that allows you to fund this. And your very last question, when we'll be able to afford transactions again? With smaller ones, any time, we don't see any limitations there. For the larger ones, it would be through the deleveraging, to call it that. I think the most important answer is, I combine the two question, is our strategy is a solid foundation. Investors received it favorably, and we'll deliver along those lines. Rest assured, that we've done a lot of thinking in this process, how we allocate capital and a good match between availability and partnership. That's key as well. We're not only talking about a large transaction, but it will become complex.
The partnership with the Allfunds management and the full support, all those building blocks, almost half of the shareholders have committed to supporting this transaction. It's kind of investment and an approach based on partnership. That's the USP of ISS STOXX together with GA. So that's not only on the product side, but also the capital allocation side, where we will be successful. That's why we feel, feel very comfortable with the M&A roadmap that we currently have.
Philipp Habdank from Börsen-Zeitung. Philipp Habdank from Börsen-Zeitung.
You said that all the spin-offs of German subsidiaries are a success story. Then theoretically, you could have used one example as ISS STOXX, and you decided not to IPO it, but to buy it back. Could you elaborate on why? Could it have to do with the terms and the 20, the multiple of 20, multiple of EBITDA?
With 2019 as the base. It's hard to see that this 20. I might have a third question, which is about AI. Where Deutsche Börse, it took a battering alongside others.
... net revenue by this expressed in your question, limited environment over the last long term. The question of what, as you mentioned, things that were agreed, but rather important building blocks is with that, the ISS, coming to you looking at the developments and in all, we see AI as an. That is why in spite of EUR 100 million, and still only a component in that part of and the business. The fact that it said that we are, but contrary to that, I think, and break where a lot of opportunity from AI. When data is so important, so through partnerships and through core will be even the data side and the operation, for example, forecasting settlement, establishing value for our-
Next, Mr. Kröner from Handelsblatt.
Yeah, I hit the other one. Stocks. [Foreign language] . You had a number of global code about the reasons, and g ood news. I mean, it didn't work out for you. Why should it work out? How much, General Atlantic it was, $715 million. So my question is: Was this a good deal for General if they had invested in MSCI World at the time? General Atlantic wanted to get out. Why have you said in December that you're under no time. What the prospects for our business, especially in the U.S.?
I think in ESG proxy, it was 26, especially in those two areas. Ongoing litigations, there was a letter from the banking committee of that, ISS, U.S. companies, and Texas, ESG activity is more difficult. Can you tell us what is the question?
Earlier this year, JPMorgan, Glass Lewis, et cetera, and other proxy advisors with you, but they would rely on their own AI advice or have other banks announce similar things. And one final, the share price. CEO of the share price performance, this drastic-
Well, let me take the last question first, and then we're on. I think it's great. We had a special effect in Q1. After only three months as a CEO, I had a lot of things gone down from EUR 290 to a lower fixed simple. Our focus is on the long-term development, responsibility, and performance is monthly basis, good months or bad months. So the answer is actually, and you've seen it since the IPO, a great development is based on operating business and strategic success. Lots of one of them. First of all, the IPO, one option that we pursue together with General Atlantic, but also investment reasons on the side. It's a very specific sector, and we've seen that with other IPOs, the operating performance about strategic quality of a company. It's also about...
For this particular sector, there simply was no windows. So it was only logical to do what we did, especially with a partner like GA. As for GA's own situation, as a GA, I'm afraid we can't give you details or interpretations. I'm sure you will. Why do it now? It is investment in 2019. GA was a partner for a certain period of time. There are certain. And things come to an end, sooner or later, and this point it arrived, and based on the agreements that we concluded at the time, we talked about and clarified the buyback. As for the business, ISS STOXX, there are different features to ISS STOXX, as mentioned, some of them for 2025, and there are some term cyclical effects. Take MI, those were short-term cyclical effects. Other things, take the proxy development, those are longer cycles.
There are support and ways of criticism in the proxy, and proxy, we've seen that over the past 20 years. The structural importance is always emphasized to us and to ISS STOXX by the investors. They need central research capabilities, for AGMs, for recommendations to shareholders, and no institutional investor, perhaps only very, very few of the really big ones, would be able to do that for this range of financial products that they are in. They would have to do that, for tens of thousands of companies. But it's objectively correct, do the necessary analysis, and then translate that into services. And this brings me to your question on the U.S. development political discussions.
Of course, ISS and we were closely cooperating with the authorities. We support the activities, and we are convinced that at the end of the day, people will come to realize that proxy advisors are important for a well-functioning investment market. They have a long-term importance, and they are the interests of investors. Of course, we cannot comment on individual clients, but what we see is a very, very good dialogue, a lot of support on the customer side for ISS and its proxy product range.
Comfort from Bloomberg?
... Good morning, and happy birthday on the IPO. There's another anniversary, 10 years since the Brexit referendum in the U.K.. European business enabled competitive industry, alignment, more autonomy, closely related to Europe's competitiveness. We have also regulatory. What better example is there than clearing? Last year, we attracted 700 new buy-side clients. Over 2,400 buy-side clients can now do business in compliance with... We have a stable clearing system. So the weight, yes, it has shifted. We also stand for a strong capital market. But of course, for us, European autonomy is a business opportunity. We are working on that, and there is regulatory provisions two years. It's gonna take time to see the change and growth for Europe, and of course, now offering...
Again. The revenue, have they been achieved? Might slow down.
Well, then on that. Well, as Stephan said, we have capacity currently below regulatory requirement based on our managed collateral flow. We expect even more and beyond that. That is a big field in the future on the long side of the curve, always the leader in the market, and what we want to strengthen is the short. That's one big problem. We've got a market share of 34%, and the Euro is the other big product, we have a market share of 10%, coming from basically zero, three or four years ago. So we're doing quite well, but there is still room for improvement, and I think we have a good product offering there. And the third thing is the repo business. That really went extremely well by 40%, and it also grew across the entire year.
You can also see that in our balance sheet, because that has grown, too. So this part is working very well. Long story short, we're still working on some issues, but it's in terms of going to grow up.
Again, one question, question in the room, Mr. Fechtner from Börsen-Zeitung.
Yeah, thank you. Of a European nature, which is a substantial change for post-trade that could become painful for you or trading venues, potentially. Is there any? Or conversely, anything is huge problem for somebody else? Question number about competitiveness and competition and merger control. And we have a merger that was seen by your company, well, essentially was lost. Is that an impression that you share?
I understood that you are not foreseeing it, but has that changed the competitive European for these two very good questions? Let me start with the package, especially with the informal summit of the council. This with the position of the council is relative to the proposals. A number of subject matters weren't addressed. There are many good initiatives, but there are two tentacles. How is it possible to strengthen real IPOs ? There have been initiatives by France and Germany with the five. And the second aspect, which is, or is the learning, what has changed, what has been the most important driver wide down? And this is that liquidity is too fragmented, evaporate, so to speak. After three to five was the reaction. Less than 30% regulated transparent markets is Europe stood at 50% regulated, so that responsibility is central component for this reorientation.
A difficult thing, it seems central to us. It also means a business opportunity will be critical in addition to building a real pension investment system, work for the IPO side, that really work. That means raising through transparent exchanges. That's a core responsibility, and if the liquidity evaporates into other channels, then that's a misincentive, an incentive that should be rectified. We're grateful for the input in good and useful areas, so we will be looking at these proposed supervisory. Everybody says less bureaucracy and leaner structure, more bureaucracy, and introduce more layers. That won't matter if the general environment is not our decision. When it comes to merger control or antitrust commission for the council yesterday, but also saw that this was clearly emphasized, and also at the reception in Eschborn, the German chancellor made it very clear.
This is a positive and correct insight into markets and what they mean and what they need with what merger control decides. But all negotiations in the past and facts prove us right, that there are global markets, including clearing. It's not competition between banks and exchanges, but it's global. The market definition is too narrow, and that's the biggest obstacle for globally competitive European champions. But we are confident and optimistic that things will develop, and we are observing this. But us being the sole icebreaker is not a good model. Deutsche Börse has quite a bit of experience with that.
Okay then, there are some on ... Jean-Philippe Lacour from AFP. Monsieur Lacour, over to you.
... Merci, and thank you. Can you hear me? As a follow-up question, the question about the global capital markets in Europe, first of all. Of course, that's something on your wish list, Mr. Leithner, and you're looking forward to that, and to this so informal summit, as the one still ongoing today. Wouldn't it be interesting that this could call you and ask you: what could we do together? Would you meet him in that scenario and consider something?
Not a merger, by no means. Maybe a baby deal, as it's sometimes positions of who by is the regional organization, so a no from the state capital of Wiesbaden, would perhaps snip that. Very happy to hear you in German. I was afraid a little that I would have to test my French, but no. All right. Deutsche Börse is criticized often, but it can't be criticized for not being a pioneer. We've always tried to be the trailblazer in Europe, but yet very well, using post-trade as an example. Clearstream Europe, that used to be Clearstream Germany until a year ago. That's the sole post-trade operator with links to all 27 others. Asian post-trading has so much speculation, we could shape together and consolidated the product of... For investors, accounted for 60% of, of listings by large, by click, using maybe steps or not, Allfunds lab for us.
In June, it was broken down into two apps based on a funded pillar capital, and we are taking acquisition ever for Deutsche Börse, and the first signals have been very encouraging.
The question is online from Bar-
Good morning, I'm sorry, I need to, unfortunately-
Easier in English than in French, so thanks.
I mean, my questions are, with regard to ask you if you have the European Commission officials to discuss about officially file the, the transaction. Mentioned that there are some similarities about the Allfunds. I just wanna-- and if you have any idea on the market, which be, would be, I guess. And then, I wanted to ask you, you of European champion in the European financial infrastructure, specific on what does it mean in terms of market share to be competitive in... Is it sure, in which specific market integration? And then again, you mentioned the fact that I'm guessing how the transactions are reviewed by the-- you mentioned that is related to clearing. So I just to elaborate on that, and more broadly, how do you-- which areas could be most, and more carefully?
This one, a number of questions, understandably. Doesn't have any feedback around Allfunds. Also, it doesn't concern at all. There's no link between that. The clearing products in Europe are in a very separate, Allfunds. Now, to your point around the similarities and the complementarity that we highlighted, we really see the combined business as something that brings together two very complementary players, both from a client footprint, distributors among the banks. That's what our Clearstream business is. Wealth managers, in particular, also in the Middle East and Asia and in Latin America. The same is true geographically, Southern Europe, Middle East, together. And last but not least, also, as I said, from a perspective of pri... You know, we deliver more execution, transaction execution.
Jens has been positioned as providing data and distribution service, data information handling, fee processing, and these type of topics. That's why we also truly believe this is a story of creating a European champion that will be able to expand. And, in that, let me use the opportunity. A few things where Europe has really developed a technology that is globally looked at in areas for many years. Cars were in that category, fast, beautiful cars. But funds, UCITS funds, is a real export hit that Europe had. I think at the back of what Allfunds and our Clearstream business will bring together, you know, the Asia, where UCITS funds are very sought after. The opportunities in Latin America, institutional clients using those instruments, again, is something that we truly think for us, being a champion doesn't depend on the domestic market share per se.
It always depends, the size being in our own business at par with global players. That's what, in the context of obviously, the fixed income market, is very much the case. Income market, Europe's, fixed income, government bond, derivative market, at scale. So we can offer the efficiency that is competitive with what other... which is in the Chicago or other areas can offer for the same instruments. So it's less about market share. Now, on the timing, let me hand it over to Jens.
Yeah. I mean, essentially, the next step that we're actually gonna have is, and Stephan already alluded to, the filing of the U.K. scheme takeover process, right? I mean, that is going to take place next month. That's the plan. And then in March, as Stephan already said, we're planning to hold the AGM. Also, is, you know, planning to hold their AGM to decide on that. And with that disclosure of the scheme doc, of the takeover process documents, we will also be more specific as to when exactly and how exactly the inter- the EU Commission will be structured. Overall, the clear target is to be done with the process in the first half of next. That's essentially the backstop, and as I said, details to be published with the scheme.
Then maybe the only other question I would pick up. Stephan already talked about the market share topic. You also asked about market share for the company overall. I mean, that's, of course, a very differentiated, very clear market leader. So take European Energy Exchange, for example, yeah, EEX Commodities business. That's very, very clearly the number one in Europe, no doubt about this. So it has a very, very high market share, organically built over the last 15 years or so, yeah. Or take Eurex on the long end of the... Or there is still potential. Take the FX business, which in its market also has a very high market share. So long story short, this question of, you know, what is the position that you're aiming for?
We want to lead the transformation, as Stephan said, and the specific market shares are really very different by business. In many different businesses, we do have-
Many thanks, Barbara.
[Foreign languange] , Barbara.
[Foreign language]
There are no other online questions. Let me take a quick look around the room.
[Foreign language]
Asking for the floor. [Foreign language]
Thank you for joining us today. Bye-bye.