ECX And ICE Futures Europe Announce Launch Of Emissions CER Options Contract On 16 May

The European Climate Exchange (ECX) is delighted to announce the introduction of options contracts on Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) which will be available for trading from Friday 16 May 2008. The contract, formally known as the ICE ECX CFI CER Options Contract, will be listed and admitted to trading on the ICE platform and cleared by LCH.Clearnet.

Commenting on the new product, ECX Chief Executive, Patrick Birley, said “Listed options on CERs will enable market participants to manage price risk more efficiently and take advantage of the underlying volatility. Following the successful start of CER futures, we believe this contract will further help the development of the maturing market for products linked to the Clean Development Mechanism".

Further information including contract specifications and expiry dates can be found in appendix.

ICE ECX CER Options Contract: Specifications

Unit of Trading	One ICE Futures ECX CFI CER Options contract.
Minimum trading size	1 lot.
Quotation	Euro (€) and Euro cent (c) per metric tonne.
Strike price increments	A range of fifty-five strike prices are automatically listed for each contract month covering the price range from €1.00- €55.00. The Exchange may add one or more strike prices nearest to the last price listed as necessary. Strike price intervals are €1.00.
Tick size .	€0.01 per contract
Min. Price Fluctuation	€0.01
Max. Price Fluctuation	No limit.
Contract months	5 December contract months (December 2008-December 2012).
Expiry day	Three Exchange Business Days before the expiry of the relevant contract month of the ICE ECX CER Futures Contract.
Option style and premium	European-style option. Premiums paid at the time of the transaction.
Contract security	LCH.Clearnet Limited (LCHC) guarantees the financial performance of all ICE Futures contracts registered in the name of its members.
Daily margin	All open contracts are marked-to-market daily.
Trading system	Trading occurs on ICE Futures’ electronic trading platform (known as the ICE Platform) which is accessible via Web ICE or through a conformed Independent Software Vendor.
Trading hours	07:00 hours to 17:00 hours (except on the expiry day where the relevant contract month will cease trading at 16:15 hours).
Settlement prices	Trade weighted average of trades executed during the daily designated settlement period in accordance with Trading Procedure 2.4.9.
VAT & taxes	The UK’s HM Revenue and Customs have confirmed that the trading of the ICE ECX CFI Futures on the Exchange between the Member and LCH.Clearnet has been granted interim approval to be zero-rated for VAT purposes under the terms of the Terminal Markets Order.
Exercise and automatic	ICE ECX CER Options will be exercised into ICE Futures ECX CFI CER Futures contracts and are of European-style exercise, such that at expiry automatic exercise will occur of options which are one or more ticks in the money. (At-the-money and out-of the-money options will lapse)
Clearing	LCHC is the central counterparty to all trades.
Margin	To be confirmed by LCHC.

ICE ECX EUA and CER Options Expiry Dates

The ICE ECX EUA and CER Options Contracts cease trading at the end of the Designated Settlement Period (16:15 hours UK local time) on the third Business Day prior to the expiry of the relevant ICE ECX EUA and CER Futures Contract month. All in-the-money options will exercise into the Futures Contract automatically, at-the-money options will expire.

Delivery Month	ICE ECX EUA and CER Options Expiry	ICE ECX EUA and CER Futures Expiry
December 2008	10th	15th
December 2009	9th	14th
December 2010	15th	20th
December 2011	14th	19th
December 2012	12th	17th

ICE Circular CER Options Launch

About European Climate Exchange
The European Climate Exchange (ECX) manages the marketing and product development for ECX Carbon Financial Instruments (ECX CFIs), listed and admitted to trading on the ICE Futures electronic platform. ECX contracts are standardised and all trades are cleared by LCH.Clearnet. More than 80 leading businesses have signed up for membership to trade ECX products. In addition, several thousand clients can access the market via banks and brokers. ECX and ICE Futures is the most liquid, pan- European platform for carbon emissions trading, attracting over 80 % of the exchange-traded volume in the market.
ECX and ICE Futures emissions volumes for its EUA futures and options contracts are experiencing increasing growth. Since launch in April 2005, the ECX contracts have seen over 2 billion tonnes CO2 trade with an underlying market value of €39 bn. The open interest currently stands at 155 million tonnes. ECX is a member of the Climate Exchange Plc group of companies. Other member companies include the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) and the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange (CCFE). Climate Exchange Plc (CLE) is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. For more information, please visit www.ecx.eu

About IntercontinentalExchange
IntercontinentalExchange® (NYSE: ICE) operates global commodity and financial products marketplaces, including the world’s leading electronic energy markets and soft commodity exchange. ICE’s diverse futures and over-the-counter (OTC) markets offer contracts based on crude oil and refined products, natural gas, power and emissions, as well as agricultural commodities including canola, cocoa, coffee, cotton, ethanol, orange juice, wood pulp and sugar, in addition to foreign currency and equity index futures and options. ICE® conducts its energy futures markets through ICE Futures Europesm, its London-based futures exchange, which offers the world’s leading oil benchmarks and trades nearly half of the world’s global crude futures in its markets. ICE conducts its soft commodity, foreign exchange and equity index markets through its U.S. futures exchange, ICE Futures U.S.sm, which provides global futures and options markets, as well as clearing services through ICE Clear U.S.sm In August 2007, ICE acquired the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange Inc., the leading agricultural futures exchange in Canada. ICE’s state-of-the-art electronic trading platform brings market access and transparency to participants in more than 50 countries. ICE was added to the Russell 1000® Index in June 2006 and the S&P 500 Index in September 2007. Headquartered in Atlanta, ICE also has offices in Calgary, Chicago, Dublin, Houston, London, New York, Singapore and Winnipeg. For more information, please visit www.theice.com.