IPE Board agrees to explore opportunities with external investors

At a special meeting the IPE Board of Directors decided that further investigation of the opportunities to extract external investment to the Exchange should be carried out. At the same time they agreed to hold off from the merger discussions with the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) until further exploration into the alternative proposal for the IPE's future has been completed, as requested by members. Lord Fraser, Chairman of the IPE Board said "the proposal for attracting external investment into the IPE and transforming it into a for profit company is potentially very interesting. The Board feels that we need to examine this proposal more carefully. In the circumstances it is only fair to put our discussions with NYMEX on hold until this new avenue has been thoroughly explored". A committee of the Board will now examine in detail the opportunities for attracting external investment with the objective of bringing a firm proposal back to the Board as soon as possible. Any decision about the future direction of the IPE will be subject to Member and regulatory approval.