NYMEX Holdings, Inc., To Distribute First Dividend To Shareholders

The board of directors of NYMEX Holdings, Inc., voted last week to declare and distribute a one-time dividend of $5 million to stockholders of record as of January 2, 2003 - the first time a dividend has been issued by the holding company of the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc., since the demutualization of the Exchange in November 2000.

Each stockholder will receive $6,127.45 per share of NYMEX Holdings common stock during the week of January 6.

Vincent Viola, chairman of the board, said, "The Exchange has had an extremely successful year, driven not only by a flight to quality in energy markets, but also as we have seen returns on many of our recent initiatives and new services. We are delighted that the change in corporate structure will allow our shareholders to participate in that profitability."