Sydney Futures Exchange And The Chicago Board Of Trade Announce The Signing Of A Licencing Agreement To List Two New Contracts On SFE

Sydney Futures Exchange (SFE) today announced the signing of a licencing agreement with The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) to launch 1-Day Options products based on two CBOT futures contracts - the CBOT mini-sized Dow^SM index futures contract and the CBOT 100oz Gold futures. This initiative is a result of a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two exchanges signed in October 2004.

The first of the two new contracts will be the SFE CBOT mini-sized Dow^SM 1-Day Option, which will be launched in the first half of 2006 subject to regulatory approval from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the USA. The contract will be available on the SFE electronic trading platform 16 or 18 hours per day (dependent on daylight saving time), be cash settled and will offer trading opportunities to both those wishing to hedge or speculate on daily movements in US equity markets.

The licensing agreement between the CBOT and SFE will permit the use of the settlement prices of the CBOT mini-sized Dow^SM futures contract to cash settle the new SFE contract. Dow Jones Indexes and the SFE separately entered into a license agreement pursuant to which Dow Jones Indexes granted the SFE the right to use the Dow Jones Industrial Average and its related trademarks for use with the SFE CBOT mini-sized Dow^SM 1-Day Option contract.

“The SFE CBOT mini-sized Dow^SM 1-Day Option represents the first contract that SFE has produced in collaboration with CBOT.” said Mr Robert Elstone, Managing Director and CEO of SFE. “We look forward to working with them to make it a success and, hopefully, it will be the first step towards broader cooperation between our two exchanges.”

“The CBOT-SFE agreement is the second definitive agreement by the CBOT in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Bernard W. Dan, President and CEO for the CBOT. “By having SFE CBOT 1-Day Options contracts settling to existing CBOT mini-sized Dow^SM and CBOT 100oz Gold futures contracts, we hope the hedging activity from market participants will translate into increased volume & liquidity for these contracts during the Asian time zone. We appreciate the collaborated effort put forth by SFE and Dow Jones & Company in bringing SFE’s new contracts to fruition.”

SFE will be responsible for the development of the SFE CBOT mini-sized Dow^SM 1-Day Option and both companies will provide pre and post launch marketing support.

Note the launch date for the options contract on CBOT 100oz Gold futures has yet to be determined.