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The London Metal Exchange Successfully Meets Record Trading - Record Volumes For Cinnober Delivered LMEselect

Date 06/11/2008

The London Metal Exchange (LME) and Cinnober have carried out a major upgrade of the commodities exchange's electronic trading platform LMEselect. Since the first delivered system version from Cinnober back in late 2003 the total number of trades per month have increased by over 30 times, from approximately 6,000 to nearly 180,000.

The new improved platform went live earlier this week and the upgrade is reported to have been successful and accomplished according to plan. The upgrade comes on the back of a record trading month for the exchange overall and also LMEselect. Exchange volumes were up 44% in October compared to the corresponding period of 2007 with 11,218,308 lots traded. LMEselect also recorded an increase of 23% on its previous record month.

Martin Abbott, LME Chief Executive commented on the upgrade in an official statement: "The introduction of the upgraded LMEselect has gone smoothly and will provide a more robust system that offers operational efficiencies going forward. This comes at a time in the current exceptional trading environment when the LME is experiencing record volumes that require efficient and robust systems."

In 2003, Cinnober delivered their first version of the LMEselect platform, when the LME decided to change from another system. The LME's solution is based on Cinnober's java-based TRADExpress technology, which is currently used by a number of demanding financial marketplaces.

"The LME is in the forefront of the commodities industry. It is of the highest importance that we keep momentum in our technological developments and can provide our members with industry-leading performance and reliability", says Glen Chalkley, Head of Electronic Operations at the LME. "The upgrade has been a success, and it has been great to work closely with Cinnober and their committed project team while taking our platform to this important milestone."

"The LME is one of our oldest customers and the agile co-operation with them is of high strategic importance for us. It helps to drive the development of our company as well as our offering and they are, not least, a very important reference for us", comments Jan Arpi, CEO of Cinnober. "The LME is now well prepared for the future through this upgrade and has a true world-leading system solution within the commodities sector."

The last year has been extremely successful for Cinnober, the system supplier behind ventures such as Alpha Trading System and Turquoise that have attracted much attention lately. During the autumn Cinnober also has announced new businesses like the Scandinavian MTF Burgundy and their first order in Asia in terms of the commodity exchange HKMEx in Hong Kong.