Oslo, 22 May, 2013 –The German Power Initiative, aimed at making the German power market more transparent, liquid and cost effective, continues to receive strong market support. To date, 10 liquidity providers, 3 brokers and 1 market maker have signed on, since NASDAQ OMX Commodities invited members to participate in March. The German Power initiative is part of NASDAQ OMX’s overall commodities strategy to leverage its best in class technology platform and expand its presence in the three largest power markets in Europe.
With the increased focus on transparency by new regulations, exchange trading and clearing represents a great opportunity for NASDAQ OMX Commodities in Europe. With this initiative, NASDAQ OMX plans to build on its proven success in the Nordic power market and the N2EX offering in the UK.
Namesh Hansjee, Head of EMEA Energy and Global Coal/Freight Trading at BofA Merrill Lynch, said, “We welcome NASDAQ OMX's offering of cost effective cleared products for the German power market, and we are pleased to support this initiative as a liquidity provider.”
Mr. Raphael Brun, Director of European Power at Citigroup said,”We believe the market and our customers will benefit from higher levels of competition. The NASDAQ OMX initiative responds to a strong market demand for a transparent, cross-market approach in a low fee environment”.
In addition to BofA Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, the liquidity providers supporting the German Power Initiative are EDF Trading, JP Morgan, Axpo Nordic, Mercuria Energy Trading, Statkraft Energi, Dong Naturgas, Einar Aas, and one player that wishes to remain anonymous.
Bjørn Sibbern, Head of NASDAQ OMX Commodities, said, “NASDAQ OMX continues to expand its presence in Europe and we are very pleased to offer a suite of products for improving liquidity and transparency in the German power market. At this time, we are particularly pleased to welcome several new liquidity providers, brokers and market makers that will greatly contribute to develop a more liquid and efficient German power derivatives market.”
NASDAQ OMX’s German product offering now includes German Power Futures and Forward contracts and European Style Options with monthly, quarterly and yearly expiration for German Power Futures and Forwards. The extended forward curve covers six monthly, 8-11 quarterly and five yearly contracts, in addition to the daily and weekly futures contracts.
Electricity Price Area Differential Contracts (CfDs) will be offered this June and will enable traders from Continental European power markets to hedge the basis risk between the German system price and neighbouring price areas (FR, NL, CZ and BE) by trading the relevant CfD.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Information set forth in this communication contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. NASDAQ OMX cautions readers that any forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and that actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about our capital return initiatives. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties or other factors beyond NASDAQ OMX’s control. These factors include, but are not limited to, NASDAQ OMX’s ability to implement its strategic initiatives, economic, political and market conditions and fluctuations, government and industry regulation, interest rate risk, U.S. and global competition, and other factors detailed in NASDAQ OMX’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual reports on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q which are available on NASDAQ OMX’s website at http://www.nasdaqomx.com and the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. NASDAQ OMX undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
About NASDAQ OMX Group
The inventor of the electronic exchange, The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc., fuels economies and provides transformative technologies for the entire lifecycle of a trade - from risk management to trade to surveillance to clearing. In the U.S. and Europe, we own and operate 23 markets, 3 clearinghouses and 5 central securities depositories supporting equities, options, fixed income, derivatives, commodities, futures and structured products. Able to process more than 1 million messages per second at sub-40 microsecond speeds with 99.99+% uptime, our technology drives more than 70 marketplaces in 50 developed and emerging countries into the future, powering 1 in 10 of the world’s securities transactions. Our award-winning data products and worldwide indexes are the benchmarks in the financial industry. Home to approximately 3,300 listed companies worth more than $6 trillion in market cap whose innovations shape our world, we give the ideas of tomorrow access to capital today. Welcome to where the world takes a big leap forward, daily. Welcome to the NASDAQ OMX Century. To learn more, visit www.nasdaqomx.com. Follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NASDAQ) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/nasdaqomx). (Symbol: NDAQ and member of S&P 500)
About NASDAQ OMX Commodities
NASDAQ OMX Commodities is the brand name for the NASDAQ OMX Group’s worldwide suite of commodity related products and services. The NASDAQ OMX Commodities offerings include power, natural gas and carbon emission markets and clearing services. NASDAQ OMX Commodities is a trademark of the NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.
NASDAQ OMX Commodities Europe is the trade name of NASDAQ OMX Oslo ASA which is authorized as a commodity derivatives exchange by the Norwegian Ministry of Finance and supervised by the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority. All trades with NASDAQ OMX Commodities Europe are subject to clearing with NASDAQ OMX Clearing.
NOS Clearing ASA is the leading clearing house for the freight market and a specialist clearing provider to the commodities markets. The company is wholly owned by the NASDAQ OMX Group Inc. The clearinghouse, which is situated in Oslo, has more than 300 members.
NASDAQ OMX Clearing is the trade name of NASDAQ OMX Stockholm AB which is authorized and supervised as a multi-asset clearinghouse by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority in Sweden as well as authorized to conduct clearing operation in Norway by the Norwegian Ministry of Finance.
For more information, visit www.nasdaqomx.com/commodities
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NASDAQ OMX Commodities media contact:
Sara Aadnesen
+47 9060 0759
sara.aadnesen@nasdaqomx.com