KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 17, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- FCStone Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:FCSX), a commodity risk management firm, issued the following statement in response to today's market activity:
FCStone has no direct exposure to the sub-prime mortgage-backed securities or auction rate securities that are driving the current market environment, nor does the Company use third party repo lines to provide liquidity to its regulated entity, FCStone, LLC.
FCStone continues to trade with all of its counterparties. FCStone is comfortable continuing these relationships, as it insures the counterparties' performance through trade credit insurance or credit default swaps. FCStone currently has excess coverage in place on all counterparties. Furthermore, it has not recently experienced a loss of customers or counterparties with whom it trades.
"In light of the current market conditions, we felt it important to inform both our customers as well as our shareholders that we remain confident in our ability to continue to execute across all of our operating segments," said Pete Anderson, President and Chief Executive Officer. "More importantly, it is worth noting that the current volatility in the commodity markets continues to demonstrate the need for the services that we provide to our risk management clients."
About FCStone
FCStone Group, Inc., along with its affiliates, is an integrated commodity risk management company providing risk management consulting and transaction execution services to commercial commodity intermediaries, end-users and producers. The firm assists primarily middle market customers in optimizing their profit margins and mitigating exposure to commodity price risk. In addition, FCStone, LLC operates one of the leading independent clearing and execution platforms for exchange-traded futures and options contracts. FCStone Group, Inc. serves more than 7,500 customers. In the 12 months ending November 30, 2007, FCStone executed 71.8 million derivative contracts in the exchange-traded and OTC markets. The FCStone Group companies work in all major commodity areas including agriculture, energy, renewable fuels, foods, forestry, and currency exchange. Headquartered in the Midwest, it has offices located throughout the world and is a clearing member of all major North American Futures exchanges. FCStone Group, Inc. trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol FCSX.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release may include forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, our plans, strategies and prospects, both business and financial. All statements other than statements of current or historical fact contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. The words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "should," "plan," "will," "may," "could," "intend," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "continue" or the negative of these terms and similar expressions, as they relate to FCStone Group, Inc., are intended to identify forward-looking statements.
We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. They can be affected by inaccurate assumptions, including the risks, uncertainties and assumptions described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking statements in this press release may not occur and actual results could differ materially from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. When you consider these forward-looking statements, you should keep in mind these risk factors and other cautionary statements in this press release.
Our forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.