CME acquires GreenX – an environmental exchange

CME is becoming increasingly aggressive in expanding and increasing its market share. CME is already the largest exchange in terms of FX volumes and in December 2012 reported an average $110 billion average daily volumes.

CME Group, the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced that it has acquired a 100% equity interest in GreenX Holdings LLC (GreenX Holdings), the parent company of Green Exchange LLC (GreenX), and is now the sole owner of the company. CME Group will migrate GreenX contracts and open interest to CME Group’s portfolio of products, and will work with market participants to ensure that trading and clearing of existing contracts on CME Globex and CME ClearPort continues with minimal impact. Customers that currently have open interest on GreenX will continue to be subject to the GreenX rulebook until the contracts and open interest are transitioned to a CME Group CFTC designated contract market.

“Since its launch in 2008, GreenX has increased its market share and has positioned itself as an industry leader, providing innovative futures and options contracts for environmental markets,” said Bryan Durkin, COO and Managing Director, Products & Services at CME Group. “By becoming part of CME Group’s suite of energy products – where they will continue to be traded on Globex and cleared through CME ClearPort – GreenX’s global product slate will be more closely integrated with our energy complex, and customers will benefit from the valuable clearing and margin offsets that we offer.”

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Tom Lewis, CEO of GreenX, said, “CME Group’s acquisition of GreenX is a logical evolution in the development of our company. We have built a strong, growing business for the environmental markets and we look forward to assisting our customers in migrating their open interest as seamlessly and efficiently as possible, and providing access to a wider portfolio of products.”

“GreenX has built a solid reputation in the marketplace and we are pleased to see it develop further in the next phase. Integrating the emissions business into CME Group’s global energy complex will offer more opportunities for the customer,” added Nancy King, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley and former Chairperson of the Board of Green Exchange LLC.

GreenX has established itself as the second largest carbon exchange in the world. Volumes across all contracts on GreenX grew 332% in 2011 with more than 450,000 contracts traded – equivalent to 450 million tonnes of CO2. For the benchmark EU Allowance (EUA) futures, the most liquid carbon futures contract, volume grew 688% from 2010 to 2011. Open interest in GreenX products has also grown significantly and currently sits close to 100,000 contracts.

Prior to the acquisition, GreenX Holdings was owned by a consortium of organizations including CME Group, Constellation Energy, Credit Suisse, Evolution Markets, Goldman Sachs, ICAP Energy, J.P. Ventures Energy Corporation, Morgan Stanley, RNK Capital, Spectron, TFS Energy, Tudor Investment Corporation and Vitol SA.