European Energy Exchange Acquires 52% of Cleartrade Exchange

The European Energy Exchange (EEX), a part of Deutsche Börse Group, has acquired a 52% stake in Cleartrade Exchange (CLTX), a futures exchange in Singapore.

EEX financed the acquisition from book cash.

“CLTX has succeeded in becoming an important execution exchange for commodity derivatives in a remarkably short space of time. Its core asset classes are a good fit with our existing markets,” says Peter Reitz, chief executive officer of EEX. “Combined with the impressive technical, regulatory and operational footprint of the business, this made the exchange an excellent investment partner. With the acquisition of CLTX, EEX group expands its product and service offering to a global reach with a presence in new markets and products which complements the existing portfolio. Furthermore, this deal is a further step in implementing Deutsche Börse Group´s Asia strategy.”

“Evolving and developing trading venues for derivatives takes time, expertise and commitment; CLTX has made great progress since we incorporated the business in 2010 (CLTX was launched as an RMO (Recognized Market Operator) in Feb 2011). I am delighted that EEX has made a major investment in CLTX. They are ideally positioned to support the next phase of growth and change in our markets,” says John Banaszkiewicz, initial investor in CLTX and managing director of Freight Investor Services.

“It has always been our intention to develop and expand our role as a key player in the transformation of OTC freight and commodity markets to exchange-traded futures. To this end we have been seeking to diversify our shareholding for some time,” says Richard Baker, chief executive officer of CLTX. “In EEX, as part of the Deutsche Börse group we have found a partner with extensive experience of running global futures and energy markets and we are very excited about the future for CLTX with such a backer. We firmly believe that this new structure will enable us to enhance the solutions CLTX provides.”