ATLANTA and WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Aug. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), the leading electronic energy marketplace and soft commodity exchange, and WCE Holdings Inc., parent of the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange (WCE), jointly announced today that at a special meeting of WCE Holdings shareholders held this afternoon, WCE Holdings shareholders voted to approve the plan of arrangement whereby ICE will acquire all of the shares of WCE Holdings for CDN $77.59 per share or CDN $50 million in the aggregate. Over 99% of the votes cast by shareholders were in favor of the transaction. Approval from the Manitoba Securities Commission was received today. The transaction remains subject to court approval, for which a hearing is to be held and approval requested on August 27, 2007, and other closing conditions.
The transaction is scheduled to be closed as soon as practicable after court approval is obtained.
About IntercontinentalExchange IntercontinentalExchange(R) (NYSE: ICE) operates global commodity and financial products marketplaces, including the world's leading electronic energy markets and soft commodity exchange. ICE's diverse futures and over-the-counter (OTC) markets offer access to contracts based on crude oil and refined products, natural gas, power and emissions, as well as agricultural commodities including cocoa, coffee, cotton, ethanol, orange juice, wood pulp and sugar, in addition to foreign currency and equity index futures and options. ICE(R) conducts its energy futures markets through ICE Futures, its U.K. regulated London-based subsidiary, which offers the world's leading oil benchmarks and trades nearly half of the world's global crude futures in its markets. ICE conducts its soft commodity, foreign exchange and index markets through its U.S. regulated subsidiary, the New York Board of Trade(R).
NYBOT(R) provides global futures and options markets, as well as clearing services through ICE Clear US(sm), its wholly owned clearing house. ICE's state-of-the-art electronic trading platform brings market access and transparency to participants in more than 50 countries. ICE was added to the Russell 1000(R) Index in June 2006. Headquartered in Atlanta, ICE also has offices in Calgary, Chicago, Dublin, Houston, London, New York and Singapore.
For more information, please visit www.theice.com.
About Winnipeg Commodity Exchange
Winnipeg Commodity Exchange Inc., established in 1887, has been
facilitating futures contract trading since 1904. WCE is Canada's only
agricultural futures and options exchange and North America's first fully
electronic commodity exchange. WCE offers futures and options contracts on
canola, domestic feed wheat, and western barley.
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995 - Statements in this press release regarding
IntercontinentalExchange's business that are not historical facts are
"forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a
discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results
to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see ICE's
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, including, but not limited
to, the risk factors in ICE's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 2006, and the Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters
ended March 31 and June 30, 2007, each as filed with the SEC on February 26,
2007, May 4, 2007 and July 27, 2007, respectively.
SOURCE IntercontinentalExchange
-0- 08/22/2007
/CONTACT: Kelly Loeffler, VP, Investor Relations & Corp. Communications
of IntercontinentalExchange, +1-770-857-4726, kelly.loeffler@theice.com; or
Mike Gagne, President and CEO of Winnipeg Commodity Exchange, +1-204-925-5005,
mgagne@wce.ca/
/First Call Analyst: /
/FCMN Contact: /
/Web site: http://www.theice.com/
(ICE)
