Ice expects to launch Nybot commodities by end of month

The Atlanta-based Intercontinental Exchange (Ice) has announced the New York Board of Trade’s (Nybot) main soft commodities contracts may launch electronically later this month.

Ice plans to complete its acquisition of Nybot, worth around $1 billion, by mid-January and to begin listing Nybot products electronically on January 19. The first six contracts would trade on Ice’s platform for 22 hours a day, overlapping with Nybot’s open-outcry trading hours. They include contracts on sugar, cotton, coffee, cocoa and frozen concentrated orange juice.

Nybot chairman Fred Schoenhut also said Nybot, which would become a subsidiary of Ice under the plan, was looking forward to releasing its currency and index products electronically “in the near future”.

The proposed merger of the exchanges was greeted with a 93% vote in favour by participating Nybot members in December 2006. Ice expects $50 million in cost savings as a result of the deal, which still requires approval from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and from the Internal Revenue Service. If the product launches go ahead, it will also be the first time soft commodities have been made available over Ice’s trading platform.